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In this newsletter the the VYT 2012-2013 members introduce themselves and descirbe how their service promotes the VISTA mission of alleviating poverty.
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to promote effective programs and services. All in the course
of helping to eradicate poverty
throughout Vermont.
I hope you enjoy learning
more about the great service
provided by this year’s VYT
members, and I look forward
to sharing their progress
throughout the year.
Thank you,
Cara Melbourne
VYT A*VISTA Leader
Newsletter Editor
Dear Readers,
I have the greatest privilege to introduce to you the 2012-2013 Vermont Youth Tomorrow AmeriCorps VISTA team. This year we have 27 mem-bers placed at non-profit or-ganizations, municipalities, and state agencies in Vermont com-mitted to fight-ing poverty.
Following the orientation in August, VYT members be-gan building capacity at their organiza-tions and in their communi-ties. They have created pro-grams, re-cruited and managed volunteers, developed resources, and built operational systems.
For this newsletter members
were asked to introduce them-selves, explain what led them to VISTA service, and discuss how their service will promote the VISTA mission and priorities.
In just the first few months as the VYT VISTA Leader, I have had the great pleasure to get to know each member, all of
whom are very diverse in their interests, skills, and passions—
yet all of them are committed to carrying out the VISTA mis-
sion at their various organiza-tions. In the past month I have had the opportunity to visit
most of the VYT members at their organizations (sites). I
have seen first hand their ef-forts and accomplishments, and I am excited to see the ultimate impact they make at the end of their service. I have
been amazed to see what they have been able to accomplish in a few short months. VYT members have played signifi-cant roles in major fundraising
events, coordinated volunteers to complete a project, re-cruited and managed mentors, conducted grant research, and
masterfully used social media
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Valerie
Woodhouse
2
Jenna Geery 2
Kate Piniewski 3
Ryan Stratton 4
Anna Finklestein 5
Casey Willard 6
Emily Bridges 7
Jenny Peterson 7
Sarah Rice 8
Drew Devitis 9
Jahnine
Spaulding
10
Anna Houston 11
Luke Rafferty 11
Tony Zambito 12
Amy
Wargowsky
12
Britt Wedenoja 13
Alaina Wermers 13
Jenny Montagne 14
Rachel Mason 14
Steph Olsen 15
Brian Fullerton 16
Ali Siegel 17
Kyree Wobbrock 17
Lillian Shields 18
Molly Humphry 19
Katherine
Trahan
19
VYT VOICES Vermont Youth Tomorrow AmeriCorps VISTA Program V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
P A G E 2
One
evening
in May,
I sat
tongue-
tied at my So-
ciology
supervi-
sor’s
home just outside of Philadelphia. It
was the “Soc Party” that closed out
every semester—we enjoyed hotdogs
and veggie burgers, gag gifts from the
professors, and forced advice from out-
going students. “Seniors, go around and
tell us what you’re doing after gradua-
tion.” My cohorts and friends told
grand stories of at-risk youth programs,
women’s health studies, and Teach for
America positions. When it came to my
turn, I laughed off a story about glorify-
ing a year of living in my car by calling it “a year off to travel.”
I spent a lot of time this summer on
the road, but one destination stuck
out. Peacham, Vermont was my first
stop, letting me explore the Northeast
Kingdom, Montpelier, and Burling-
ton. After living in Philly, all of Ver-
mont, including its “cities,” felt like a scene out of The Andy Griffith
Show. The towns’ commitment to
their neighbors and the earth quickly
threw off my migrant plans. Soon I
was researching job openings in the
area rather than pinpoints to add to
my map. Although I saw a few more
parts of the country, I knew where I’d
be returning to.
When I landed the VYT VISTA posi-
tion at the Vermont Affordable Hous-
ing Coalition, I spent a day in Bur-
lington to feel out the city. Through-
out college, I did a lot of work with
the homeless and low-income fami-
lies of Philadelphia and
Camden, NJ. Walking along the
waterfront and Church St, I could
not tell who I’d be helping in Bur-
lington. Since I started my position
serving low-income renters, I’ve
come to know a different face of
poverty – one just as in need as the
people back home, but even harder to see.
This year, I’ll work with residents in
federally-subsidized housing to help
them organize associations and en-
sure that their housing is safe and
affordable. I’m proud to commit
myself to an organization dedicated
to sustainable housing, one of the
most basic needs in society. Secure housing gives children and families
access to more opportunities, stabil-
ity and shelter, a community to live
in, and the ability to seek out other
needs. The challenges of securing
affordable housing have me rooted,
at least for this year.
Jenna Geery: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Linking Learning to Life (Burlington, VT)
service by my past community
service participation. I partici-
pated in alternative spring break
while at UVM, and quickly real-
ized serving is the best way to get
to know the community you live
in.
This year I hope to grow to know
the city of Burlington in a differ-
ent capacity. Serving at Linking
Learning to Life will give me the
opportunity to connect with busi-
nesses and community leaders
living in the area. I will be in-
volved with the Training Interns
and Partnering for Success (TIPS)
—a program that helps students
explore their interests while build-
ing marketable job skills. I truly
believe in the mission of connect-
ing youth to their futures. I hope to
help students to see the connection
between what they are learning and
what they can do with that knowl-
edge.
I also would like to show Vermonters the opportunities that are available to
them in their own state. I understand
that often when students graduate
from Vermont high schools their first
desire is to move somewhere else.
Through creating and implementing
experiential education opportunities
students will see that they can make a
successful living right here in Ver-
mont. I am excited to be part of the
VYT team and look forward to this
year of service!
Hello Readers! My name is Jenna
Geery, and I am serving as a VYT
VISTA at Linking Learning to Life in
Burlington Vermont. I have spent all
of my 23 years in the green mountain
state, growing up just outside of Rut-
land, Vermont. I migrated north to attend The University of Vermont in
2007 and fell in love with the Cham-
plain Valley. I have a BA in Com-
munication Sciences and Disorders
and hope to go to graduate school for
Speech Language Pathology one day.
I was
in-
spired
to
per-
form
a year
of
The Pumpkin Regatta, a fall event hosted by
Linking Learning to Life and their partners.
Valerie Woodhouse: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (Burlington, VT)
Kate Piniewski : VYT A*VISTA member serving at The DREAM Program, Inc. (White River Junction, VT)
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
The DREAM Program led me directly to accepting
an AmeriCorps VISTA position through Vermont
Youth Tomorrow. DREAM is a non-profit mentor-
ing organization that pairs college students with
youth living in affordable housing communities.
Two years ago I was studying abroad in Senegal
when I interviewed, via Skype, for a summer in-
ternship with DREAM through an AmeriCorps
State program. Despite the rocky start of techno-
logical issues, time differences, and an inconsistent
Internet connection, I was offered the position.
After spending my final year of college as a
DREAM mentor I accepted a summer A*VISTA
position as Community Coordinator for the Dart-
mouth College DREAM programs. Not long into
the summer I realized that I had become fully in-
vested in the lives of the youth I was serving, and I
knew I was not yet ready to leave the communities
or the organization. So here I am, six weeks into
my full-year commitment and I am happier as a
post-graduate than I ever could have imagined.
As a VISTA serving in White River Junction, I
live in a Vermont State Housing Authority com-
munity. At first I was hesitant about living in one
of the communities where I am serving , but I now
feel fortunate to experience such a new environ-
ment. Challenges often arise that I am not al-
ways qualified to address and
go beyond my assignment
description, but I wouldn’t
change the mornings drinking
coffee on the porch with my
83-year-old neighbor and
hearing stories from World
War II. I appreciate the four
year-old twin neighbors con-
stantly knocking on my door
and asking to practice yoga
outside. Living in this com-
munity has allowed me to
fully dedicate each week to
the VISTA mission of serv-
ing with passion and compas-
sion.
As a Program Empowerment Director, I
help coordinate +/-50 one-on-one men-
toring matches in three different afford-
able housing communities. Each Friday
all youth in the program go to Dart-
mouth College to meet their mentors.
Every mentor pair spends two hours
fostering a positive relationship in a
healthy environment, I am able to par-
ticipate in many activities and each day
is different for the last. Contrary to
what I believed in college, sitting at a
desk for 6-8 hours is not the worst
thing. The constant communication
with mentors, youth, parents, commu-
nity partners, and fellow staff is re-
warding. The success stories from mentors
and youth thus far are very motivating to
continue fully dedicating myself to a year of
service as an AmeriCorps VISTA with
DREAM.
DREAM mentors and Kate in front of
the DREAM bus (now converted into a
kitchen) at a Camp Work Day
DREAM was founded in
January of 1999 and run
entirely by volunteers from
Dartmouth College (with
support from AmeriCorps)
and served the nearby
Templeton Court Apart-
ments (in White River Junc-tion, VT) until November of
2001, when it became an
independent non-profit or-
ganization.
