Young adults have much to offer – exuberance, ideas, education.
And established nonprofits like ours have much to offer them–training, encounters with diverse opportunities and people, and the wisdom of experienced workers.
Enter AmeriCorps.
Among other important celebrations this month, this week is AmeriCorps Week. The program was created in 1993 as a way for young adult Americans to serve their communities, like a domestic Peace Corps. Often recent college graduates, the participants are paired with nonprofits offering work and experience in a field related to their career goals.
Frequently, AmeriCorps Members, as they’re called, engage in the program as a gap year between graduation and graduate school.
We’ve been an AmeriCorps site since 2015 and have hosted nine AmeriCorps Members during that time. A federal program, AmeriCorps also offers a modest stipend and an education credit that can be used to pay off student loans or put toward future education costs. Members’ salaries are funded in part by the program, which itself is funded by public and private monies, and partially by the site where the young adults serve.
Some truly outstanding young people have served with our ministries in this capacity. In fact, two came back to work with us full time. Mikalah Henyard is the support services specialist for our Beatitude House ministry, and Emily Moran is the program director for its Ursuline Sisters Scholars program.
Others have also stayed engaged through volunteering with our ministries.
We salute them all in the photos below. Missing is current AmeriCorps Member Kayla Perry.