Released April 27, 2009
AMES, Iowa – With college graduation looming and a questionable job market ahead, what was an art major to do? Mickey Hampton decided to try AmeriCorps.
“I was worried that as an art major, I didn’t know what I would be qualified to do,” Hampton said. “[AmeriCorps] seemed like a great opportunity to continue to develop some skills that would put me in a better position to get a job after that year of experience.”
That was 10 years ago, when she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with United Action for Youth (UAY) in Iowa City. Today she is a youth development counselor with UAY.
“It’s a great combination of my art background and my interest in working with people,” Hampton said.
“When I was doing AmeriCorps, I had no idea that 10 years later I would be working for the agency that I served that first year,” she continued. “AmeriCorps gave me opportunities that I had no idea that I would have.”
UAY is a nonprofit youth center, Hampton explained. “We provide a large range of services, all free, to youth age 12 to 18 and their families.”
Those services include counseling, a teen parent program and a street outreach program and transitional living for homeless youth. UAY also focuses on the arts, with an art studio, recording studio and theater group, Hampton said.
“The youth center is a drop-in center aimed at providing a safe and healthy place for kids to hang out and explore the arts,” she said. “We encourage young people to get involved in the arts as a way of developing their skills and interests and staying out of trouble.”
An AmeriCorps experience at UAY led Mandy Maass to employment as well.
“At the end of my term I was offered a full-time job because they liked what I’d done as an AmeriCorps volunteer,” Maass said. She now is a youth development specialist at UAY.
Maass was part of the Iowa AmeriCorps State of Promise program hosted by Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development in collaboration with Iowa’s Promise and the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service. These AmeriCorps members serve with youth development programs in communities across the state. Membership is open to U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents age 17 and older.
“The program encourages people to be involved and helps them accomplish things for their communities,” said Judy McCarthy, ISU Extension’s director for the program. “AmeriCorps members help solve problems, bring communities together and set an example of caring and community spirit that America needs.”
Annie Berendes’ AmeriCorps experience prepared her to start her own company, Grant Source, based in La Crosse, Wis. As an AmeriCorps member, she led a youth philanthropy initiative for the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque.
“I gained so much, in terms of business skills, critical thinking, all about how to organize an initiative — it was incredible,” Berendes said. Her AmeriCorps experience was “the best job training I ever had.”
Young people should “definitely” consider AmeriCorps as a first step when they leave college, Hampton said. “It’s a great way to spend a year, providing service to your community and bulking up your resumé. It’s a practical way of continuing your education while helping you pay off school loans.”
And besides, she added, “You have no idea how it will impact your life and what it could lead to 10 years down the road.”
AmeriCorps Week is May 9-16. Learn more at http://www.americorpsweek.gov/.
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http://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2009/apr/122703.htm
Contacts: Judy McCarthy, (515) 294-1611, mccarthy@iastate.edu
Laura Sternweis, (515) 294-0775, lsternwe@iastate.edu
