Thursday, October 18, 2007
Break Away 2008 Off and Running!
We held our first all-participant meeting for Break Away 2008 on Tuesday. We were so glad to see so many excited folks there, and we're sure everyone was so glad to finally find out the trip destinations! (See the links at left for our host sites.)
We're happy to announce that we have some Break Away Program Scholarships available this year. Break Away is a volunteer-driven program, and we rely heavily on the generosity of our supporters to make these intensive service travel and educational experiences accessible to all students. If you are participating in Break Away and would like to apply for a scholarship, please download the application and submit by October 31, 2007. If you are interested in supporting Break Away or other community and civic engagement programs at JSC with a financial contribution, please contact Laura in the Center for Service Learning.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Seasons of Service
Here at JSC it's a beautiful, inspiring time of year! (The photo at right is of our Lamoille River Clean-up canoe outing earlier this fall.) We're just getting ready for our Fall Break, and are in the process of selecting Break Away participants. We had lots of interest in the program and so many wonderful applicants! I wish we were able to take them all. (Note: did you apply? notifications are going out today and over the break.) We're working on several other opportunities for folks to get engaged. (Watch this space, you'll see it here first!) Meeting with our Break Away trip leaders yesterday, it was wonderful to welcome a new trip leader, Kyle Fisher! We're so glad to have Kyle joining us. Kyle will be co-leading our Environment trip with Dave Jacobs. Plans are coming together, sites are getting confirmed and travel arrangements are being firmed up. I feel so inspired and confident in our sites--so many great organizations, and everything is very well organized.
It's great to see so many awesome pre-trip education and service plans as well. Some of the things you'll see before our trips are campus-wide film showings, speakers, focused service projects, and perhaps a demonstration or two. We hope all of you have a safe, happy, and fun break!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Available leadership/ AmeriCorps positions for interested student volunteers
- 300 hours, $1000.00 Ed Award, 1 year term. (Campus Compact Program—7 Available)
- 900 hours, $2362.50 Ed Award, 2 year term. (Campus Compact Program—2 Available)
- 900 hours, $2362.50 Ed Award, 2 year term (Bonner Program—first year students only—less than 30 credits; 8 available).
See this great description for all the details. Basically, the Education Award functions like a scholarship, in reverse. You sign up to complete a term of service, do all your hours (and the paperwork to document them), and voila! You get an Education Award. The Education Award is not a check, but a voucher from the US Government good for current or future educational expenses, including student loans. It’s good for 7 years and you don’t have to use it all at once.
The Campus Compact AmeriCorps positions are a bit more flexible. You can do all your hours at one organization, or many. There are fewer set training requirements. JSC students in this program generally work to find their own service opportunities, and traditionally have been students who are already participating in some kind of service. This program is particularly designed to encourage students to “go deeper” or commit more time to a program they’re already doing. For example, if you’re going to be mentoring 220 hours this year, you could sign up for a 300-hour term and use those extra 80 hours to become a mentoring coordinator (help with recruitment and training of new mentors). Many JSC students in this program have integrated one-time projects and alternative break trips into their hours.
Maybe. Think of it this way: 2 semesters a year, 15 weeks in a semester, right? (count ‘em. This doesn’t include breaks or exams.) If you commit 10 hours a week (say 2 hours a day during the week, or maybe every other Saturday plus 7 hours during the week), that’s 150 hours in a semester. Two semesters and you’re done with a 300 hour award. For a 900-hour award, include service during breaks (including the summer) for the other 300 hours. Or, go up to 15 hours per week during the semester (15 hours per week x 15 weeks = 225 hours x 4 semesters = 900 hours). Some Work-Study positions also qualify for AmeriCorps. So for example, if you’re already working 8 hours per week as a Reading Partner for America Reads (8 hours/week x 15 weeks =120, x 2 semesters = 240 hours), you can sign up for a 300-hour term and do an additional 60 hours of service somewhere else.
