Alexandra Ellison waits to speak at a UNR Campus Breakfast about student service and service-learning.
Our guest blogger, Alexandra Ellison, has been one of two Nevada Volunteers’ AmeriCorps VISTAs this past year. She has been a passionate advocate of service on the UNR campus in Reno, working through the Honors Program to promote service and service-learning. Her many high-powered initiatives, including a student-faculty poetry project at the local homeless shelter, earned her the distinction of being the Nevada AmeriCorps VISTA of the year. Here is her reflection on what her VISTA service has meant to her:
The past year as a VISTA, working on the UNR campus and promoting service initiatives, has truly taught me more than I could have ever expected.
Convinced that I would go right to graduate school after graduating from Northwestern, I was nervous about taking a year off. But the “year off” has proven to be a year in full speed, filled with opportunities that graduate school would not have presented to me. So fast-paced was this year, that I fear, even now, I am not quite ready to hit the books again. Rather, I am hooked to community engagement, conversations with faculty and students, and working in the belly of what has become the education beast. (more…)
Despite all the economic reports and educational cuts, I feel like Las Vegas is a great place to be. Maybe I’m only talking to the most positive of community members, but I truly feel that great things are happening here. In the past year, I’ve only met people–busy with work and personal commitments—who attempt to bring positivity to everyone they meet and everything they do. I was talking to a woman at a networking event recently and explained my theory that the people who are here are the ones who didn’t flee when times got tough, and they are ready to put in the effort to bring this community back to life. She actually agreed, which surprised me because she doesn’t even work with nonprofits. I didn’t know that others felt this way. (more…)
My VISTA journey is almost done and something wonderful has happened. I have finally completed one of my primary goals of my VISTA year. It is a simple thing, a website update, but it has pushed me far beyond what I expected when I began as a VISTA last August. I was not a technical person. I knew virtually nothing about websites, Facebook, videos, blogs, Photoshop. I am a storyteller, though, and this was a new medium for me to explore. I was game for it.
And so I kept learning, figuring things out, making slow progress. Every webinar that seemed to apply, I was on it. Every Google link that might provide useful information, I went there. I kept what Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, calls a growth mindset (as opposed to a fixed mindset). I understood that success would be built on lots of failures as part of the learning experience, but eventually I would become technically savvy. With each new thing I accomplished, I amazed my kids… How did Mom do that? I am not a wizard at any of this to be sure. Often I resort to muddling through, but I want so much to tell the story of volunteering and service that I’ve kept going. (more…)
Natalie Minev is a VISTA serving with The Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada. She is a powerhouse of committment and energy, which earned her recognition as the 2010 Nevada AmeriCorps VISTA of the Year. I am so pleased to share her reflections on her year of service.
As I approach the end of my year as a VISTA, I’ve been reflecting on the experiences that have meant the most to me. There have been countless moments throughout the year in which I have interacted with great people and exciting projects in the community. I also experienced the infamous “VISTA slump,” a period of restlessness and confusion during the year. The experience that taught me the most about myself, others, and the community I live in was my culminating project, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger food drive in Southern Nevada. It was incredibly challenging but deeply rewarding.
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