Inspiration is Closer Than You Think

By Isabel Huston, corps member serving on the CSX Team at Turner Elementary


Alice Carter Huston is a fiercely strong, passionate, driven and dedicated woman. Among the many hats she has worn are teacher, single mother, entrepreneur, personal trainer, and town council woman. She is a person who deserves the utmost love and respect. But in my teenage years she was just my mother: a person who I took for granted only until she told me I couldn’t do something; in which case I just didn’t like her very much.

Isabel Huston and Her Mom

My mother is very strongly opinionated, and also very invested in all that she loves.
 So around the time that I was headed to High School she became frustrated with the way that our small New Jersey town was being managed. Not content to sit around and complain,she decided to run for the Hopewell Borough Council.
My mother sat on the Borough Council for two terms. In that time she helped secure 300 acres of undeveloped land as dedicated open space (land that cannot be developed) and revamped Hopewell’s Recreation Department; creating programs that offered our community opportunities to come together and become closer. To paraphrase the Americorps pledge, she gets things done.

   Without even realizing it, I grew up with an incredibly strong role model who is dedicated to civil service and taking action.

Now in my twenties, I am old enough to appreciate the subtle and unconscious inspiration that comes from consistent and unconditional love. I have always aspired to have the strength to do the right thing and leave a legacy of positive change. It is this aspiration that ultimately led me to apply for City Year.

That and a million panicked phone calls with my mother who, steadfastly encouraged me to keep it simple and follow my heart. Now I know that that all the inspiration I needed to join City Year DC came from the person who has sat across from me at the dinner table all of my life.

Inspiration is always closer than you think. Who inspires you?



City Year Corps Members at DC Youth Council

Check out this post from Susie's Budget and Policy Corner about City Year Washington DC Corps Member's Testimony at the December Youth Council Hearing in Washington, DC. Corps Members really enjoyed sharing their stories and the successes of City Year Washington, DC with DC Council Chairman  Vince Gray.

To watch the full hearing Click HERE

WHY I SERVE

By Gabby Fish, Corps Member serving at Stanton Elementary School

Friday was the last day at school before winter break. We are now about to embark on our winter break and two whole weeks not at school. Two Whole Weeks…

Two whole weeks without getting my own personal morning greeting from my favorite four year olds who I work with in after school

Two whole weeks without getting the tightest toughest hugs from my students, the ones where he never wants to let go

Two whole weeks without students telling me on a Monday morning he can’t wait to write about what he did this weekend, and he can’t wait for me to read it

Two whole weeks without students and I sitting down with a whiteboard and two markers learning to recognize numbers

Two whole weeks without students following me around the school and me begging her to go back to class

Two whole weeks without taking a child up to the Dean’s Office, breaking up a fight, or bringing a class out to recess

Two whole weeks without a lunch club, without aftercare, without ‘Breakfast for the Brain,’ without math and literacy blocks, without my favorite teachers

Two whole weeks without “I love you Miss Gabby”

Two whole weeks without my team.

I should be looking forward to a break, right? But thinking about two weeks outside of City Year, I know now more than ever why I serve.

I serve because of the students whom I love, whose futures I am impacting in ways I can only imagine. I serve because I know one day my first graders will really be the Class of 2026, college graduates and future leaders of their communities. I serve because, even with all the ups and downs and everywhere in between, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

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Ripples

by Jenna Lykes, Corps Member serving on the CSX Civic Heroes Team

"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of these events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. . . .It is from numberless diverse acts of courage . . . [and] ... belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

- Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation Address

University of Capetown
Capetown, South Africa
June 6, 1966

Every morning, in our first circles, we have the opportunity to share either a "joy" or a "ripple" with our team. A "joy" is simply something that made you happy, while a "ripple" is an example of an action or service that has reached other people.