Today, DREAM supports
over 350 mentoring pairs
spread out over 17 local
programs and 12 colleges
throughout Vermont
P A G E 4
In 2011, I was led to VISTA service
through volunteering at
the In-Sight Photogra-
phy Project while I
earned my BA in Lit-
erature and Photogra-
phy from Marlboro
College. It was only
from talking to the pre-
vious AmeriCorps
VISTA volunteer at In-
Sight that I learned
about the VISTA mis-
sion of alleviating pov-
erty. Through volun-
teering as an instructor
and working part-time
at In-Sight, I decided
that I could apply and
strengthen both the
writing skills and the
interest in photography
that I developed as an
undergraduate by becoming In-
Sight’s VISTA member. Seeing the
impact of my service on my organiza-
tion and the youth participating in our
programming convinced me to stay
on another year in an attempt to
achieve even more for the organiza-
tion.
The In-Sight Photography Project’s
mission is to offer students a
creative voice and outlet, an
opportunity to experience
success, tools for self-
awareness and self-worth,
and encourage them to be-
come actively engaged in
their communities. In-Sight
teaches photography to youth ages 11
-18
through-
out South-
ern Ver-
mont,
regardless
of their
ability to
pay for
classes.
The or-
ganization
runs on a
relatively
small op-
erating
budget,
and the
office
(excluding
the VISTA
member)
consists of only the Director and As-
sistant Director. For being so small,
we manage to serve about 150 stu-
dents directly in our classes and more
through other programming. All of
our programming is free to youth and
their families, though we do ask for
contributions. By offering completely
affordable programming, we are able
to reach students who might not oth-
erwise be able to access this out-of
-school education.
The best example of the purpose
of my service can be seen in the
darkroom, where students develop
their first photographic print. Ana-
log photographic printing seems
almost engineered to elicit an
amazed response in the students;
the print, once immersed into the
developing chemical, takes a pro-
longed pause before suddenly re-
vealing its image. The phenome-
non is hardly like anything that
youth today experience in the
world of digital immediacy. Giv-
ing young people the chance to
slow down and focus on a single
task and constantly encouraging
them to improve their work allows
them the opportunity to focus on
success and artistic expression.
These goals are complementary to
the AmeriCorps VISTA priority of
providing opportunities for youth
to better their personal and social
situations, ultimately fulfilling the
mission of alleviating poverty
The building where In-Sight Photography
is housed.
Ryan Stratton: AmeriCorps VISTA serving at In-Sight Photography (Brattleboro, VT)
“As photographers committed to their medium, the volunteers and staff at
In-Sight know the value of the photographic image and its use of visual
language to help individuals discover themselves. This process of seeing
and discovering helps teach individuals about themselves through a visual language that can then be used to communicate with others. The result is
teens who have greater self-esteem and who are more willing to develop a
viewpoint and present it to others. The medium of photography thus be-
comes a tool for building both self-esteem and communication skills”
Anna Finklestein: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Big Picture South Burlington (Burlington, VT)
P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
-The space to try and fail with-
out judgment or consequence
At fourteen, I found no way to recon-
cile the space in between my needs
and a structure that I saw as limiting,
by its very design, the diverse and rich social experiences, the applica-
tion of knowledge and skill in a real-
world setting, and the room to fail
without major implications that I
needed.
I am now a twenty-two year old col-
lege graduate. I still see no way to
reconcile that “space in between”
without significant educational re-
form.
So, in many ways, it should be of no
surprise that I am serving at Big Pic-
ture South Burlington (BPSB), an
interest-based and individualized pub-
lic high school within the South Bur-lington school district. Drawing from the
20+ years of experience, expertise, and
innovation of The Met School in Rhode
Island, BPSB was created to give students
a place where they could find joy and
meaning and community in their educa-
tion.
Students work one-on-one with faculty,
community mentors, and their family to
create an individualized learning plan that
is comprised of independent projects,
internships, service learning, and travel.
The school graduates students using a
proficiency-based model (rather than Car-
negie Units, or credit hours), which re-
quires that students demonstrate
proficiency in five major domains
including Civic & Social Engage-
ment, Communication, and Problem
Solving & Quantitative Reasoning.
Through my research as an Ameri-
Corps VISTA, I was able to confirm
what most of you probably already
know intuitively. Adults with a high
school diploma are much less likely
to experience poverty than adults
who do not graduate from high
school. Furthermore, low-income students are at much greater risk of
dropping out of school than their
wealthier peers. Thus, by reengaging
youth in their learning, publicly
funded programs like Big Picture
South Burlington have the potential
to positively influence the high
school dropout rate in a significant
way.
I believe that access to alternatives to
traditional schooling should be a
right, not a privilege.
Needless to day, I am loving my year
of service.
I have been passionate about sustainable
and accessible alternatives to traditional
school since I was fourteen years old.
Like many of the students who attend Big
Picture South Burlington, I found high
school to be irrelevant, isolating, and over
-stimulating. If you had asked my mother
to describe her fourteen year old daughter,
she would have said that I was
“disengaged” and “operating in neutral,”
as through she were describing an old car.
How many teenagers do you know who
fit that description?
It was only within the past few years that
I developed the language to articulate just
why high school was so unbearable for me. I have since identified a few key
things that traditional
high school failed to
give me:
-Authentic and
collaborative relation-
ships with many dif-
ferent kinds of people
-A sense of how
my “work” as a stu-
dent connected to the
greater world outside
of the classroom
“Big Picture South Burlington is an innovative school-
within-a-school, currently serving 24 students who have cho-
sen BPSB because they were looking for more meaning in
their high school education. Students work with faculty to
design their own individualized curriculum based on their
passions, skills, and goals. Students learn through intern-
ships, independent projects, workshops, travel, and group
experiences such as our yearly camping and service learning trips.”
P A G E 6
Casey Willard VYT A*VISTA member serving at The Washington County Youth Service Bureau/Boys and Girls Club (Montpelier/Barre, VT)
Hello, I am Casey Leigh, a VISTA vet-
eran (can one call herself a veteran after
only one-ish years of service? And if so,
would she have to no longer be in ser-
vice? The philosophical questions of
life…) with the Vermont Youth Tomor-
row AmeriCorps VISTA program. While
many members of the 2012/2013 VYT
team are launching into their first VISTA
experience, I have opted to serve a sec-
ond year with the Washington County
Youth Service Bureau’s prevention pro-
grams: The Basement Teen Center—a
drop-in center for youth ages 13-18—
and CityScape—an out-of-school
program for 5th-8th grade students of
Barre Middle School.
I hail from the lovely
Carolina mountains. I
hold a bachelor de-
gree in social work
and have aspirations
of obtaining a masters
in something awe-
some at some point. I
first began youth
work as a CIT
(Counselor in Train-
ing) for a day camp
back home. In the
following years I
worked in various
settings including
playing around with
tots at a day care cen-
ter for young mothers taking a GED
course; with 5-13 year olds at a 4-H
camp, and with elementary students
as a school social work intern. I
love writing, reflection, collabora-
tion and community work, self-
expression, and a good challenge.
These attributes, I suppose, are
what led me to youth programs. I
was seeking something more spiri-
tually fulfilling and
something more in line with my
joys and passions than serving
wealthy travelers in a tourist town.
I ended up in the great green moun-
tains because I’d heard three things
about Vermont prior to moving
here: it’s beautiful, full of wacky
people (true-ish), and it was into
the local foods movement. I could
get down with that. So here I am—
gladly!
My roles as a VISTA with the
Basement Teen Center and City-
Scape are multi-faceted. VISTAs
specialize in poverty alleviation,
“capacity building,” and
“sustainability.” Simply stated, I
provide the foundational support
for prevention programs, which
allow them to provide more exten-
sive programming to a larger popu-
lation for a sustainable amount
of time. Among these roles are
creating and enhancing data-
bases so that tracking and evalu-
ating progress may
be done more efficiently; ex-
panding the organization’s vol-
unteer-base and strengthening
the systems to support
volunteers; expanding commu-
nity awareness of and support
for the organization, which often
leads to excellent
program collaborations and a
greater reach; developing more
effective and sus-
tainable re-
sources for pro-
gramming
(money and ma-
terials); and of-
fering a fresh
perspective on
the most relevant
topics for pro-
gramming to en-
sure that we meet
the needs of the
low-income
youth that we
serve.
