2010-11 OCC AmeriCorps*VISTA Photos/Bios

 

Kelly will be spending a portion of her time working with the college access initiative PEAK(Providing Early Awareness and Knowledge), and the PEAK * CAN DO** ACCESS collaborative, within Newark City Schools. In addition to her work within the local school system, Kelly will also be responsible for assisting Denison's Alford Center for Service Learning with a variety of service projects, research initiatives, and outreach efforts, as well as working with the Denison Community Association and their board of cabinet members.

Emily will primarily be working with issues surrounding food security, including a local organic farm working with adults on the Autism Spectrum, a garden and farmstead program at a camp serving urban youth, a local community garden, a summer youth gardening program and a food access program with a local food pantry. Emily will be the program manager for these programs with varying levels of responsibility. Her supervisor will work collaboratively with her on several of these programs, but allow her quite a bit of flexibility and ownerships with the programs and their implementation.

Richard will primarily be working with college access programs, such as an elementary tutoring program, a high school mentoring program, developing a college access program for 2011-2012, and other various programs without our community partners focused on college access and food security. He will coordinate these programs with support from his supervisor and with the many resources allocated by the college (work study students, student and community volunteers, service learning courses, and limited financial resources).

Our VISTA will be creating and developing educational and recreational activities for Athens County's children, mostly those who are low-income, grades K-8. He will recruit Hocking College students to assist with the activities and will promote use of our existing on-ling tracking and assessment tool among students and faculty to report and evaluate HC student service learning hours and experiences.


Working with our Ohio Access Initiative students (low income access/retention program that engages students through service experiences), Julia will mentor juniors in the program to facilitate service and reflection for first year students. Additionally, working with our community partner, Fatima Family Center, Julia will mentor high school students to encourage matriculation to post-secondary education programs.





Amanda will be working with students across campus to connect them with service and service-learning opportunities. In particular, she will be working to engage students to perform service projects that relate to issues of hunger. She will be coordinating the first ever Hunger and Homelessness Week at Marietta College, advising student service organizations, coordinating Make a Difference Day and Community Service Day, and creating a Civic Engagement Student Advisory Board. Amanda will continue during her second year making sustainable partnerships with community organizations and looks forward to students in the newly formed Office of Civic Engagement.



Zaia will be working with regional nonprofits on developing their organizational capacity. She will be a connector&someone who connects these organizations with: research and other appropriate information on best practices; students interested in nonprofit internships or classes working on service learning projects related to capacity building needs; and with each other, so the nonprofit organizations can learn from each other.


Nancy will develop relationships with various community organizations serving the poor in the Mercy College community. Through the assessment of needs for each organization, she will create volunteer opportunities for students, both one time and ongoing. Another aspect of her job is to increase job opportunities in the Greater Toledo Area through economic development initiatives that include small business counseling (for existing and new business start-ups) through SCORE, a division of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Nancy will meet with entrepreneurs one on one and in small groups to advise them on ways to market their business. The final component of her job is access to health care.  She serves on the Education and Marketing Committee of the Ohio Department of Health's Task Force on Infant Mortality and Low Birth Weight.


As the Service-Learning VISTA for Miami University's Office of Community Engagement and Service, Grace will be coordinating students, faculty, and community agencies to engage in Service-Learning initiatives. She will work to develop and nourish a service-minded student body at Miami by introducing students to a structure that allows them to meet community needs and apply their knowledge simultaneously. Grace will work with faculty members to design or modify syllabi that meet criteria for a Service-Learning designation. She will also teach a course on Service-Learning Theory, which will introduce students to social justice issues, understand the value of service as a pedagogical tool in higher education, and develop a proposal for a campus wide service project.


Jessica will serve as a full-time member of the Miami Hamilton Staff, and as an integral link between the Miami Hamilton campus and the Hamilton community. She will serve as the advisor to the service-related student organization (Rotaract) on campus, plan and coordinate regular service outings for students, and plan and implement a week-long immersion experience in Hamilton (Staycation). These efforts will connect current Miami Hamilton students with the community and contribute to the creation of engaged citizens or are committed to service and social responsibility. In addition, Jessica will work with Bridges Out of Poverty and Circles campaign, and the Impact and Action Councils of Butler County United Way to organize, strategize and move toward creating jobs, assisting individuals in making a living wage, and ending poverty.



