REMEMBERING GEORGE DENNISON

George Dennison, 1935-2017. Photo by Erik-Stenbakken

Earlier this month we lost George Dennison to non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Known to many of us a "President Dennison" or later, just "George" after enough years and when it didn’t feel strange or disrespectful. It’s hard to overstate the forward-thinking, future shaping work that George committed himself to. On a daily basis working for Campus Compact and with higher ed. in Montana I still feel the impact of his belief in service, civic engagement and higher education’s role in supporting American democracy, and global citizenship. The list of Dennison’s accomplishments while administering the University of Montana is too long to mention here, so I’ll focus instead on his role with Montana Campus Compact, and a few parts of his service legacy.

George, along with his colleagues from seven other Montana higher education institutions, founded Montana Campus Compact in 1993. They believed that higher education has an important role to play to shape our nation's, state's and community leaders, and that by actively engaging with community, higher education offered students opportunities to apply their learning, learn valuable skills, and address real challenges. He offered office space on the campus at UM to our fledgling Compact, and we’ve been here hosted and supported by UM for the past 20+ years. I’ve worked for Campus Compact since 2000, and I remember my first impressions of President Dennison when I started this work. He was an imposing figure, he said what was on his mind, commanded the respect of others and worked incredibly hard to position the University of Montana and Campus Compact as leaders in civic engagement work. He’s one of the few people I can think of whose presence I associate with the word gravitas. When he talked, you listened. On the other hand, it was clear he loved what he did, and he had a great smile and sense of humor.

My first job with Campus Compact was as a VISTA leader, and I served with the AmeriCorps Member Advisory Council that year. We sent our members to the Montana Commission on Community Service which George chaired, to observe the meeting and report on AmeriCorps members and VISTAs collaborative work. I remember George ran a very efficient meeting and adhered closely to Robert’s Rules.  The Commission had awarded AmeriCorps funding for about seven years at that point, and were working to branch into additional lines of business that advanced their mission. I remember that the idea of creating a service scholarship for incoming college freshmen had been percolating with the Commission for a time. George believed that Montana needed greater infrastructure for service, and volunteered to call the (then) Student Assistance Foundation, and bring a proposal to his colleagues with Campus Compact, and see what could happen.  Soon thereafter, the Youth Serve Montana scholarship was born, and 100 incoming college students who’d demonstrated active citizenship and volunteerism were receiving $1000 to advance their college studies. It was pretty impressive to witness, and to this day, that legacy lives on and each fall we work with the same partners to award 100 scholarships. Student Assistance Foundation is now called Reach Higher Montana, but otherwise we still work closely both with them and the Governor’s Office of Community Service.

That’s a small part of the legacy that George Dennison left in Montana, but an example of how easy he made it look. We will do our best to open this space for others to remember George. He was a giant in this world, and he helped shape much of the infrastructure that continues to support service, civic engagement and education in Montana.  I remember him well, and it’s humbling to get to work in a field that he helped to start in Montana. Thanks for all you did George, we miss you.

MLK JR. DAY IN MONTANA

You probably know that Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is coming and while many schools, campuses and businesses are closed, we treat it as a day of service. Here in Montana, MTCC sponsors an event called Read for Peace that was started by an MTCC VISTA named Bess Pallares several years back. Across the state, our campuses and their national service members, students, staff, faculty and volunteers work with nearby elementary schools to read about Dr. Kings, his words, ideas and legacy. After the reading, these volunteers work with kids to do either an art project or poem about Dr. King. It's really a lot of fun, and the volunteers and kids have a great time getting to know each other a little.

That brings us around to this great piece of news! Our current MTCC VISTA Leader, Sam Garetson's been on fire lately. He's organizing the read for Peace events in Missoula, and supporting our VISTAs and AmeriCorps members around Montana as they plan events. Sam recently recruited the University of Montana Men's Basketball Team to be readers for Missoula's MLK Read for Peace event. These student athletes will be reading to fifteen, third and fourth grade classrooms at Hellgate Elementary Intermediate on Monday, January 16th. We applaud them for taking time out of their days to bring the words and ideas of Dr. King to young people in Missoula.

MTCC VISTA SPOTLIGHT: SCARLETT DAY-ALEMAN IN LAME DEER

Scarlett Day-Aleman is a Compact AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Lame Deer public schools on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in southeastern Montana. What started out for Scarlett as a summer AmeriCorps placement with The Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne in Lame Deer has transitioned into a full-time position as a VISTA in the same community. Scarlett has excelled in her new role - building an after school program for the public schools, leveraging community volunteers to help with sustainable growth of the programs, and initiating a reading program for students to read to stray dogs to boost their confidence. She has also been instrumental in the success of a backpack foods program which recently received a $1000 Wal-Mart grant to continue the necessary funding of the program. Below, she explains the importance of receiving this grant and the impact the program has had for the kids, the community and herself.