A youth and Casey at the Shel-
burne Museum’s steam punk
exhibit
Basement Teen Center youth getting ready to play paintball
Cityscape youth at the UVM
Ropes Course
I spent 30 minutes trying to synthesize a
witty, yet appropriate leading sentence for
this newsletter. I could get straight to
business, listing my hometown, hobbies,
alma mater, and reasons for service. Or, I
could start with a tantalizing question to
capture the reader’s interest. I could even WRITE IN ALL CAPS and post taste-
fully Photoshopped high-contrast photos.
I could.
But what I think what I’ll do is tell you
that my name is Emily and that I’m so
very pleased to be here in Vermont. This
beautiful state has provided me with the
setting for what is sure to be an incredible
year, and has already introduced me to a
number of people that I want in my life
forever.
After graduating college I knew two
things: I wanted to work with youth in a
meaningful position, and I wanted an ad-
venture. Serving as a VISTA for The Junction Teen Lifeskills Center has pro-
vided me with both. Snuggled in between
Emily Bridges: VYT A*VISTA member serving at The Junction (White River Junction, VT)
an upholstery shop and a karate studio,
The Junction is an unassuming treasure
in the middle of downtown White River
Junction. For youth ages 15-20, The
Junction provides a substance-free safe
place to play pool, cook dinner, and in-
teract with adults on a personal level. As
a VISTA, I’ll be developing program-
ming to engage the youth in various skill-building activities, raising funds, and
recruiting volunteers. Through all of
Jenny Peterson: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Community Friends Mentoring (Burlington, VT)
VISTA at a mentoring organization. I
am constantly seeking new places and
adventures, so after growing up in Wash-
ington State and attending school in
Minnesota, the natural next step was to
live on the east side of the country. I
studied math in school and as much as I loved solving problems on paper, I really
wanted to work on solving larger issues
that would directly affect the people in
my community. As a VISTA, I am able
to combine problem solving by building
the capacity of an organization with my
desire to help youth.
Community Friends Mentoring creates
and supports one-to-one friendships in
Chittenden County and most of the chil-
dren who are paired with adults in the
area come from low-income households.
During my year at Community Friends
Mentoring, I will help strengthen the
online contact database and continue to
develop the necessary support for main-
“Have you ever been to a modern dance
performance before?” I ask the 11-year-
old girl I am mentoring on my free time.
We are on our third outing and this is the
first community event we have attended
together, a performance by the Trisha
Brown Dance Company at Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. “I’ve never seen
this kind of dance before – it’s kinda
weird,” she remarks during intermission.
Afterwards, we have a discussion about
our interpretations of the pieces and she
comments on the outer space qualities of
one piece and the raw elements of city
life in another. This new experience for
her may not have been possible without
the support of Community Friends Men-
toring, my service site for this year. See-
ing the work I do directly benefiting the
youth in this area has been one of the
most rewarding parts of my time so far.
After college, I never imagined moving
to Vermont to become an AmeriCorps
these activities, I hope to give The Junc-
tion the resources it needs to alter the
trajectory of our youths’ lives. Most
importantly, I hope to be a safe adult
for the youth that come through our
doors – someone they willingly trust
and can look up to when life throws
them a few curveballs.
With the time I’ve spent here so far,
The Junction has hosted a plethora of
events designed to promote involve-
ment in the community and healthy
alternatives. These events include com-
munity service projects, potato harvest-
ing, salsa-making, apple picking/
baking, horror movie marathons, live
music performances, and the chance to
be an extra in a music video! As the year
progresses, I hope to include financial
literacy workshops, writing workshops,
cartoon drawing
seminars, snowboarding, and countless
others. I strongly believe in the mission
of The Junction, and I’m hoping that by the end of the year I have made an im-
pact that helps fulfill that mission.
Emily and a youth paint ceiling tiles at The
Junction
A mentor pair picking apples at
Adam’s Orchard
taining mentoring matches, including
organizing events and writing newsletter
articles. Attending a dance performance
with my “mentee” and laughing together
while making pie is a weekly reminder of
why I am serving as a VISTA for Com-
munity
Friends.
P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
P A G E 8
Sarah Rice: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile (Swanton, VT)
sing songs, read stories aloud, and
help the kids find books to check
out. There is a particular sort of joy
in matching a child with the perfect
book and in finding avid readers
where you would not expect them.
The Bookmobile helps break the
cycle of the poverty from the roots
up by giving kids the tools to
succeed in school. With increased
literacy, they can pursue better edu-
cational attainment and have
access to a wider range of options
for molding their own futures. Our
presence in the community
inspires a positive image of reading
as fun and accessible rather than
daunting and out of reach. Addition-
ally, our collection contains re-
sources for parents and childcare
providers to help them find the
knowledge to raise healthy, happy
kids. Through our involvement in
afterschool programs, we provide
kids with a safe an educational envi-
ronment once the school day ends. I
have found myself creating curricula
for both gardening and
“grossology” (the science of gross
things): afterschool clubs that make
education fun. And believe me, it’s
pretty darn fun to get a group of ele-
mentary school kids excited about
using science to reach new and
fascinating heights of grossness.
As the year continues, I will be
working toward making the
Bookmobile stronger and more
sustainable as an organization
through developing funding
strategies, planning events, shap-
ing programs, and making our
public relations plan more robust.
I care deeply about the Bookmo-
bile’s mission, and I look forward
to making it even more success-
ful. My favorite part of my ser-
vice, however, will always re-
main recommending books about
female knights to any little girl
who requests something about
princesses. Who knows, maybe
one of those girls will even take
up fencing.
From the time I started reading chapter
books, I was determined to become a
female knight. The process seemed
straightforward: disguise oneself as a
boy, master fencing, develop a star-
crossed love for the prince, save the
prince’s life, face exile when revealed as
female, and then win back the hearts of
the people (and the heart of the prince)
by saving the kingdom. I enrolled in
fencing classes and ignored the fact that
I was dismal at it. My life plans evolved
as my reading level did. By the time I
was reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I
had given up fencing and taken up writ-
ing as a better exercise of my imagina-
tion.
Books have continued to be one of my
deepest loves and a central lens through
which I see the world. As an Ameri-
Corps VISTA at the Franklin Grand Isle
Bookmobile, I help to bring that magic
to kids throughout northern Vermont.
The Bookmobile provides a wide selec-
tion of books to kids who might not oth-
erwise have access to them, cultivating
literacy and imagination. Each year, we
visit about 800 children in rural commu-
nities through stops at childcare provid-
ers and preschools. At each stop, we
The Bookmobile team with “Figgy,” the trusty Bookmobile, still run-
ning strong after 10 years.
One of the young readers at the Bookmobile’s
cake auction, a fundraising event
The Franklin Grand
Isle Bookmobile pro-
motes a lifelong love of
learning and creates community connections
by providing greater
access to books, infor-
mation, activities, and
fun.
Drew DeVitis: VYT A*VISTA member serving at enVision Montpelier (Montpelier, VT)
P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
Like a number of my peers,
as I entered my senior year of college at the University
of Pittsburgh last fall, I had no concrete idea of what I
might do after I would graduate. I harbored a vague
notion of entering graduate school, but wasn’t even sure of what I would want to
study. Fortunately, I sought out the help of a friend who
had recently begun a year term of service as an Ameri-
Corps member, and he highly encouraged me to
apply to a VISTA program.
My desire to serve in a smaller community, com-bined with my fascination
about the process that trans-formed Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
vaina into a thriving post-industrial city lead me to
serve with enVision Mont-pelier.
The last two months at the City of Montpelier’s Plan-
ning and Community Devel-
opment Department, where
my program is located, have been a whirlwind of
excitement. The commu-nity is in the midst of a
heated discussion about a District Heat plan (no pun
intended) designed make heating more efficient city-wide and lower heating
costs.
Among my duties, I have been responsible for help-
ing facilitate the CAN! (Capital Area Neighbor-
hoods) group, a coalition of neighborhood leaders com-
mitted to disaster prepared-ness, food security, and community building. I have
also served in a similar role for MEAC (Montpelier En-
ergy Advisory Committee), which has set an ambitious
goal to get 200 homes in Montpelier weatherized
each year.
I have also played a central
role with the Central Ver-mont Food Systems
Council, an initiative that stemmed out of Montpe-
lier’s Master Plan revi-sion a few years ago. The Council is concerned
with building a vibrant, sustainable food system
in the region that ensures healthy food for all resi-
dents, especially those who are food insecure.
Related to the Council’s
work, I helped with the fourth annual Growing Local Fest, which was
held at Two Rivers Cen-ter. The proceeds from
this event are supporting the Council’s “Garden in
Every Washington County School” initia-
tive, which is very close to fulfillment. This pro-
ject ensures that healthy, nutritious vegetables are available to school lunch
programs at the local schools in Washington
County, most of which have high percentages of
students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.