Cayla will be functioning as a liaison between the Center of Hope for Women & Children and Miami University-Middletown. She will spearhead the implementation of the Adopt-A School, America Reads and America Counts programs here in Middletown and work to recruit student volunteers as well as community based sites for these programs. Cayla will also provide input and assistance on various service-learning initiatives and programs. While at the Center of Hope, Cayla will work part-time providing initial in-take services for potential residents and assist the Center of Hope Director with managing the eating, laundry and medication schedules. Cayla is also willing to work on Middletown economic revitalization initiatives with the Office of Community and Engagement & Services' Community Building Institute.

The University of Mount Union’s Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA will be working in the newly launched Ralph and Mary Regula Center for Public Service and Civic Engagement. Her poverty alleviation focuses for the 2010-2011 year include homelessness, food sustainability, Bridges Out of Poverty, and College Access. She will be helping to facilitate university support for a number of community initiatives, including a new choice food pantry, a new permanent supportive housing shelter, Bridges Out of Poverty trainings, a neighborhood association, and sitting on the advisory committee to help implement two after school programs using a $850,000 five year 21st Century grant. She will also assist with the creation or evolution, implementation, and facilitation of various new and existing community service and public service initiatives between the campus and the community including academic service-learning courses, Make A Difference Week 2010, Super Service Saturdays, Alternative Spring Break, Trash to Treasures Benefit Sale, etc. She will also be creating and implementing a new electronic newsletter for the Regula Center that will work to inform faculty, staff, students, and community partners about what is going on at the Regula Center, on campus, and in the local community in reference to public and community service. In addition she will be charged with finding new and innovative ways to located and utilize university support for poverty alleviation efforts and programs in the community.

Jessica will take an active role in our efforts around food access and food security. She will serve on the committee creating community gardens within our city and help develop programs to educate the community on healthy eating. She will develop the means and ensure great produce is available through our local panty and assist the pantry with volunteer needs. Jessica will continue to build the service capacity of the college.



 
Jennifer will be the Ohio State University Newark VISTA responsible for early college awareness outreach in the public schools through PEAK and parent education through the on-campus program Blueprint.College. She will also work with the Coordinator of Access programs, the faculty advisor for LeFevre Fellows and the Assistant Dean to Access and grow our service learning opportunities. She will be charged with leading a group of selected undergraduates to a national conference on youth involvement and service.

 
VISTA will be assigned to early college awareness efforts carried out by The Ohio State University in collaboration with Columbus City Schools and a local nonprofit, I Know I CAN. Kristen will oversee current college students engaged in college access programming; support fund raising efforts; develop program curriculum; assist with the evaluation of program efforts; track student participation and academic achievement gains; and collaborate with program partners to develop a strategic plan for program sustainability and replicability.



It is our plan to have Mery do a year of campus/community capacity building and recruiting students to work with two new Delaware community partner agencies, which focus on issues of poverty and homelessness. In that role, Mery will live in community with residents of the Women's City Club while assessing needs and exploring options for service-learning partnerships at WCC and Family Promise of Delaware County.


Wright State's Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA will work to establish a food bank for university students suffering food insecurity and to facilitate service-learning and community service projects with local nonprofits working to alleviate hunger and homelessness. The VISTA will research, establish and oversee a Wright State food pantry; assess the degree of food insecurity being experienced by Wright State students; determine the overall level of support required to address our students' needs; identify any legal and/or material requirements for setting up a university food pantry; identify donors for needed equipment and food; identify student organizations, faculty, staff and community groups interested in partnering with the WSU food pantry to provide food or to volunteer; plan and coordinate food drives; and oversee the operation of the food pantry.  The VISTA will also identify and develop one major partnership with a local nonprofit organization working to address hunger, homelessness, or poverty in general. The VISTA will oversee and coordinate all aspects of these efforts.

 Wright State’s Ohio Campus AmeriCorps *VISTA will work primarily with the Dayton Public School (DPS) tutoring programs, other special projects that support students in DPS, and projects in the neighborhoods around the schools. Gillian will assess current processes for managing Dayton Public Schools tutoring programs and revise to improve efficiency and quality for Wright State faculty and students and DPS faulty, students and administrators and document these processes for succeeding staff. She will also develop instructional materials for Wright State faculty to use with DPS service-learning projects (readings, orientation activities, reflection activities, resources, etc.) and support and coordinate grant projects with DPS, including identifying and writing grant proposals, managing grant projects, and writing grant reports.
In addition, Gillian will act as a liaison with other service learning groups on campus.