THE HEART OF SERVICE BY LONI NEILSON-KATTELL

      Sometimes the best thing that you can do is step back and look at the heart of the matter. Coming to the close of my service, taking a step back and remembering my original intentions for the project was something I wish I would have done more throughout my service. I know that all too often I get overwhelmed from all that is going on in the world and taking a deep breath to stay in the moment is the bravest thing anyone can do. Having a consistent reminder to view others through the strengths-based perspective and use the theory of change to inform my service is the foundation that holds space for the work. This reminder is a challenge all in itself! However, I quickly learned how reframing my mindset with these two tools set the tone for the youth programs I was serving with EmpowerMT.
     Our Youth programs here at EmpowerMT are geared toward providing a safe space to the most vulnerable populations in our community. Within this space, the youth build relationships with peers and adults through open non-judgmental dialogue, transforming conflict, learning how social groups experience mistreatment and develop their skills as youth leaders in action. All of these skills are backed by our partnership with Hello Insight and the Aspen Institute through Social and Emotional Learning. Incorporating theory, service learning, SEL capacities, and EmpowerMT’s mission into the work has been a very impactful experience on a personal and professional level.
       Not only did I have the opportunity to learn about this curriculum and work with an amazing youth team staff, but I also facilitated the curriculum with the groups and watched the youth explore their curiosities, listened as they told their stories, and affirmed their experiences and leadership skills. The social and emotional wellbeing of our youth is a topic that often gets overlooked in comparison to academics. I’m a firm believer that Academic self-efficacy is as essential as a positive identity, contribution to the community at large, social skills with others, and critical consciousness of our systems. Working with EmpowerMT and youth programs have been a tremendous process to explore. My service term with MTCC has also allowed me to find my heart within the work and know what it’s like to give back, feel a sense of belonging, and love service.
     Throughout the entire process, I’ve had to remind myself that I will most likely not see the impact of my service. However, this work is still essential. Serving your community matters. One quote that often brings a new perspective during my time of service is from MLK Jr. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I have faith that I am probably at the beginning of something truly amazing and don’t even know it yet. I can’t wait to see how the youth leaders that I have the pleasure to serve with will shape the future impact and make our communities safer and more inclusive for all.

DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US: THE POWER OF TEEN GIRLS BY CLARA MOSER

GUTS campers and Clara at the summit of their hike to Blossom Lake

This summer I had the opportunity to continue my work with the YWCA’s GUTS (Girls Using Their Strength) program as a Summer Adventure Leader. On the Summer Adventure trips middle and high-school aged girls and gender diverse youth explore the backcountry of Montana on week-long backpacking trips. During the trips participants engage in activities that delve into issues around body image, healthy relationships, gender identity, sexuality, and activism. The goal of these trips are not only to provide participants with a basic knowledge of backpacking, but also to develop leadership skills and social-emotional well being in an active and supportive environment.

Last week, I served as a leader on a seven day backpacking trip with ten high-school aged girls on the Flathead Reservation.
That’s right -- seven whole days in the backcountry with ten teenagers and no showers, no toilets, and no cell phone service for miles.
The trip was a reminder of my own capacity to grow and learn, and of the power I sometimes forget that I house in my legs, arms, and heart. A power that allows me to haul heavy loads up mountains while singing and laughing, and to connect with girls ten years younger than myself.
I knew already that teenage girls are powerhouses of creativity, empathy, and unabashed joy, but this trip reminded me of the power and strength that can be found in the goofiness of girlhood and in close-knit bonds that young people form with one another.
Whether it comes from cracking each other up over the dinner of beans and rice that made everyone run off into the woods to poop IMMEDIATELY, or from stopping during a challenging hike to support a group member who is panicked and out of breath, these girls put their whole selves into creating a momentary family of support and love.
On our van rides to new locations  I acted as the DJ; fielding requests for every kind of music under the sun-- from Disney’s “Tangled” to (yes, you guessed it) Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and, at my insistence, a very important group introduction to  TLC and Destiny’s Child.
Each night we gathered in a closing circle to discuss the trials and triumphs of the day. The girls had “courage beads” that they could give to one other group member to show their appreciation for something that happened over the course of the day. During these evening circles I was amazed by the vulnerability each girl would show in their willingness to discuss their personal struggles. I was careful to notice if the beads were repeatedly given to the same person or used to exclude anyone, but instead they surprised me by giving “courage beads” to new people each night just for the comfort of sharing a laugh, having a good conversation, or making it through a tough day.