As a whole, I am quite
delighted to be living in Montpelier and serving
its residents. My posi-tion has given me a unique insight into the
interworking of munici-pal government and mu-
nicipal boards. Having resided in a major city
for the past few year, getting adjusted to a
small town was chal-lenging at first, but I’ve
learned to appreciate the close-knit, rural charm of Montpelier and Ver-
mont as a whole
Montpelier City Hall
P A G E 1 0
Jahnine Spaulding: VYT A*VISTA member serving at University of Vermont Extension/4 H—Operation: Military Kids
I was born into a military family, I raised
a military family, and, through Ameri-
Corps VISTA, I will spend this year us-
ing what I have learned over a lifetime in
support of military families. My dad, a
WWII vet, instilled in me a sense that
being part of a military community was
the coolest thing- ever. Military folk
were adventurous, hardworking, diverse,
and trust-worthy –all values prized in
our family.
We lived within sight (and sound!) of an Air Force base runway, and always par-
ticipated in base life. Although by the
time I was born my dad was no longer
on Active Duty, I experienced a lot
of the typical “ military brat” milestones
– we moved 5 times before I was 8 years
old, my dad (an airline pilot) was absent
frequently and missed many birthdays,
anniversaries, and holidays. I lived over-
seas and learned a second language. My
mother was capable of handling anything
(or so it seemed) when dad was away.
No wonder, when I was a senior in high
school, I choose to study at Norwich
University, 3,000 miles away. It was the
only military academy that accepted
women at the time. At Norwich I met the man with whom I would immerse my-
self, for 27 years, in active duty military
life.
While I still loved many aspects of mili-
tary life, when my children were born
my perspective changed. I was deeply
worried about the effects military life
would have on my kids. As a family we
faced the challenges of 14 moves and 7
deployments with mixed feelings. There
were many times when I was not sure it
was worth the sacrifice for any of us.
Today, when I ask my boys (now grown)
if the opportunities and experiences were
worth the pain, they assure me that it
was. They, too, are proud to be “military
kids.”
In August my husband retired from mili-tary service. We moved to Vermont so
that he could continue serving – he
teaches JROTC at his Alma Mater, Es-
sex High School. I too, chose to continue
serving by joining AmeriCorps. I knew
that my experiences as a teacher, non-
profit manager, and military spouse,
could help other military families. I also
considered my year of service as a time
to really get to know the people and
places of the Green Mountain state-
where my husband was born and I at-
tended college.
I began this year by learning what makes
the military in Vermont incredibly
unique. Per capita, Vermont’s military has deployed more often, and suffered
more casualties than any other state in
the union. Deployments and casualties
affect Vermont children in many ways.
Some of these young people must face
the challenges brought by deployment
and other types of trauma/loss while
descending into poverty due to deploy-
ment, and some will face the challenges
of military life from a place of existing
poverty. While a vast majority of them
successfully navigate their way through
these experiences, this type of trauma
can have lasting effects for some. Opera-
tion: Military Kids (OMK), the program
I serve with, supports all military kids as
they face these challenges.
OMK believes that helping military kids
build connections to one another, and to
the community in which they live, will
provide a source of support for them
during both challenging and happy
times. These connections can help them
cope in healthy ways with the stress they
are experiencing. This is how OMK
works to achieve the VISTA mission of
bringing individuals and communities
out of poverty. OMK supports school
age children as they work to transcend
the challenges of being a military
child, and in some cases, a child
living in poverty.
While OMK has begun to make
inroads in building connections
between military kids and the com-
munity, we recognize that there are challenges ahead. Access to events
is a particular challenge in a rural,
agrarian state. National Guard
families are dispersed throughout
Vermont, often with no more than
3-4 families in a single town or
village. Many families do not have
public transportation options,
which can make transportation to
an event an adventure in logistics,
networking, and time management.
Privacy issues continually chal-
lenge us to find creative way to
“get the word out.” These factors
make location/venue selection for
youth or adult events, and timely
communication about our opportu-nities, a critical challenge. My
“job” will be to build the commu-
nity networks up, work with them
to address the issues described, and
ensure that every military child in
Vermont knows that someone in
their town or village “has their
back.”
Hello dear readers! My name is
Anna and I’m the AmeriCorps
VISTA at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in
Montpelier. My grandmother was born
and raised in Montpelier and much of my
family hails from nearby. I’m from
northwestern Vermont so returning here for a service year is a bit like returning to
my roots - it’s barely 50 miles but a return
nonetheless!
I was drawn to VISTA service because
I’ve had a strong affinity for civic engage-
ment since I was young. Being an Ameri-
Corps member seemed like the perfect
opportunity to continue along that trajec-
tory and obtain experience and skills that can be transferred to graduate school or
the daunting world of social services that
I will most likely settle into. When I dis-
cuss my service with others, it’s often
hard to explain how I’m living and why
I’m serving. All I know is that the re-
wards of AmeriCorps service far out-
weigh the costs. Serving as a VISTA will
be an experience that will enrich and in-
spire the work I do for the rest of my life.
Montpelier is the small, vibrant capital of
Vermont and the library serves the com-
munity through a wide variety of pro-
gramming and events. The library is
deeply valued, as evidenced by the fact that it has the second highest circulation
in the state, the large number of programs,
and program attendees recorded each
year. Serving here is a pleasure and a
privilege. Each day I get to walk into a
warm, cozy environment that provides a
space to build relationships and encour-
age lifelong learning. As an Ameri-
Corps VISTA, I work within the library
to build capacity and sustainability
through program planning and imple-
mentation, fund
development, and outreach work. My
goal is to help the library operate effec-
tively during and after my service. Be-
ing a VISTA also means that my pri-
mary mission is to help alleviate pov-
Luke Rafferty: VYT A*VISTA member serving at enVison Montpelier (Montpelier, VT) many exciting projects my NCCC team
was a part of. After exiting NCCC I had
a clearer vision of my inclination and
ability to give back, and how much I
could gain personally by participating
in national service.
Enter AmeriCorps VISTA. Exploring
my desire for a more office-like setting
than NCCC, while also recognizing
how great my time in AmeriCorps was,
I sought out the VISTA program. As a
VISTA in the City of Montpelier I will
use this year to help the city become a
more resilient community. Despite
being an outwardly quaint and attrac-
tive place, Montpelier has a long way to
go to be more ecologically sustainable,
supportive of its underprivileged popu-
lation, and socially connected. Recog-
nizing the need to continually reinvent
itself, the city began enVision Montpe-
lier. The enVision process focuses on
securing the city's long-term sustain-ability through multiple avenues. By
serving within the city's Planning De-
partment, I will be serving with people
who spend all their time working on
When I graduated college back in 2010, I
thought I knew a lot of things: how to
write, how to think, how to listen thought-
fully, how to articulate myself convinc-
ingly, and what I wanted to do with my-
self. I knew one more thing, one thing
that I remain convinced of two years later; I knew I had to give something back to
the country that provided me so many
advantages. Some people fight crime,
fires, or wars. Some people join non-
profits and confront poverty, inequity, or
violence. Some people enter the govern-
ment and try to improve things as politi-
cians or bureaucrats. I joined Ameri-
Corps NCCC.
Serving in California was one of the most
transformative years of my life. I
unlearned many of my ivory tower preju-
dices and experienced the satisfaction of
hard work and service to my community.
It's not possible to help a migrant worker
family build their own home without feel-ing satisfied with your work. It's simi-
larly impossible be a wilderness fire-
fighter for half a year without being proud
of your contribution. These were two of
erty. The connection
between alleviating
poverty and a public library is simple:
lifelong learning and literacy pull peo-
ple out of poverty. Reading opens up
new worlds, experiences, cultures, and
countries, and builds self-esteem.
Books are just the tip of the iceberg. From public computers to job skills
workshops, the library provides free
and accessible services and opportuni-
ties to all members of the community.
This mission is one that I will nourish
and maintain throughout my service
year.
making Montpelier a better place. Work-
ing within the enVision framework will
give me wide leeway in choosing what
initiatives I want to move forward. This
position will give me the agency to en-
gage with Montpelier's youth, support its
sustainability, and help facilitate pro-
grams that will improve life in the city.
P A G E 1 1 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1 Anna Houston: VYT A*VISTA
Kellogg-Hubbard Library (Montpelier, VT)
P A G E 1 2
Amy Wargowsky: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Essex CHIPS (Essex Junction, VT)
My path to becoming a VISTA began in
the months approaching my graduation
from St. Bonaventure University. I found
myself confronted with the question of
what path I would take following gradua-
tion. Should I find a job? Should I apply
to graduate school? These seemed like
perfectly acceptable options, but as I
mulled over my future, the one path that
genuinely excited me when I envisioned
myself following it was engaging in ser-vice.