Scarlett reading with a student in the Rescue Dogs Program

"The grant funds will be used to continue a weekend feeding program run by the Montana Foodbank Network called the BackPack Program. The BackPack program is an awesome program that helps alleviate chronic hunger in elementary aged students. Living on a reservation with a high percentage of people living at or below the poverty level, there is a great need for this program. It has been proven time and time again that kids cannot learn, or really even behave, while hungry because they are in survival mode. By giving them weekend food, the students are not as hungry come Monday morning. When they are not hungry, they are not in survival mode, this makes the whole day better and easier for everyone involved. 

One of the coolest things about the backpacks, from a school standpoint, is the fact that they come prepackaged. We don't have to worry about stuffing them or making sure everyone gets the same amount because the food bank does that for us! They also deliver straight to the school so I don't have to worry about how to transport 600 bags of food to the school every 6 weeks. It's also a very cheap program, with the bags only being 4 dollars a piece. That beats trying to buy food, transport it, and pack it ourselves. Another great thing is how discreet they can be. It's not a problem in Lame Deer since there's really no stigma in receiving help here, but I appreciate the fact that the food bags slip into backpacks with ease and could be easily camouflaged if kids were embarrassed to receive them.

I'm really excited to get this grant, and donation money from people back home, to continue this program. It is probably the most important thing I do here and I believe it leaves the biggest impact on the kids. There are also kids who rely on this program and are getting important nutrition from it. It has also proven to be a good way to get the older kids involved with service. Sixth graders and the special education kids love helping pack boxes and delivering them to the teachers. It's just great to see students helping fellow students out even if it's something as minimal as placing a plastic bag in a cardboard box. It helps inspire a sense of community that the kids would not get in any other way. It also gives me a reminder every week of why I do what I do."
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Thank you Scarlett, for your continued mindful support of the Lame Deer community and especially its youth.

LIFE AFTER VISTA: DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

Sara Feilzer is an MTCC VISTA Alum currently working for Exploration Works in Helena, MT. Her passion for teaching science to young Montanans has been an inspiration to everyone she works with. We would like to highlight her past and current accomplishments and thank her for her service to Montana communities.

When and where did you serve your term as a Compact AmeriCorps VISTA?

I served from July 2015 to July 2016 in Missoula with spectrUM Discovery Area, a hands-on science center focused on encouraging the next generation of Montanans to pursue higher education and hopefully a career in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math).

What are some highlights from your year of service?

One of the highlights of my year of service was helping to plan a massive gala fundraiser for my organization which brought in over $50,000. It was incredible to see all of the people in the community that came together to support spectrUM and allow us to continue to serve Montana and its families. I also helped build infrastructure for a summer camp program and was able to see firsthand the impact that my service had on students of all social and economic backgrounds.

How did your service impact your life?

My year of service was an eye-opening experience for me personally and professionally. I had a great deal of hardship during my time with spectrUM and MTCC, but because of those experiences, I was able to learn so much more about myself and how I handle successes, setbacks and failures. It also was such an incredible experience to be serving with other service-minded individuals and watching their passions for civic engagement grow and change throughout our term of service. I met some amazing people doing incredible work through MTCC, and I am extremely proud to call them friends. I was lucky enough to serve in the community that I grew up in, with the organization that I fell in love with in high school. Through my term of service though, I was exposed to so much more, and the opportunity to do so much more to engage and give back to my community.

Where are you now and in what way are you still involved with civic engagement?

Currently I am the Community Education and Outreach Director for ExplorationWorks, a hands-on science center in Helena, Montana. My focus is on engaging the public in informal STEM education and hopefully sparking a lifelong passion for science. I lead programming geared for kids as young as 2, all the way to adults, hopefully encouraging them to look at their world a little differently. I am also going to start volunteering with the wildlife education center at Montana WILD in January, which I am super excited about,  and I also serve on the Board of Directors for Animal Wonders, an organization that takes in displaced exotic animals, gives them a forever home, and turns them into ambassadors for their species.

Any additional thoughts on your current passions for community service?

I think that civic engagement is one of the most important things we can do for our community. When we serve our neighbors, friends, family, we create a safer and more welcoming place for all. I would love to see every person engaged in their community and helping to pass on their passion and knowledge to the next generation.