Our group came from a range of different economic backgrounds, various living situations and  life experiences over the course of their 14-15 years. In response to these differences the girls came together and cared for each other with tenderness, laughter, and a great sense of empathy. I had thought that a major challenge on the trip would be working with the group to bridge divisions, but the girls began that work themselves before I or the other leaders had to step in. They did not shy away from difficult conversations, but rather asked questions of one another and made a conscious effort to include everyone into all activities and conversations.

While laying in my sleeping bag one night I thought to myself, “this is what community accountability and responsibility can look like.” There were tough moments; plenty of tears and squabbles, yet a fierce dedication within the group to work through these hardships together. They made sure to check in with one another every day with attentive and open hearts.

There is something so special about that time in life right before adulthood when your emotions are raw and relationships feel especially fragile. Your relationships with others are what begin to help you make sense of yourself as an individual within a collective. I feel so fortunate to have been with these girls for a week-long journey and to have witnessed them work together through their struggles. Teen girls are a force to be reckoned with.

GUTS Leaders posing on a mountain top

LEGACY BY EVERETT WALKER

As I near the end of my first year of service, I’m looking at this paper and quite frankly I’m at a loss to capture it all.  There have been numerous things that have had an impact on me both large and small.  There have been days of questions like, “ what am I doing?” and days of breakthroughs where a small encounter helps me feel reassured that I am in the right place at the right time.

I’m late writing this mostly because of all the summer activities that have been happening at the Fort.  We have had two of our own summer camps, the annual 4th at the Fort even, and numerous days and multiple times per day of other area summer camps being involved with many exhibits at the Fort, I sit and look at that and think of all the lives I’ve had 1-3 hours to impact.

Most days, I spend being watchful, caring, warm and educational.  I find myself most comfortable with the individuals dealing with some degree of autism or other learning deficiency.  They tend to be my favorite, mostly because when there is finally a breakthrough it’s such a great victory and I can share in their joy and build that bond with them.

One of my happiest moments has been in getting my new tame tag at the Fort.  It no longer says, “AmeriCorps” it says “Volunteer” a title I earned through sweat, long days and weeks, countless programs and wild days with even more wild children.  I now am finishing up the Legacy, a few more pages some touches to a few pieces here and there.  It is truly a legacy, we have built awesome partnerships, programs and ideas.  I have found new ways to bring the stories of the Fort to children that allows them to connect through art to those have been stationed here or imprisoned here.

I still believe that the service is the greatest reward but beyond that I have come to appreciate the smallest hellos, the opportunity to help someone who may not be exactly the demographic of student looking for college access.  I find a great amount of joy in the days where I can give an impromptu tour of an exhibit and open someone’s eyes.  I interpret well, I use my voice and energy to captivate the audience I use visceral words to bring the emotion right to the core of the audience.  I want them to connect to the story, I want them to feel what the people in the Bella Vista Concentration Camp felt, how the people who traveled west during the expansion, the Natives who felt such pain and anguish at the loss of culture and land.  I want them to feel Corporal Howards extreme tale of Vietnam and how it on a much larger scale than just he affected our country so deeply that we are still following policies written then.

At the museum, I have made a small home, a bag of preferred coffee in the freezer, my hot fries on the shelf, lunch in the fridge, the front desk volunteers who have met my family and I. The list goes on for how I have built such a place of belonging here.  I’ll miss the fort but I’ll be here when I can afford to be and when I can manage a second year of AmeriCorps with wanting to still be active at the Fort.  I am grateful for this experience and hopeful for what the future will bring during my next year of service with Broader Impacts.

TRANSITIONS BY NICOLE LEMASTER

As my AmeriCorps service year nears its end, I try to piece together all the new ideas and skills that I've learned and package them into just a few sentences. How do you compact a whole year’s worth of experiences into a few words? Without cutting corners and truly giving it the meaningful praise it deserves, I choose the word "transitions" to perfectly convey what this year as an AmeriCorps Leader at SpectrUM Discovery Area has meant to me.

