Service Impact Award Winner: National College Advising Corps
By Greg Tucker
During the next few weeks, we will be profiling the winners of the 2012 Service Impact Awards. Look for their stories and videos here on the blog.
Utilizing the energy and enthusiasm of recent college grads from partner universities to serve as full-time advisers in underserved schools, the National College Advising Corps works to improve the prospects of economically disadvantaged students for post-secondary success.
Many well-qualified students are discouraged by barriers to higher education, such as lack of information about college admission and financial aid, while guidance counselor caseloads are approaching 500 students per counselor nationwide. Advising Corps members work one-on-one with students to provide the advice and encouragement to help students make their dreams come true.
The program, which receives support from the Social Innovation Fund and AmeriCorps, engages with 327 advisers–including many AmeriCorps members – that serve more than 117,000 students in 14 states. Advising Corps members assist with the completion of admissions and financial aid applications, access test prep and college application fee waivers, and ensure that students take the final steps to complete the college enrollment process.
The results are encouraging: Students are 76 percent more likely to attend a financial aid workshop, 25 percent more likely to apply to college, 20 percent more likely to be accepted to college, and 34 percent more likely to be accepted to a four-year institution. The advisers benefit as well, with 99 percent intending to attend graduate school and 37 percent having plans to pursue studies in education.
You will hear the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) a lot whenever the discussion turns to improving education in the United States, and there is a good reason. Those disciplines are the cornerstones of the jobs that will keep America competitive in the near and distant future, and we have to get our students ready for that future now.
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10/3/2012
Was AmeriCorps Worth It?
In celebration of my two years of service with AmeriCorps coming to an end, one of my friends took me out to dinner. As we sat around the table reflecting on all that had happened over the two years since we graduated from college she asked me, “Was AmeriCorps worth it?”
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9/28/2012
It’s Time to Get Good and Ready for Disasters
When I served on Disaster Response assignment with AmeriCorps NCCC in 1998, I had no idea that I was starting on the Emergency Management career path. That one month on assignment in the San Francisco area was an amazing experience. Helping with their flood response in the area of logistics taught me about all of the coordination that is needed in a disaster response.
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9/26/2012
AmeriCorps Alum Joins CNCS Board
Service comes naturally to Matt McCabe, the first AmeriCorps alum to join the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Board of Directors. A commitment to service was instilled in him by his parents and grandparents from childhood. “They set the expectation that we give back to our community,” said McCabe.
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9/25/2012
Marine Builds a Home and Inspiration with AmeriCorps
In the spring of 2011, a Marine stood on the porch steps of his new home in Annapolis, MD. He was not thinking about the beautiful row house that he would now share with his wife and four children, but was looking down at the porch that he helped build with his own hands. He was contemplating his spirit of service with a renewed vigor and hope.
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9/24/2012
Service Impact Award Winner: Christopher Gonzales Jr.
Many homeless people face significant barriers to employment, including lack of work-appropriate clothing, limited access to computers or computer skills, and transportation issues. The dilemma is that these challenges are tough to surmount when people with a strong desire to work can’t access the practical tools they need to find and maintain long-term employment.
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9/21/2012
AmeriCorps Member Pledges to Keep Kids Active
A passion for learning and service means one rotation was not enough for AmeriCorps member Rebbecca Bakre. So, after a stint with Civic Works, the 24-year-old, University of Maryland graduate joined Playworks Baltimore AmeriCorps while she pursues her master’s in public administration.
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9/20/2012
AmeriCorps and Joplin: Why I Decided to Serve
On May 22, 2011, an EF-5 tornado struck my hometown of Joplin, Missouri. Nearly every resident was affected. The tornado destroyed approximately 18,000 vehicles, 7,000 homes, 5,000 businesses, and took the lives of 162 people, including two of my high school classmates.
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9/19/2012
2012 AmeriCorps Photo and Video Contest Winners Revealed
Today, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) announced the winners of the 2012 AmeriCorps Photo and Video contest.
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9/19/2012
Creating Community Resilience
I am truly humbled and honored to receive recognition as a Champion of Change. My first lessons regarding the importance of service to both the nation and local communities came observing my parents.
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9/17/2012
America Serves and Remembers
In the aftermath of September 11th, we came together as a country to show that we were there for each other. This year’s National Day of Service and Remembrance once again reminded us of that unity.
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9/14/2012
National Service + Disaster Relief = FEMA Corps
Today marks a historic chapter in the field of disaster services at the Corporation for National and Community Service as the nation's first 240 FEMA Corps members were sworn into service at an induction ceremony in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
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9/13/2012
Inspired to Serve: Tina Kiehn
For Tina Kiehn, an AmeriCorps NCCC member in Aurora, IL, the morning of September 11, 2001, started out as a day like any other. She was at her service site, helping a class of first graders adjust to the new school year. With summer just behind them, Kiehn and her team expected a normal daily schedule: classes, recess, homework help.
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9/10/2012
Inspired to Serve: Olive Eckstein
Olive Eckstein was making copies of her resume at a Kinko's in Queens on the morning of September 11, 2001. After serving for a year with AmeriCorps NCCC, she was looking for a job in her native New York.
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9/7/2012
National Service Teams Activated for Hurricane Isaac Response
AmeriCorps and Senior Corps teams are responding in four Gulf Coast states as Hurricane Isaac moves toward the region.
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8/29/2012
YouthBuild: I Transformed a Home, but the Experience Transformed My Life
My name is Ciera Russum and I’m a member of the Advanced Construction team at YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School. We worked with the Green Building team to complete a full-gut rehab project on Greene Street.
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8/28/2012
Service Impact Award Winner: AmeriCorps St. Louis Safety Service Corps
The St. Louis Safety Service Corps, commonly known as the Emergency Response Team (ERT), answered the call time and time again after natural disasters scarred communities across the Midwest in 2011.
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8/24/2012
Service in Action: Bill Basl Takes the Helm at AmeriCorps
“Believe in something; stand for something; act on something.” These ideas epitomize the career of new AmeriCorps Director Bill Basl as he continues his impressive work in public and national service and takes the helm of the program with more than 80,000 members.
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8/23/2012
Hanging Out With AmeriCorps
On August 17, we held a Google+ Hangout to highlight the difference AmeriCorps, a national service opportunity that has logged more than 1 billion hours of service since 1994, is making in communities across the country.