BITTERROOT COLLEGE HOSTS COMMUNITY FORUM

Several staff members from MTCC's Network Office spent an inspiring day in Hamilton, Montana with an inspiring crew of folks like Tim Peterson from Bitterroot Collective Impact, Dan Griffin from the Valley Veterans Service Center, Allen Bjergo from the Bitter Root Resource Conservation and Development Area, and Roch Turner and Kate Johnson from Bitterroot College. Kate's serving her second term as an AmeriCorps VISTA and helped organize the conference, and Roch's an MTCC VISTA alum.

At the conference we heard from dedicated leaders like Susan Hay Patrick from the United Way of Missoula County, Deb Halliday from the Office of Public Instruction and Graduation Matters, and so many inspiring Bitterrooters, seeking to meaningful change in their communities. Our staff faciliated sessions on National Service and grant writing, and we came back with a huge charge to do good work! Thanks for inspiring us, Roch, Kate and the rest of the awesome Bitterrooters who attended and participated! This was as good and example of higher ed advancing its public purposes as we can imagine. Good work, Bitterroot College.

CREATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING SUPPORTING YOUNG MOTHERS

Carly Hosford-Israel began her MTCC VISTA service with Fort Peck Community College and Poplar Schools in July of 2016. Within the past three months, Carly's vision and determination to empower students and individuals for educational attainment has been outstanding and with no lack of regular ups and downs. Carly has demonstrated resilience and a wide range of capabilities to support her VISTA service term. The creative freedom and capacity building elements AmeriCorps VISTA provides can be daunting, however for Carly it has been an open invitation to tackle some long standing issues facing the Poplar community and to make big positive changes there. 

Below we highlight an initiative begun by Carly to improve the solidarity and community around young mothers through the use of an online open forum called Dear Young Mothers (DYM). Please take some time to read about her work this initiative and to show support for young mothers community by visiting the DYM Website and sharing with appropriate parties.

What led you to the development of this resource?

I work in a high school with a handful of soon-to-be student mothers. From my own life history I know what can go wrong in young motherhood, I also know young motherhood isn’t solely limited to missteps and mistakes. I know we all hold wisdom founded in and directly from our lived experience. 

Why is the mental and physical health of young mothers so important?

I know a lot of former young mothers are likely now older mothers and grandmothers. I've conceptualized a virtual community space to host inter-generational sharing of wisdom between current and former young mothers. It is called DYM (Dear Young Mother). It hopes to be an archive of letters in support and solidarity that all sustainable parenting requires. I personally know that in sharing with elders and others I have been able to better advocate for and orient myself. 

What cultural and economic roadblocks to empowering women have you experienced in your VISTA position thus far?

As a VISTA serving in a high school and tribal college setting it is unnerving to watch students drop out of education as a democratic responsibility and timeless personal pursuit. I think much of this disengagement is connected to students' life stresses outside of school as well as the disconnect between classroom lessons and lived experience. It is my hope that DYM becomes a platform to directly confront and combat those barriers to continued education and empowerment.  

What do you hope is accomplished through the DYM initiative?

Healthy, educated, and well supported motherhood is essential to the well being of our communities and country. It is the conduit through which we all become a part of, and learn ways in which to take part in, this world. I am writing to ask for your help in securing letters to young mothers at my high school and beyond, who themselves have excitedly reviewed the idea and are looking forward to a trove of: best practices, refuge, encouragement, courage, and teachable moments. I am asking you, and anyone you might think to forward this along to, to take a few moments to reflect on how you can contribute to a system of support for a group of cyclically undeserved women and their children. Thank you. 

MILESTONE: ONE MILLION AMERICORPS MEMBERS!

We're excited to have been a part of the now 1,000,000 Americans who have served with AmeriCorps over its 21 years. We started here, in Montana as AmeriCorps began with a student engagement program called Campus Corps, moved on to support literacy with Montana Reads, and worked with our Colorado partners with the UCAN Serve program, our Washington friends with Students In Service, and Mountain West with the Compact Service Corps. Now we run a program that's just called MTCC AmeriCorps, and we focus on high school graduation, postsecondary access and college completion. Over those past twenty or so years we've engaged several thousand members, tens of thousands of volunteers, and helped improve reading, math and college-going rates for our state. We have alums who served with Compact AmeriCorps programs who are in the governor's office, state legislature, private and nonprofit sectors and federal government and we hear from them regularly about what a difference their service made in who they are today. We're deeply proud to be the education part of a great broader community working with conservation, clean energy, access to nutritious food, quality legal support and antipoverty work. Every day we appreciate our friends with Montana Conservation Corps, Prevention Resource Center, Montana No Kid Hungry, Legal Services Association, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Montana State Parks and more. We also get great support from the Governor's Office of Community Service and Montana Commission for Community Service. What a milestone! Congratulations, Alums, partners and campuses!