We all transitioned into new lives when we made this commitment to serve. We left our families and our comfort zones to see new places and faces while trying to make an impact. Personally, I transitioned into a hand holding, spaceship engineering, crime detective, potion making wizard play buddy. On Wednesday I could a brain surgeon then on Friday be a computer programmer designing the next big app. SpectrUM Discovery has allowed me to wear so many hats this past year and learn so many new things, I feel that this place has a magic that not only the kids feel but the adults too. Not only in the museum with our interactive activities and playful exhibits but our traveling projects too. We somehow transform a school gym into a learning place that is disguised as a colorful play area with giant puzzle pieces, spinning chairs and rideable hovercrafts. The smiles and joys these experiences give people are immeasurable.

In between those smiles are a few logistics and, the real nitty gritty of it all. The hours of planning and organizing are what make those beautiful things happen. Our wonderful SpectrUM team make magic every day, they are the true wizards of this place.

As I embark on another transition into the unknown future, I hold back tears when thinking of leaving all the kids and people I’ve met in this mountain town. What SpectrUM and AmeriCorps has given me is more than all those smiles and good times, but a true sense of giving and what small gestures can do for a person. After this year I hope to keep with me my sense of wonder and curiosity, high regards for education for all and need to keep moving forward. On to the next transition, thank you AmeriCorps.

SPEAK UP BY ASHLEY HETTLER

I served with the International Rescue Committee during my 2018-2019 service year. In April, we received an Iraqi family of two parents and their two children who were going to be in middle school. I picked them up and drove them to their enrollment meeting at the local school district. They were excited to attend school, and were kind and attentive to the teachers and staff. They asked questions, were lighthearted and laughing, and being respectful to everyone. During the meeting, the kids were practicing their English with their ESL teacher, and their mother was trying to give them little hints to help. It was obvious how important education was to the whole family.

The next day, I picked up the family in the morning to go on a tour of the children’s middle school. There, we met with the school counselor and the ESL teacher. School tours are often overwhelming and confusing for refugees. There are people talking at you in a different language, trying to explain the whole U.S. school system to you in an hour. Between explaining school bells, lunch and recess, and how many teachers they’ll have - it’s a lot to process. Halfway through the tour, I saw the children looking around, looking a little intimidated. Some kids were walking past us, staring at them. The family stood out, being the only people of color in the school, and the mother and daughter were wearing hijabs. Yet, they continued to be polite, smile, ask questions, and say “good morning” to everyone – even to the kids that were staring.

After the school tour, the counselor was trying to explain that there was an event going on that night, and that the family should come. Understanding the overwhelming nature of school tours and language barriers, I politely tried to tell her that they wouldn’t go, and that that’s okay. After explaining their schedules and what time the students should get to the bus stop, we were ready to leave. The counselor turned to me, a few inches from my face and said “Mm, they look like troublemakers to me”.

Something I’ve worked on in my life, and that I’m continually working on, is to speak up. I wish I would’ve responded to her, asking what she meant by that. I wish I could have called her out on that statement, in that moment. I’ve replayed it in my head on how that situation could’ve gone. Instead, I was silent. I was stunned. We were on the same school tour, and I saw the family being polite, kind, and enthusiastic the entire time.

As a member of the International Rescue Committee, and as an advocate on behalf of the family, I failed them. It’s a continual process to learn how to speak up and confront issues that are, literally, in front of your face. After thoughtful conversations with peers and coworkers, I am more prepared for the next time I face a situation like that because there will be a next time.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE ACCESS BY DAYTON SMITH

During my two years of AmeriCorps service, I’ve had the pleasure of working at two unique community colleges in Montana - Salish Kootenai College in Pablo and currently Great Falls College MSU. Prior to my first service term, I was completely unfamiliar with the culture or operation of a community college as I pursued my undergraduate degrees exclusively at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Over the past two years, I’ve come to admire the opportunities available for students and professionals alike at these smaller colleges that offer primarily associate’s degrees and only a handful of bachelor’s programs. So much so that I think I may have missed out myself by not beginning my academic career at a community college.

It goes without saying that there is truly a sense of community on these campuses. Both that I’ve worked at have unique quirks but they are the same in the sense that everyone knows everyone, instructors provide drastically more intimate classroom experiences, and the chance for students to achieve individual recognition is greatly increased. Whether we’re discussing scholarship opportunities or involvement in student groups, I found that the students who seek them out benefit greatly from being on a smaller campus.

Now, my service through Montana Campus Compact is of course meant to be specific to college access. At times I found myself questioning how much my day-to-day work was addressing this objective, particularly when time had passed between my interactions with high-school seniors.

