The City Year team coordinated buses, teachers, and even provided food for the Ed White Middle School students who attended. During the visit, Café College staff gave a presentation to the students about their future and how the decisions they make going into high school could have a big impact on where they go after high school.
City Year After School Heroes at Cafe College
As City Year corps members help their students succeed in the classroom now, they also want to help them plan for the future. San Antonio’s Café College provides the perfect space and resources to help these students focus on what high school and even college has to offer them.
Today is not about you. This is what I tell myself every morning, to remind myself why I am in City Year. In fact, I created a poster and placed it so that it would be the first thing I see when I awake. I am here to serve the community, my school, my students…
However, I have gained much more than the satisfaction of making a difference in others’ lives.
Today Is Not About You (Tomorrow Doesn't Look Good Either)
City Year is making a difference in my life.
Besides the mindset change I have received from the many culture shocks of working in inner-city schools, I have grown in leadership, communication, flexibility and more. Between Basic Training Academy (BTA) from the beginning of the year and Leadership Development Days (LDD) on Fridays, I have developed tremendously.
However, I have also been given the opportunity to develop my leadership abilities through being a Recruitment Outreach Liaison, Event Coordinator and the Budgeting/In-kinding Committee Chair for the Kingdom for Kids X playground build and community fair.
Confused? Well, here is your comprehensive guide to 7 leadership opportunities for City Year San Antonio corps members:
What? – Members write blog posts, attend recruitment events (like college and career fairs) and contact prospective applicants
Why? – Advertise and explain City Year’s inspiring work, answer people’s questions and offer a corps members’ perspective on all related topics
CEL- Civic Engagement Liaison
Who? – 1/school team
What? – Informs students and administration at schools we serve about upcoming CY service events to increase attendance and volunteers
Why? – To make the greatest impact possible on our community by involving its members in bettering where they live
Corps Council
Who? – 1/school team
What? – Talks about what happened during CY National Conference calls, how to make corps members’ experiences better and how best to recognize outstanding CMs
Why? – To keep all City Year sites connected and corps members as satisfied with their experiences as possible
Project Leader
Who? – 1/major service project
What? – Coordinates CY site-wide service events such as the Playground Build, MLK Day, etc.
Why? – To have a corps member lead others in planning and executing service projects in the community. This position is a lot of work, but provides great leadership opportunity as well as a chance to be creative when developing service projects!
Committee Chairs
Who? – 1/committee for major service projects
What? – Leads of a committee of people to complete tasks such as Budgeting/In-kinding (contacting companies to ask for items/gift cards for events), Volunteer (recruit people to help at the event), Media (contact newspapers, radio and other media forms to come to the event), and more
Why? – Successfully implementing large-scale projects is too much for the Project Leader to do alone, so the committee chairs help to decrease the workload and focus on excellence!
Committee Members
Who? – 3-6 members/committee for major service projects
What? – Carry out tasks along with committee chairs to ensure event success
Why? – No single person can make such large events reach their potential greatness without help
Coordinator Roles
Who? – Every corps member!
What? – School teams’ main contacts for everything from the A,B,Cs to events to data.
Why? – Instead of having everyone know a very little bit about what is going on at their school for each topic, it is much more efficient to have ‘experts’ focused on only one! There are weekly coordinator role meetings during LDDs for corps members to share best practices, struggles and triumphs at their schools.
City Year is what you make of it. There is so much opportunity for growth that it would be silly not to take advantage, especially when there is such an incredible support system.
And yes, ultimately I live each day for others’ betterment—but, that does not mean that I ignore my own growth!
A little over a year ago, I found out about City Year and started my application. So much has changed since then, reflection of my journey is hard to fathom.
City Year is not always easy, but it is always rewarding.
It is time for you to apply for your City Year journey.
Many people might question why someone, who is just out of high school or college, would spend their year volunteering. This is not a selfish question. You and your parents are probably wondering why you would take a year without pay, when you just spent a fortune on college.
However, there are some things you may not have known about City Year that will put you at ease when you decide to dedicate a year of your life to changing the world.
10 Practical Reasons Why You Should Join City Year
1) You get a living stipend. No, this is not a salary. Yes! It is enough to pay for your rent, utilities, and other expenses through the year.
3) You qualify for food stamps when you are working for AmeriCorps and social services have a specific amount of food stamps allotted for AmeriCorps members. For many in the corps, that covers $200 worth of food per month.
4) You get a free bus pass. Relying solely on public transportation is very doable and a true learning experience. Also you do not have to incur the cost of gas for ten months.
5) You will never need to buy clothes, because those fresh khaki pants are provided for you.
6) Got college loans? When you are an AmeriCorps member you qualify for loan forbearance, putting those worries on hold for ten months, interest free.
7) City Year has an amazing alumni network. The more than 15,000 alumni are seeking out City Year idealists for work, to promote them into their next job.
8) You get to rock Timberland boots all day, every day (for free)!
9) You get to work under a truly amazing, positive and inspiring staff!
10) You will become a morning person!
The next application deadline for the City Year 2012-2013 corps is November 15, 2011!
It is rapidly approaching, but you can do it. The application is simple and just asks about your experiences – no resumes or transcripts required. Get started here.
It was a high council that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’
CEO and Co-founder of City Year, Michael Brown, wrote about the economic sense of the City Year program and its impact. See excerpts below.
The high school dropout crisis – more than one million students drop out of high school each year – is a tremendous economic burden to the nation. According to a Northeastern University study, the lifetime cost to society of each high school dropout is $292,000, meaning that, unchecked, the dropout crisis will cost $3 trillion over the next decade.
City Year makes economic sense because our dedicated corps members serve full-time in high need schools to help to keep students in school and on track.
AmeriCorps provides tens of thousands of young Americans with their first job – a job with a purpose – including 2000 City Year corps members.
In fact, Collegegrad.com ranks City Year in the top ten on its list of the nation’s largest employers of recent college graduates.
City Year is a win for both those who serve and those who benefit from their service.
Results of recent data shows that students who take a “gap year,” are likely to return to college and more motivated to complete college. The below excerpt was taken from today’s national City Year blog entry.
*A recent survey of 300,000 first-time freshmen at four-year colleges and universities found 1.2% waited a year to enter college
*Taking a gap year is linked to higher motivation in college, according to an Australian study of 2,502 students published in August in the Journal of Educational Psychology
*5% of four-year colleges and universities have formal policies allowing students to defer admission
*90% of students who took a gap year returned to college within a year
City Year corps members earn a Segal Education Award worth $5,550 upon completion of the program, so its no surprise that our corps members often return to school.
Based on data we retrieved from the 2010-2011 End of Year Corps Member Survey, we found that:
52% of City Year corps members planned on pursuing higher education after their corps year
