AmeriCorps engages more than 80,000 people in intensive service each year through more than 15,000 nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. AmeriCorps’ efforts are focused on 6 key areas: disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families.

There are opportunities to serve all over the U.S!  This is what one grad, Mikaela Lefrak ’10, had to say about her Americorps Position with C.E.O. Women in California:             

“When I graduated from Midd, I really only knew a few things about what I wanted to do. I wanted to: A) help people, B) live somewhere new and cool, and C) use my writing skills I got from my English major. That’s it, seriously.  Through my job at Midd I had gotten to know a recent college grad who did AmeriCorps VISTA, and she told me to check it out, which I did…I specifically chose VISTA because I wanted to see how nonprofits are run, and because I wanted to gain really tangible, useful, and unique skills that would help me get a job after my VISTA year.  Plus, VISTA makes it really easy for you to find open positions in the type of nonprofit you want to work at in whatever location you want to be in.  I really wanted to move to the Bay Area, and I really wanted to work with immigrants or with women, so those are the types of jobs I applied for through the online VISTA job database.
From August 2010 to August 2011, I worked at C.E.O. Women, an Oakland, CA-based nonprofit that provided entrepreneurship training to low-income immigrant and refugee women.  The job was totally awesome – not only did I get to know really inspiring women from all over the world who wanted to start businesses, follow their dreams, and support their families, but I got to share their stories with skills I gained in the fields of nonprofit fundraising and communications…After a year at C.E.O. Women, I knew how to run donor campaigns, manage databases, plan major events and galas, write grants, manage volunteers, create a social media strategy, use design programs to make high-quality collateral, edit a website, and so much more.  C.E.O. Women hired me on as their Development Manager after my VISTA year ended.  Once I decided to move on from that position, it was surprisingly easy to get offers from other nonprofits, since there aren’t a ton of young people who know how to do (or, frankly, are interested in) fundraising work.  Fundraising is cool because even though your daily jobs aren’t super flashy, you get to write a lot, if that’s your thing, and you have a pretty easy in to a lot of super awesome organizations.  After I moved on from C.E.O. Women, I worked briefly as a consultant for Fair Trade USA (also in Oakland).  Then, when I decided to move to DC to be closer to home, I quickly found a job at an education policy organization.  They were impressed by the experience I’ve had in fundraising and grant writing, and how much I knew about how nonprofits function on a structural level.  Again, it doesn’t sound exciting, but it got me into a place that’s doing work I believe in: reforming the public school system in the U.S. on a national level.”

For more information, feel free to visit Civic Engagement in the EIA.  We’re hiring for an Americorps*VISTA position next year!  As Mentoring and Youth Programs Coordinator, the VISTA would work closely with student organizations such as Community Friends, Xiao Pengyou, DMC Mentoring, DREAM, and NOM, as well as other student initiatives focused on youth development.  Contact Emma Lennon ’11 at elennon@middlebury for more information about this position or others in Americorps!