At both locations, I eventually came to realize that my service was still very much working within the college access pipeline and would often remind myself that many associate’s students still need an extra leg up to achieve their academic goals. They may need financial education, which I could provide our students at SKC on an informal, regular basis. They may need basic homework help.

In the case of my role with the Digital Design Tech Department at SKC and the Tech4Good program, my days often consisted of breaking away from traditional office work anytime a student needed words of encouragement, a helpful critique on their design work, or most importantly career pipeline advice and assistance.

Once I arrived at Great Falls College my role was working in the area of Student Activities and I had the pleasure of promoting efforts of both the student honor society as well as the student government. The dedication of the students involved blew me away and seeing some of these same students graduate with numerous accolades on their way to a traditional 4-year school once again reminded me that college access doesn’t end after high-school.

What I realized is that the concept of “college access” isn’t limited to after-school educational programs, FAFSA workshops, and scholarship application assistance. These are all important aspects of the pipeline, but in the best scenarios it goes beyond that and continues into our young careers. At this point, I’m satisfied with my decision to spend the past two years focused on service learning. As is often said, being in a leadership position gives you the opportunity to learn just as much if not more than what you teach others. For these experiences and more, I am grateful and excited to continue my career in areas that likely apply to college access in one way or another.   

WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN BY AMBER DECHAINE

I like to compare my year of service to a Grateful Dead tune. Just when you think it’s over, they keep on jammin’ on into the next verse. 

Although there has been much less of a psychoactive influence on my year of service than there might have been on a Grateful Dead song, just when I thought I was done growing and learning, I kept jammin’ on into the next verse. 

Throughout my time with the Montana Career Lab I have developed a greater understanding of career development, career theory, and why it is important to explore career development as early as pre-school. I have had hands on experience with age appropriate career activities for students at every level while developing leadership ability and self-confidence. I have had the opportunity to travel across the state and network with many wonderful organizations and agencies all promoting the success of students. 

There are so many ways in which this year of service has benefited me, I only hope that my time with the Montana Career Lab has had an impact on the students I was able to work with. 

My first partnership was with the local Student Aged Child Care (SACC), that ran afterschool programs out of all but one of Helena’s elementary schools. 

I started in two schools and was able to build strong relationships with the SACC coordinators and students. Every student in the program picked a career from our Careers Build a Community curriculum and I assisted them in exploring why they chose that career. We completed hands on activities and hosted community speakers to help them gain a better understanding of what that career entailed. 

Many of the students picked the same careers as their parents but at the end of the unit they all had an opportunity to share what they learned about their chosen career to teach their peers about other careers in their community. 

When I got the “okay” from Helena School District, I started advertising myself to the teachers by putting little handouts in their mailboxes. They must have been rather unappealing fliers or just busy teachers because I only got a response from one school- you live, and you learn. 

Within weeks I was teaching our curriculum in two first grade classrooms at Broadwater Elementary. I would say this was a breakthrough moment for my service and I was really able to get hands on with the curriculum to determine what worked and what needed improvement (of course the activities with candy were always a hit). 

If I am being completely honest, this year I discovered that I S-U-C-K, big time, at teaching. Despite my playful fantasies about having my own classroom that fosters free love and produces miniature hippies, I am much better on a 1:1 basis with students. It’s possible that I am just inexperienced or too anxious, but I can’t think of a better environment in which to learn this about myself. 

Even with my ignorance in effective teaching methods, the students were AMAZING and kind to me. They all came with different levels of knowledge, interests, thoughts, and feelings, each one as unique as a snowflake. I wanted to very carefully cultivate autonomy in every one of these students and help them explore careers that could be personally fulfilling and as unique as they are.

After each career lesson, the curriculum had the students reflect on what they learned about that career: what they liked or didn’t like, who they knew who does that career, or where in the community they might find that career. The very last day the students were able to pick the career they liked best and make a career puppet and a booklet out of their reflection pages. 

The curriculum includes a final community day where students can choose their careers and host a reverse career fair. They can decorate a business front and invite their family and community members to stop by their “business” to learn about their career. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, I couldn’t host a community day with any of my groups. I am holding our future AmeriCorps Leader accountable to invite me to any community days he achieves! 

I can’t say that the students I’ve worked with will remember our 45 minutes a week when they are heading off to college, but at least I can leave my service knowing that I gave them an opportunity to explore careers they might not have thought of before, and that I’ve planted the seed for their “Sugar Magnolia” trees to blossom.  

 “Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” -Grateful Dead