Immediately following my graduation I
traveled to Uganda on a service trip with
a non-profit and student group I had been
involved in throughout college, and had
also traveled to Uganda with the previous
Tony Zambito: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Willowell (Monkton, VT)
summer. During the five weeks I
spent there I definitively decided that
I would pursue service upon my re-
turn home. As I explored possible
service opportunities, it became clear
to me that AmeriCorps VISTA,
which I had been considering as a possibility for several months, was
an especially effective opportunity to
apply the skills, knowledge, and ex-
periences I had gained in college, to
my service.
And so, with a less than reliable
internet connection and supply of
electricity began the process of creat-
ing an application and searching for
and applying to VISTA positions. In
the process I discovered the Willo-
well Foundation, a not-for-profit
organization based on 230 acres in
Monkton, Vermont that provides
programs focused on the arts, envi-
ronment and education. I applied to and accepted the VISTA position
and it has turned out to be a phe-
nomenal opportunity to serve in
meaningful ways that appeal to my
interests and passions.
Through my service I will be helping
to support programs the Willo-
well Foundation provides and
supports such as the Walden Pro-
ject, an outdoor alternative high
school program, and the Keeping
Track Wildlife Monitoring Pro-
gram to provide youth in Addison
County with valuable experiences and unique educational opportuni-
ties. These programs and others
the Willowell Foundation pro-
vides, offer youth in the area the
opportunity to learn and flourish
outside the traditional educational
setting, which may not be well
suited to or be an effective means
of providing education for many
young people. Additionally, the
programs I am supporting at Wil-
lowell are helping to foster a con-
nection between young people
and the natural environment that
surrounds them.
Overall, I’m happy to be helping the Willowell Foundation con-
tinue its mission and continue
serving young people and the
larger community in Addison
County through wonderful pro-
grams and I am looking forward
Hi! I’m Amy Wargowsky, and I’m an
AmeriCorps VISTA (A*VISTA) serv-
ing at Essex CHIPS. I recently gradu-
ated from Capital University in Colum-bus, Ohio with a degree in music and
sociology. After
fours years of
contemplating
what to do with
my life—and
never quite fig-
uring it out—I
decided, with
the help of my academic advi-
sor at Capital,
that AmeriCorps
was the right
direction for
me.
While at Capital, I learned a lot
about music theory, dead classical
composers and social theorists, and
proper piano-playing technique. I also learned a lot about myself, par-
ticularly my passion for social jus-
tice, equality, and helping others,
and my inclination toward idealism.
While my career path is currently
undecided, being in AmeriCorps has
given me the opportunity to pursue
my passions for a year while build-
ing work experience and learning
about the world of non-profit or-ganizations. The A*VISTA mission
of alleviating poverty truly does lie
at the center of my heart (as corny
as that sounds)!
Once accepted into AmeriCorps, I
jumped at the opportunity to move
to the beautiful state of Vermont,
especially since I’ve spent most of
my life in Ohio. At Essex CHIPS,
located in Essex Junction, I am serving as the A*VISTA Volun-
teer/Service-Learning Coordina-
tor. This is a great position for me
because I place so much value on
helping others and creating social
change; now it’s my “job” to re-
cruit youth and adults alike to do
just that-help others and create
positive change! CHIPS has an
amazing staff, and I am enjoying every minute getting to know
them better! I also enjoy working
with kids in our Tween and Teen
Center. Sometimes they’re a bit
crazy, but for the most part it has
been wonderful learning more
about each and every one of them!
Alaina Wermers: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Winooski Community Services Dept. (Winooski, VT)
Britt Wedenoja: A*VISTA member serving at The DREAM Program (Burlington, VT)
P A G E 1 3 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
Around this past May, as the colleges
that I worked with were letting out for
the summer, I started to realize that I
didn’t manage to accomplish nearly as
much as I wanted with my year of
AmeriCorps VISTA service. I remem-
ber starting in September with such
lofty and inflated aspirations; I was going to revolutionize DREAM and
create super mentors that would be
dedicated, well organized, and gener-
ally the best role models you could ever
hope to have. By the time I was in the
swing of things, the year was already
over. I’m looking forward to another
wonderful year of service with the
DREAM Program serving with the
northern Vermont mentoring programs.
I hope with this second year of service I
will be able to put into practice a lot of
the ideas I had when I started volunteer-
ing with DREAM.
The DREAM Program is a wacky and
inspiring organization made up of pas-sionate and dedicated mentors, super
energetic kids, and a very supportive
office. DREAM pairs college student
mentors with kids living in low-income
housing. Our mission is to build com-
munities of families and college stu-
dents that empower children form dis-
advantaged circumstances to recognize
their options, make informed decisions,
and achieve their dreams. Currently
the DREAM Program works with 14
colleges throughout Vermont and the
Boston area, which are paired with 18
different low-income housing
neighborhoods. Typically mentors
meet once a week to plan activities
and then on Fridays they drive to the housing community, pick up the kids,
and bring them back to the college.
DREAM’s unique village mentoring
model synthesizes concepts from one-
on-one mentoring , team building, and
community development programs to
create a comprehensive and empower-
The DREAM Central Office 2012
ing experience for children and their men-
tors. Rather than traditional one-on-one
mentoring structures, all the kids and the
mentors for a supportive community
group.
This year I will be supporting four men-
toring groups in the Burlington area. I am empowering mentors from St. Michael’s
College who are paired with the Franklin
Square housing community, mentors for
the University of Vermont who are paired
with the Riverside and Elm Street housing
communities, and mentors from Cham-
plain College who are paired with the
Birchwood trailer park. As a program
empowerment VISTA, I serve a lot be-
hind the scenes with the mentors and the
co-chairs of the different programs. I sup-
port the mentors and co-chairs by helping
them organize their systems, screen men-
tor applicants, recruit volunteers to help
with their programming, as well as trou-
bleshooting kid and mentor issues among
many other things. I also provide an out-side perspective on their programs, and
help them look at the big picture and push
toward sustainability. As a VISTA, I am
continually encouraging my mentors to
rely less on the DREAM office and the
DREAM office funds and more on their
own problem solving and fundraising. I
am looking forward to another wonderful
year of capacity building with DREAM.
cessful, sustainable programming for
Winoo-
ski
youth.
ticipating in the community. Now as a
VISTA, I feel like I can truly give back
and become a member of the Winooski
community
I will be giving back to Winooski through
grant writing and volunteer coordination
for the Winooski Teen Center. Many of the youth we serve are refugees or New
Americans. They face many challenges
such as being non-native English speakers
that can inhibit their success. It is impor-
tant that we have strong programs to sup-
port these youth so that they may realize
their full potential. I am really looking
forward to this year and to creating suc-
I have lived in Vermont the past four
years as a student at Saint Michael’s
College in Colchester. However, I have
come to realize that while I lived here, I
never really got to know my surrounding
community as much as I could have. So
as I was perusing the AmeriCorps web-
site, I saw the posting for the City of Winooski and immediately applied. This
was my chance to give back to the com-
munity that I lived and worked in for the
past four years. I enjoyed the restaurants
and cafes on the infamous Winooski
circle and I knew that there was a large
refugee population, but I always felt like
I was on the outside and not truly par- Refugee youth at the Winooski
Teen Center.
Rachel Mason: VYT A*VISTA member serving at University of VT Extension —Migrant Education Program (Berlin, VT)
Volunteer Coordinator and A*VISTA
Member. VMEP serves youth, who
have migrated alone or with their
families for agricultural work.
Throughout Vermont, there are young
men and women who work intensive
hours in rural, isolated environments.
Many of them have left school to sup-
port their families, or have repeatedly
disrupted their education to migrate
for work. Isolated on farms and with-
out transportation, there is little access
to education. However, Vermont Mi-
grant Education Program finds a way
to meet our students’ educational
needs. By providing English classes,
tutoring, GED preparation, and other
educational services on the farms, the
migrant youth population is able to
pursue goals that may have seemed
unattainable in the past.
This year, VMEP will be able to create
an even greater impact on migrant
youth’s lives by mobilizing VMEP Vol-
unteers throughout the state. This is the
first year VMEP has a Volunteer Coor-
dinator to build the capacity of the vol-
unteer program. As the VISTA member
and Volunteer Coordinator at VMEP I
am working collaboratively with VMEP
staff to build a strong network of volun-
teers across Vermont. Volunteers will
engage in multiple training sessions, in
order to raise the quality of the educa-
tional services they provide to students.
Without a volunteer program, VMEP is
limited in time and resources to meet the
needs of all the migrant youth students.