I had an awesome ripple recently. We painted college logos at Hart Middle School on December 4th for our service day. I spent some time there touching up and finishing murals. I was working on the Harvard University mural during the school day when a student came up and poked me. She thanked me for painting Harvard, her future school, on the wall. She told me all about her career plans and the books she was reading outside of class. It is always a wonderful reminder that the ripples we send forth day after day are helping to build a wave of change.

For a complete list of City Year Founding Stories Click Here

Putting Idealism to Work # 96

By Lauren McDade, Corps Member serving at Springarn High School

Choosing just one way of “Putting Idealism to Work” is challenging. Like good quotes, there are many PITWs I could count as my favorites. If I have to narrow it down to one that encapsulates my motivation and drive within City Year though, the top spot has to go to PITW #96, “Civic Engagement, Not Traditional Politics, Is City Year’s Vehicle for Change.”

In May 2010 I graduated from Towson University with a BA in Political Science and as an undergraduate I did everything from canvass for a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates to frequent DC more for political protests than sight-seeing. By junior year I was growing weary of the ways one is usually engaged in politics and was first introduced to the concept of “civic engagement,” or individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern, in an elective class for my major. From that point on I decided to channel my love of politics into civic engagement rather than traditional partisan politics.

I had already decided I wanted to do a year of service after I graduated when I first learned about City Year. I was visiting Boston when a red jacket on the train caught my eye and through the magic of Google I found myself quickly enamored with an organization who’s mission was to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership, and social entrepreneurship. This in addition to City Year’s unique focus on education, the policy area that I had already decided to focus my career on, and I knew I had found my match.

I began my foray into political science with my sights set on the hallowed halls of the Capitol Rotunda and views of the Washington Monument. Now I spend my days debating the merits of healthier cafeteria food with my 9th graders who have little use for the national politicking in their hometown outside of how it effects what they’re having for lunch that day. Though my interest in more traditional forms of politics hasn’t gone away, I’m grateful that my service year has already shown me how I can be engaged while being focused around politics for people rather than just politics for sport.

Get to Know Paiyal Patel

By Bredan Ori, Corps Member Serving at Kimball Elementary

Paiyel (top row, second from left) with her City Year Team

Paiyal Patel is a 24-year old graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana but hails from Gabarone, Botswana. She double majored in Dietetics and Speech and Hearing Sciences. She wears her PU pride on her sleeve and has been known to holler “Boiler Up!” at very inappropriate times. She now serves on the City Year Washington, DC Kimball Elementary Team. In her non-City Year time, she likes to read up on her passion- Speech Impediments, play tennis, and take boxing lessons. Yes, I said box. She once knocked out her trainer with a mean uppercut during a training session!

As I mentioned earlier, Paiyal hails from Botswana, a small country just north of South Africa. Hearing her talk about Africa makes you want to visit there so bad! She talks about the beautiful skies, the delicious fresh prickly pears, and her common interaction with giraffes. She never appreciated the natural beauty of her country until she moved to the United States, and while she does not always express it, you can definitely feel that she misses home.

I recently asked her about why she chooses to serve, a common theme among deep City Year conversations. Once again, you can see her mind travel back to Africa.

“ I moved from the United States to Botswana, two very different worlds. I think that this gave me a sort of grounding that I would never exchange for anything. Growing up in Botswana, the issues of HIV and Aids surrounded me, and I saw the importance of education in helping to reduce the epidemic. I saw the poor public education system, and how many children were being left behind. I always felt privileged to have the opportunity of world-class education, and I never understood the large gap between those who received it and those that didn't. When I moved to America, it surprised me to see that the same issues were prevalent. Through college, while volunteering in my community, I saw how these problems were affecting our country. This is when I decided to turn on my “justice nerves.” I hadn’t been proactive enough to help within my community back home, so for me, it was a rude awakening that if I didn’t do anything now, time would slip away, and I wouldn’t have done anything to be part of the solution.”