Most volunteering qualifies. It has to be for a non-profit organization, to begin with. Only service in the
Want in? Call, email, or stop by and see Laura Megivern to learn more and sign up.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
20th Anniversary Celebration Photos
On Twenty Years of Service Learning at JSC and Making Meaning
Perhaps more than anything else, I get to see students exploring, in great depth, the commonality, universality, and diversity of human experience. There is a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood that I get to see students experiencing with those they seek to serve, a connection to what it truly means to be human. There is a recognition of interdependence: the difference between caring for the well-being of others because it makes oneself feel good, and the caring for the wellbeing of others because it is to care for one’s own well being. I am reminded of a quote from Hillel, “if I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” So often when the realization of the pure and simple truth of these questions hits, I see students no longer able to be idle or self-interested.
I have seen and discussed this commonality of human experience, and the meanings and conclusions we can draw from service experiences, with so many students. Our programs provide a wonderful laboratory for studying democracy, with a small d. What does it mean to be a citizen, or a global citizen? What does it mean to be a member of a community, or many communities?
Watching students make connections between their roles as a student here at JSC and their life outside the campus—whether it’s down the street or in their hometown—is astonishing. It is such an honor to see the application of classroom experiences, the connections that our students make—to watch that moment where the textbook or lecture comes to life. This is a new kind of scholarship—public scholarship that encourages our students to become active, thoughtful, engaged community members—and it informs our passionate commitment to the Local. We live the words of educator Johnetta B. Cole, who said, “The most profound expression of education is action—action in the interest of helping to heal what ails our communities, our nation, and our world.”
Over the 2006-7 academic year, JSC students logged over 15,600 hours of community service. Our students volunteered here on campus, mentoring local children; others participated in local community groups and coalitions, like the Lamoille Valley Hunger Coalition; some volunteered elsewhere in the state, like the group that traveled to sort food at the Vermont Food Bank in Barre; many participated in Break Away trips all across the US, whether it was to the mountains of Utah, planting trees, or New Hampshire working with children, or the coast of Maine building a home for Habitat for Humanity. A group of students and staff participated in our international Break Away trip, traveling to
So, how are we moving forward? We have several exciting developments. Inspired by the many experiences and insights our students offer regarding social and economic justice, we are finding new and innovative ways to increase not only access to our programs but also to the college experience. This includes overhauling the financial structure of our Break Away program to offer new lower program fees and scholarships. We’re also supporting long-term engagement with the AmeriCorps Education Award Program, a
We are also finding ways to provide more students with the opportunity to serve and participate. Our CSLocal program offers many “low-commitment” options for students seeking to explore the community, get out of their dorm room, or simply looking for something to do. We organize four or five of these local service-learning opportunities a month, each holding to the principle that the length of service should always exceed the length of travel.
Our Bonner Leader Program offers leadership, service and long-term engagement for first year students who wish to commit to a two-year service internship in a local non-profit. Both of these programs have seen tremendous growth in the past year, and we hope to continue that trend!
We’re committed to continuing education outside the classroom, especially in discourse and engagement with important social issues. Through training sessions before service trips, book discussions, film showings, campus lectures, and a new project from our Bonner Leaders called Talko Tuesday, we’re showing how talk can lead to some pretty big things. Our students are learning, through their efforts, what it means to be an active citizen: to be a part of the conversation. After all, decisions are made by those who show up. Johnson State College and the Center for Service Learning have been preparing students for twenty years—preparing them to show up, and have something to say—and will continue to do so for many years to come!
What we are doing here is remarkable: in today’s troubled world, we are educating students to be citizens—to really engage in the world around them. It’s anti-apathy, anti-cynicism, realism and idealism together. Our students leave JSC knowledgeable and ready to address our global and local challenges, to be creative about solving problems, and to speak up. We echo William Faulkner by urging, “never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world, in thousands of rooms like this one, would do this, it would change the world.” Thank you for joining us!