However, with a volunteer force, more
migrant youth will have access to educa-
tion in Vermont.
This past
year, I
served
as an
Ameri-
Corps
STATE
member
with
D.C.
Scores at
an after-
school
youth
program in Washington, D.C. After see-
ing how poverty affected the daily lives of
youth in Washington, D.C., I felt that I
wanted to specifically work to alleviate
poverty as a VISTA Member.
This year I am serving with the Vermont
Migrant Education Program (VMEP) as a
P A G E 1 4
When I was completing
my senior year of college
over two years ago, I was
truly stumped about how I would apply
my skills and experience in media arts
with an actual “real world” job. I wasn’t
sure what I wanted from a job experi-
ence, but I knew, deep down, that I wanted to connect people and ideas, and
write about it. After a strange journey
that took me from making smoothies in
Vermont to selling shoes in Seattle, I am
back in Vermont again and serving at
both the Vermont Coalition to End
Homelessness (VCEH) and the Vermont
Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC)
and as the A*VISTA Communications
and Outreach Coordinator.
When I came across the service position,
it seemed like a wonderful opportunity
to combine my interest in social justice
with my experience in journalism. It also
seemed like a way for me to refocus my
goals and do something that held real
worth. I have learned that both the
VCRH and VAHC use outreach and
social media as a means to connect their
housing partners across the state. My
role at the VAHC is to build systems to
better improve communications
between both coalitions and mem-
bers statewide through online out-
reach, newsfeed development, and
member retention initiatives. My
service at VCEH requires me to
consider bigger-picture items, like assisting with projects that assess
homelessness in the state and find
ways to increase access to service
and information.
Both of these coalitions fight pov-
erty through education and raising
awareness of housing insecurity and
homelessness. More than this, both
organizations work on actual initia-
tives meant to publicize the issues and educate the community about
the impact of current federal policy
and funding. In the two months that
I have been serving at both coali-
tions, I have discovered a great deal
about the work of advocacy groups,
housing developers, support net-
works, community land trusts, and
state agencies. I have also gained a
broad understanding
of the complexities of
housing and homelessness in Vermont
I look forward to the rest of my year of
service at the VCEH and VAHC, not
only because I feel like I am regaining a
sense of purpose in my work and my
life, but because I feel like I am actu-
ally working to effect positive change.
As a result of my service, I feel like I
can better recognized what I want and
need for a work experience.
Jenny Montagne: A*VISTA member serving at Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (Burlington, VT)
Jenny, fellow VYT VISTA Valerie,
and their supervisor.
Two Migrant Education Students
enjoying the Vermont snow.
P A G E 1 5 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E
Hubbard Park. I have coordinated
volunteers from Montpelier High
School and with SerVermont to
transplant close to 70 red maples
(Acer rubrum) to the North Branch
Wildlife Area to help shade out Japa-
nese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica)
that is invading Vermont’s precious
riparian zones on our rivers. I am
looking forward to working with
Montpelier High School to set up
hands on workshops where these
youth can learn about invasive plants
and why they are a threat to our envi-
ronment. Another main goal of mine
for this year is to get the community
gardens organized and functioning to
its fullest! I will be in charge of man-
aging the two community gardens,
that Montpelier Parks has a large part
of running, by obtaining donations
and funding and recruiting volun-
teers. The plan is for these gardens
to serve lower- income residents in
the Montpelier area. After all, every-
one deserves to be able to grow his
or her own healthy, inexpensive
food. This is yet another skill Ster-
ling College has installed in
my values, which I am ex-
cited to use! Volun-
teers are the major
force in getting pro-
jects done here at
Montpelier Parks.
Both the other
AmeriCorps mem-
ber on site and I
work closely with
the Department of
Labor trainees in
order to teach them
skills to take into
career market to
better their chances of getting a
job and build their confidence. I
believe that the youth that come
to us need a positive role model
and for someone to believe in
their success and feel as if I can
be that positive role model. I
would love to see these kids suc-
ceed and achieve the dreams of
obtaining a career that they both
enjoy and have a knack
for. Recently, we held a Game of
Logging Chainsaw safety training
that the youth participated in. It
was great to see these young
adults having fun while learning a
useful skill that they will take
with them forever. I am hoping
some of these skills that are being
taught spark passion into the souls
of Vermont’s youth and use that
spark of passion to strive to make
a difference in their communities
and to better themselves, just like
I am doing by proudly serving as
an AmeriCorps VISTA!
Greetings! I am the AmeriCorps
VISTA serving through Vermont
Youth Tomorrow (VYT) at Montpelier
Parks in Vermont’s beautiful capital. I
have just graduated from Sterling Col-
lege in Craftsbury Common, Vermont
with a degree in Conservation Ecology
and am ready to use my knowledge and
passion for our environment in my year
of service.
My first two months in the parks has
given me the opportunity to exercise a
lot of the skills I have learned during
my time at Sterling College. I have
been focusing a lot on invasive plant
control and management throughout
the North Branch Wildlife Area and
Steph Olsen: VYT A*VISTA member
serving at Montpelier Parks and Recreation (Montpelier, VT)
Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
members volunteer at Hubbard Park
P A G E 1 6
Brian Fullerton: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Essex CHIPS (Essex Junction, VT)
When I started volunteering at an
independent movie theater in
Olympia, Washington, right after
college in 2010, I met a neat
woman who was
moving to Montana
to do a VISTA stint.
She stayed for two
years and came
back to Olympia to
take a state job.
Despite the fact she
was a relatively
recent college
graduate with a well
-paid job that was
relevant to her de-
gree, she told me
she would rather be
back in Montana doing her
VISTA service. She was happier
making $1,000 a month in the
middle of Montana as a VISTA
than she was with a job that was,
by most people’s standards,
“cushy.”
After she explained what she did
for her two years as a VISTA
member, I told her, “I wanna
leave Olympia and do cool stuff.”
She said, “AmeriCorps was a very
positive experience for me. You
should do it.”
So, what led me to be a VISTA,
sending me out from a place I have
spent my entire life to another place
I hadn’t ever thought of outside of
geography quizzes? A woman I
have a crush on told me it would be
a good idea.
The government created and contin-
ues to fund the VISTA program to
help people avoid or get out of pov-
erty. As a periphery goal it gives
people like me an opportunity to
have a “positive experience” while
working in areas we’re good at. This
is a noble thing and I’m happy and
proud to be a part of it.
This year I’ll be managing all of the
outreach for Essex CHIPS so more
people are
aware of what CHIPS is doing so
CHIPS can serve more people with
its Community Wellness initiatives.
I enjoy the work and I like the idea
of everyone in Essex, Essex Junc-
tion, and Westford served by
CHIPS. The more
people who are
aware of what
CHIPS is doing the
more people
CHIPS can help.
That, in a nutshell,
is what I’ll be do-
ing for my year.
Afterwards,
maybe, if I go back
to the Pacific
Northwest. I can
have a cushy,
grown-up
job and think about how I’d rather
be in VISTA helping people avoid
or get out of poverty.
Then maybe I’d have something
else to talk about with this person I
have a crush on.
The mission of Essex CHIPS
is to unite the community in
an environment where peo-
ple are empowered to make
healthy choices through
youth-adult partnerships,
youth leadership, and civic
engagement.
My journey to AmeriCorps started
three and a half years ago when, as a
shy
freshman at Middlebury College, I wan-
dered into the spring semester MiddAc-
tion fair. I was looking for a way to be
more involved in service, and I wanted to work with youth. I saw some people I
knew wearing bright yellow t-shirts and
they called over to me, asking if I wanted
to join DREAM.
I went to a Friday activity with very little
understanding of what DREAM was, or
even what the name stood for (Directing
through Recreation, Education, Adven-
ture, and Mentoring). I met the kids, and
we played capture the flag and drew pic-
tures. I quickly learned that DREAM
involved far more than just the weekly
activities. At its core, DREAM is a men-
toring organization that pairs college stu-
dents with children from affordable hous-
ing communities. However, DREAM also
hosts summer and winter camps, does
special programming for teenagers, and
takes trips as big as kids can dream.
I was a mentor for the rest of my time at Middlebury, and Friday activities became
the highlight of my week. I watched the
program grow, both in size and in the
scope of programming, and the effect
DREAM had on the kids. I became a co-
chair during my senior year, and enjoyed
the opportunity to help the program de-
velop. As graduation drew nearer, I did
not want to leave such an amazing organi-
zation, but I knew I was ready for a new
challenge. I applied to be a Program Em-
powerment VISTA, and now I am part of
the DREAM office!
My role as a the Program Empowerment
Kyree Wobbrock: VYT A*VISTA member serving at The Collaborative (Londonderry, VT)
have spent the last 10 years of my life
volunteering locally and globally. I
spent a summer working at a Filipino
orphanage, and a few weeks in Malaysia
volunteering at a children’s hospital.