City Year Washington DC Shares HOPE

By Erica Obebe, Corps Member serving on the the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HOPE Team

The startling statistic that, among people who have been tested, 1 in 20 are living with HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC is a daily motivation for me to serve. I proudly serve on the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HIV/AIDS Outreach Prevention Education or HOPE team.

The CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HOPE Team

The HOPE team presents a CDC-approved 8 to 10 hour module curriculum to middle and high school students in DC Public Schools. Our presentations provide engaging activities, videos, and demonstrations that without a doubt maintain the attention of students and enable them to make proud choices. Though this is our primary task, we also learn about the disparities that people living with HIV/AIDS face in Washington, DC through various opportunities. The HOPE team performs outreach after school several times per week by distributing safer sex kits, provides supporting services at HIV/AIDS advocacy and community building organizations and attends conferences focused on awareness of resources in the community. Additionally, the HOPE team facilitates conversations among adolescents around sexual health and relationships during Visionary Youth Becoming Empowered (VYBE) sessions in partnership with Metro Teen AIDS.

 On December 1, 2010 we particpated in the 23annual World AIDS Day. Each year the theme reflects an issue to be acknowledged concerning prevention of the growing epidemic; the theme of 2010 is “Universal Access and Human Rights”.


Last Friday in our own extention of World AIDS Day, The CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HOPE Team hosted a Leadership Development day for the Corps, in order to educated our fellow Corps Members on HIV, how it is transmitted and how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

The day began with an interesting version of the "transmission game" where corps demonstrated the spread of HIV and other STIs through an activity where all participants signed and exchanged cards until music stopped playing to simulate how quickly the disease can spread. The HOPE Team then presented to the Corps on the importance of Testing and the HIV epidemic in DC, followed by some fun activities that helped to ensure everyones was aware of ways to protect themselves. During the lunch hour, free HIV testing was available and a bake sale which raised more than $200.00 for the hospice center Joseph’s House.

The day was brought to a close by a presentation from some very knowledgeable and exciting presenters including representatives from The Women’s Collective,  La Clinica del Pueblo and and Joseph’s House who shared creative methods to practice safe sex.

Overall, the day was huge success thanks to our exciting guests, generous sponsors, attentive audience and the diligent planning of the HOPE team!

Get to Know Gagen (Megan) Verma

Megan Verma (Right) and Teammate

Hometown: Bhiwani, India and New York, NY



Education: Barnard College, Columbia University: BA in Biochemistry and pre-medicine, May 2008



What team are you on and what do you do?
I proudly serve on the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HIV/AIDS Outreach, Prevention and  Education Team, also known as the HOPE team. I work with my team to deliver HIV/AIDS prevention education to middle and high schools throughout DC. We also collaborate with community organisations that provide HIV/AIDS related services to DC residents through our internship sites; I work with two other teammates at Housing Works.



Why did you join City Year and why do you serve?
After college, I worked as a corporate paralegal for two years. While it was a great learning experience, I chose to serve with City Year mainly to work with young people in under-served communities. I'm hoping my service year will provide me with focus and direction so I can continue this kind of work in my legal career.



What are you most excited about this year?
Partnering with Metro Teen Aids! It's a great organization that focuses solely on providing support for youth in the DC area.



What were you most nervous about this year?
Discovering that middle school is as awkward as I remember.



What is something most people don’t know about you and wouldn’t guess?
I learned how to milk a water buffalo from my mom, who grew up with one in Punjab.

City Year In the News

Are you looking for a good read?

Check out these articles highlighting all of the great work that City Year has been doing in schools and communities across the nation:

• City Year and the Diplomas Now program were featured on the CBS Evening News.

• Learn more about Building a Grad Nation and the Civic Marshall Plan in the Huffington Post article by City Year, Inc. Trustee and CEO of Civic Enterprises John Bridgeland and Robert Balfanz, Co-Director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

• An Education Week article highlighting the role of City Year and Diplomas Now in solving the dropout crisis.