This love of serving and making my
world a better place led me to becoming
a VISTA.
This year I’ll be serving in the youth
development sector with The Collabora-
tive. The Collaborative , a non-profit
based out of Londonderry and the sur-
rounding mountain Communities, is a
substance abuse prevention coalition
primarily targeting youth. My year of
service will promote the VISTA mission
of, “building capacity in non-profit or-
ganizations and communities to help
bring individuals and communities out
of poverty,” by providing low cost or
free activities for youth and community
members to participate in.
I’m creating and enacting a mentoring
program matching at-risk youth with
community members, benefiting the
youth, adults, and even the community.
A connected community is a strong
community. Our afterschool program
provides parents with a safe and afford-
Hello! My name is Kyree Wobbrock and I
hail from New Richland, MN. I graduated
in 2010 from Winona State University
with a degree in Sociology and Studio Art.
Winona, MN looks a lot like Vermont and
so it’s relatively been an easy transition to
life in Vermont. As an avid nature enthusi-
ast I love to spend ridiculous amounts of
time outdoors, which is another great thing
about Vermont, and all that it has to offer.
When I’m not outside I enjoy sculpting,
painting, working with clay, or spending
time with my nephew and niece.
This is my first year of service as a
VISTA, but my 2nd year of service
through AmeriCorps. Initially, by the age
of 25 I thought I’d have a career, but two
years out of college found me having spent
one year serving at a great non-profit
called Open Arms of MN through Ameri-
Corps, and the other year waitressing and
working at a group home. Despite being
an extremely social person, I really dis-
liked waitressing, and though I really cared
for the people at the group home, I didn’t
like the hours or the pay scale. One day I
was analyzing my life and decided that I
might as well take a year and do some-
thing I enjoy and give back at the same
time. I’ve always loved to volunteer and
VISTA is to provide
support and training
for the college students and to help
them be effective mentors. DREAM
mentors have an amazing amount of
ownership over the planning and exe-
cution of their weekly programming,
and I offer resources, answer ques-tions, and handle paperwork. I work
with the mentors to ensure that their
programs dream bigger and better.
able place for their children to be while
the parents finish up their workday. When
I’m not getting programs up and running,
I’m working on grant writing and re-
source gathering to keep my organization
funded and supplied. When children have
a safe caring environment to be in, it
makes it easier on the parents to work a
full or longer shift, or in some cases even
a second job like most of the Vermonters
I’ve encountered in southern Vermont.
Parents are really thankful for the year-
round programming we offer, and incen-
tives, such as the Refuse to Use ski, skate,
and ride program, for the youth who com-
mit to being substance free.
P A G E 1 7 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E
Kyree with a
pumpkin
from The
Collabo-rative
commu-
nity gar-
DREAM staff
Ali Siegel: VYT A*VISTA member serving at The DREAM Program (Bennington, VT)
P A G E 1 8
“If you want to help, clean their
bathrooms.” A brilliant professor of
mine in college shared this advice
with me, and it has made an indeli-
ble impression on my choices. This
is my second year of national ser-
vice, a year I never intended to take.
My family has lived in Hartland,
Vermont since its founding and few
members have left the state. I histori-
cally viewed Vermont as a place to
escape from. So de-
termined to flee, in
fact, that I was set on
international service;
I even had a place-
ment and a departure
date. Yet, the thought
of international ser-
vice left me feeling
uncomfortable, as I
would be entering
service as a novice to
my trade and to life
with little to share
besides language
incompetence and
cultural clumsiness. I would
be spending my two years of interna-
tional service learning the language,
customs and beliefs and wouldn’t be
competent enough to be useful until
it was time to leave.
It was at this time that I remembered
the words of my college professor,
“if you want to help, clean their
bathrooms.” Meaning, to serve most
effectively, do so where you know
what it is like to live there or stand
back. If a grassroots organization
abroad is getting on its feet, rather
than coming in and helping with the
planning as an outsider, clean their
bathrooms so that their time can be
spent on developing the organization
their way.
While I decided that international
service was not for me, I still was
not ready to return home to Ver-
mont. I wanted to stay in Arizona
where I was serving or go to Colo-
rado, Alaska, anywhere but Ver-
mont. In talking with one of my
roommates from my previous year of
service, Conor, about the next phase of
my life, he reminded me of what my
professor had shared and asked me, “Is
moving to Colorado or Alaska any dif-
ferent than going to Africa? You don’t
know what it’s like to live there either.”
For me, he was right. I will never be
from Ecuador or Cameroon, Colorado,
or Alaska. I am a Vermonter and I
know what it’s like to live there. I have
experienced the systemic changes made
to children’s health care, academic re-
quirements, and budget cuts because I
lived them.
Visiting the AmeriCorps website illus-
trated for me some of the work I could
be doing in Vermont to change the is-
sues that rattled me growing up, and I
took the invitation. I am currently the
VYT AmeriCorps VISTA member at
the Vermont Department for Children
and Families, Family Services Division
in the Planning, Policy and Perform-
ance Unit.
As the A*VISTA member in this unit, I
collaborate with statewide district di-
rectors, state employees, an policy
makers to create and or update policies
and practice guidance for youth and
families, particularly youth in state
custody (foster care). These polices
and practice guidance are a part of the
Family Services Division Practice
Model, which provides structure to
practice and policy while intentionally
refocusing structural changes to priori-
tize the children and families who
will experience their outcomes.
Current projects I am working on
include, a screening process for
social worker employment selec-
tions, credit report acquisition for
youth in custody, best practice
guidelines for field social work-
ers, and new guidance on engag-
ing fathers. Developing and fi-
nalizing policy and practice guid-
ance, like these, builds capacity
within the Fam-
ily Services
Division by
providing means
to cohesive,
value-driven
service delivery
along with a
system for en-
suring the future
safety, well-
being, and per-
manence of Ver-
mont’s youth.
The mission of
the Corporation for Na-
tional and Community Service
(the agency overseeing
A*VISTA) is to “improve lives,
strengthen communities, and
foster civic engagement through
service and volunteering.” As the
A*VISTA member at the Ver-
mont Department for Children
and Families, Family Services
Division, I am not only improv-
ing lives and strengthening com-
munities, but—as I learned from
my college professor and re-
minded of by roommate,
Conor—I am fittingly, improving
my life and strengthening my
community.
Preview of the Department for Children and Families website
Lillian Shields: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Vermont Department for Children and Families, Family Services Division (Essex, VT)
I’ve
had
many
jobs,
the latest
being
an
Eng-
lish teacher on the Pine Ridge Indian Res-
ervation in South Dakota. It was one of
the most powerful experiences in my life
because I learned more about the things
young people deal with that no one,
young or old, should have to face, like
multiple suicides or witnessing your
grandparents’ murder.
While I love teaching, I’ve come to know
that before a young person can learn, their
basic needs must be met. Why would any-
one want to learn Shakespeare when they’re worried about their friends and
family? And even though I’ve come to
this conclusion through my experience as
a teacher, I’m still learning and still in
awe of the strength and determination
youth display. That’s why I wanted to
serve with the Youth Development Pro-
gram. In this position, I get to help Ver-mont’s youth who are in foster care have
a more positive experience caught up in a
system that doesn’t know them as people.
I serve as the adult partner in the Youth
Development Committee, which
“provides a forum for empowering youth
voice as key change agents in improving
the Vermont Child Welfare System.”
The child welfare system is not something
that I have experience with, but the more I
learn about it, the more motivated I am to
help youth think about how to strengthen
the system. I am inspired by their ability
to discuss issues with the Department for
Children and Families Commissioner and
ask questions about policies affecting
Katherine Trahan: VYT A*VISTA member serving at Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile (Swanton, VT)
addressing the needs of the local
community. One area that needs im-
provement is the availability and ac-
cessibility of literature in rural areas
with limited public transportation.
This is the problem that the Bookmo-
bile is designed to help alleviate. It
As a native Vermonter from Franklin
County I remember always wanting to
take a peek inside the FGI Bookmobile
as I watched it drive by. Now, as
an AmeriCorps VISTA, I have the
privilege of serving inside and
behind the scenes of the Bookmo-
bile. Much to my delight, it is ex-
actly what one would expect: a
bus that's full of books. My goal
as a VISTA is to maintain and
create new fundraising strategies
so that the Bookmobile can sustain
and expand its level of outreach.
To put it simply, I want more kids
reading more books.
What drew me to becoming a VISTA
was the chance to volunteer with the
FGI Bookmobile. My ambition was not
just to have a job at the Bookmobile,
but to serve. By giving my time and
skills to support the Bookmobile I am
foster
youth. I
am excited by their ideas to make the
public aware of their experiences that
set them a part from other youth, but
also their desire to show that they’re
just like everyone else, full of mis-
takes and potential.
It’s a joy to help VISTA fulfill its
mission of eradicating poverty.
Through the Youth Development
Program, I encourage youth to take
advantage of the resources available
to them, to become educated, healthy,
and safe. And, with their help, I hope
to become a better teacher by making
more human connections. I also hope
that the more I work with teenagers
and young adults in a variety of set-
tings, the more prepared I’ll be when
my own son reaches that age. Al-
though, I feel like I’m getting to a
slow start in making change, I am
looking forward to looking back on a year of progress.
takes a lot of magic to make this hap-
pen so it is important to keep a positive
attitude.
As a VISTA, I’m hoping to promote
positive attitudes toward reading and
education. During my short service
time I have already encountered sev-
eral children who have told me that
“they don’t like to read,” a statement
that always perplexes me. My goal is
to think of innovative ways to encour-
age students to read and change their
minds about education. The Bookmo-
bile pairs fun with literacy so that
children will have a positive attitude
toward school. Education is power
and that power can help in transcend-
ing poverty. As a VISTA I will support
the Bookmobile so that every time a
child says they don’t like to read, the
team will see it as an opportunity for
change.
V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
The Bookmobile at a local fair
Molly Humphrey: VYT A*VISTA member serving with the Youth Development Committee (Montpelier, VT)
P A G E 1 9
Understanding Work-style Preferences
Presenter: Markey Read, Career Networks Consultant
Members learned about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator model, an
assessment designed to measure psychological preferences—how
people perceive the world and make decisions. Members learned
about their own preferences and gained a better understanding of how others approach situations and how to better work with all
types.
VYT provides VISTA members the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive professional development and
skills building training program. Members gather monthly to learn skills relevant to their service and life after
VISTA, reflect on their service experiences, give and receive peer support, strengthen professional and communica-
tion skills, and build their commitment to service.
Throughout their service terms, VYT members help build the capacity and viability of their organizations by creat-
ing curricula, recruiting volunteers, increasing funding and identifying new funding streams, and creating databases
and other sustainable organizational systems. VYT Training and Member Development is designed to help members
develop the skills needed to fulfill VISTA activities and tasks, help them find jobs after completing service, build
esprit de corps, develop community relations and support, and secure resources effective in improving community
conditions that result in ongoing poverty.
Since meeting the 2012-2013 VYT team this past August at the VYT Orientation, we have facilitated raining ses-
sions about leadership styles and work style preferences, the structure of nonprofit organizations, meeting facilita-
tion, positive youth development theory, and volunteer management strategies.
Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA Program: Professional Development & Training
Member and Supervisor Training
Facilitator: VYT Staff
This training was designed to help facilitate
good communication, professional development,
and a solid foundation for service. It focused on
preferences, perceptions, as well as the impact
that being a supervisor or a supervisee has on
communication. Participants also reviewed the
VISTA Assignment Description (VAD) and
how it supports the VISTA mission, VYT re-
quirements, and each organization’s mission.
Participants examined their leadership styles and
how to best work with those with different
styles, recognized how perceptions affect com-
munication, experienced issues from another
perspective, and brainstormed ideas for imple-
menting their VADs. VYT Members and Supervisors gather together for a workshop
on communication and leadership.
Presenter Markey Read and VYT Members
discuss Myers Briggs Type Indicator.
P A G E 2 0
Structure of Non-Profit Organizations
Presenter: Christine Graham, Consultant to Nonprofit Or-
ganizations and President of
CPG Enterprises, Inc.
Members learned about the legal requirements, structure,
and nature of non-profit organizations.
Meeting Facilitation
Presenter, Nicole Bourassa, Cope &Associates
Through discussion and interactive exercises, participants
learned how to plan effective meetings, create solid agen-
das to drive meetings, and how to employ a minute format
that empowers meeting participants to walk away with an
action plan.
Positive Youth Development
Presenter: Kreig Pinkham, Executive Director at the Wash-
ington County Youth Service Bureau/Boys and Girls Club
Members discussed the various factors that affect adolescent
development (environmental, social, biological). Members
learned how to use positive youth development theory to
improve their interactions with youth and include youth in planning and implementation of programs and services.
Mission Driven Volunteer Management
Presenters: Nicole Bourassa and Kim Steinfield, Cope &
Associates, Inc.
Participants discussed the importance of effective communi-
cation with volunteers, recognition and acknowledgement of
volunteer service, and project management when working
with volunteers. Members gained tips and skills to help them better to increase volunteer effectiveness.
Upcoming Training Topics include:
Goal Setting
Grant Writing
Difficult Conversations
Resource Development
Networking and Resume Building
VYT Members practice planning and running
an effective meeting.
P A G E 2 1 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
Kreig Pinkham talking about his experi-ence and positive youth development
VYT members Ali, Anna, Sarah, and Brian
Monthly Team Meetings
At VYT team monthly meetings, members share accomplishments and challenges, give and re-
ceive feedback, and participate in discussions about VISTA and VYT requirements. In order to
ensure that all can participate actively in discussions, the team is divided into smaller groups, each
month moving members around so that they get to interact with as many other team members as
possible. Each month, three members develop agendas, including objectives and outcomes, for
each of the small groups. They facilitated discussion on topics important to them, as well as
checking in about accomplishments and challenges.
Vermont Youth Tomorrow, Team Meetings, and AmeriShares P A G E 2 2
AmeriShare Presentations
Members are also given an opportunity to plan and lead an AmeriShare during monthly
trainings. Members gain experience in researching, planning, and facilitating a presentation for
the team on a topic of their choice.
This year, members have facilitated the following:
1] Vermont Trivia
2] Self-Care While Serving
3] Importance of Incorporating the Youth Voice in Decision-making (co-facilitated with a high
school student)
VYT Member Casey Willard shares tips about how to take
care of yourself during your service.
VYT Member Anna Finklestein and Big Picture student John dis-
cuss the importance of youth involvement in youth organizations.
P A G E 2 3 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1
VYT Member Accomplishments for
2011-2012
We are so proud of the accomplishments of the Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA members (both year-round and summer). During the program year, they accomplished the following:
Procured $522,396 in cash and in-kind donations used to create and improve programs that support low-income
youth and families
Developed 418 new funding streams
Recruited and/or managed 1,281 community volunteers, mentors, and tutors
The volunteers, mentors, and tutors gave 25,382 hours of service to communities, organizations, and youth
11,382 individual youth benefited directly from their service; another 51,233 individual youth benefited indi-
rectly from their service
Created or enhanced 83 economic opportunity activities in which 1342 individual youth benefited
Developed 257 education activities in which 4,432 individual youth benefited
Facilitated 163 environmental stewardship activities in which 1,614 individual youth benefited
Implemented 702 healthy futures activities in which 6,491 individual youth benefited
Managed 234 youth/mentor matches
Created 77 job training programs and activities benefiting 1,011 individuals
Assisted 1,368 individuals with housing and basic needs
Provided nutrition information and programs benefitting 1,576 youth and adults
Developed 296 initiatives that engaged 2,415 individuals
Led 89 service learning projects in which 1,354 of individuals participated
Implemented 28 programs that provided healthy meals for 1,479 individuals
Provided services to 1,338 family members of veterans and active duty troops
Developed 806 public relations tools that will be used to create more awareness of the services, programs, and
initiatives our members help to support.
Created or enhanced 352 operations systems to make services more efficient and effective
Collaborated with 173 community groups
Gave 88 presentations to community groups
Provided capacity-building services to 23 organizations, including 12 where three or more effective volunteer
management practices were implemented
20 organizations reported that the VISTA activities helped make the organization more efficient
20 organizations reported that VISTA activities helped make the organization more effective.
VYT Members Tony, Britt, and Drew
VYT team playing Goblins, Wizards, and Elves
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Vermont Youth Tomorrow
A*VISTA Program
PO Box 627/ 38 Elm St.
Montpelier, VT 05601-0627
Phone: 802-229-9151
Program Director: M Kadie Schaeffer
Assistant Directors: Meghan Jaird
Jessi Engelke
Callie Frey
AmeriCorps VISTA Leader Cara Melbourne
The opinions expressed in these articles in this newsletter belong to the individual writers and do not necessarily re-
flect the views of the site the VISTA serves, Vermont Youth Tomorrow, the Washington County Youth Service Bu-
reau, the Boys and Girls Club, SerVermont, or CNCS.
VYT is sponsored by the
Washington County Youth
Service Bureau/Boys and
Girls Club.