Celebrating our AmeriCorps Members for AmeriCorps Week

As the VISTA Campus Liaison for Food Security Initiatives at UTEP, Brianna facilitates collaboration among campus stakeholders and community partners by mapping connections, supporting food response, and driving the implementation of food access initiatives. The two main goals of Brianna’s position are capacity building through outreach to the campus community and increasing the number of individuals who report having increased food security.

"The most successful outcome we have had so far is our Pete's Plate Initiative, a free meal service that give students the opportunity to receive a free meal from a local community partner. When we first started this initiative, we were only seeing about 10-15 students a week and have now grown to serving 210 meals weekly. Being a VISTA at my host site has been such an impactful experience. Our marketing efforts for Pete’s Plate has seen great success! We hope to see more growth for our Initiative in the future."

The VISTA project at Wagner supports building out the existing Bonner Leaders Program, which supports low-income students who are interested in pursuing engagement work at community organizations and are paid through work-study funds. José works with the Bonner Coordinator to recruit eligible students to the program by developing tools that assess placements for Bonner Leaders, partner organizations, and Wagner College.

"Recently, we released a survey and received 148 responses regarding dining hall hours, food insecurity, and food accessibility. 54% of students shared that they have issues accessing food through the dining hall, and 83% said food access would be easier if the dining hall hours were extended. 65% have difficulty accessing meals on the weekend since the dining hall hours are so limited. 72% of students would also have easier access to food via a grocery store if a shuttle was available. As I continue to work on our food initiatives on campus, I learned more about the issues students face regarding food on Wagner's campus. Through this process, I want to help create sustainable solutions for students who need easier access to food during their college experience."

The Chicago School works to leverage school and community opportunities to benefit the next generation of mental health professionals. Colleen is developing a project to address the gaps in support for First Gen and Low-Income students. As a VISTA Member, Colleen’s goal is to identify $2,000 worth of additional resources for their Student Emergency fund through grants, fellowships, and other means.

"Securing this funding will increase The Chicago School and their partner organizations’ efficiency, effectiveness, and program reach. After over a year of research, I was finally able to help bring a Student Emergency Fund into existence at my host site. I now serve on the committee administering funds. We were able to disburse $11,096 to 26 students in our first month of operation! We are offering concrete support to students experiencing financial hardship. I hope that this initiative paves the way for more financial accessibility and comprehensive student support at our institution."

Our Campus Compact EnviroCorps members at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) serve to improve environmental circularity, biodiversity, and energy efficiency. 

Geena and Cosmo help run the WashU Circularity Center — a space that collects university surplus and redistributes it to the campus and community. Elliot and Sarah conduct home energy audits to help households understand their energy use and then make improvements to help households save on their energy bills. Michael helps run the WashU arboretum, tracking and managing the database for trees on campus. His efforts with the arboretum, tree planting projects, and community education events help to improve local biodiversity and nature conservation at WashU.

The Institute for the Study of Resilience in Youth (ISRY) is committed to the well-being and mental health of young people and the adults who support them. As a VISTA Member at ISRY, Ray’s project was supporting the expansion of Project Brainy — after-school curricula integrating STEM with social-emotional skills — and evaluating its impact.

"Seeing the impact of Project Brainy has been rewarding. Over 100 students have participated in the trial phase, and many have reported increased empathy and engagement with neuroscience concepts. The combination of STEM education and social-emotional learning has created meaningful learning experiences for youth. I’m excited to see how our project continues to make a difference in students’ lives!"

Mesha is an Outreach and External Communications VISTA Leader with the Campus Compact VISTA team. VISTA Leaders build program capacity alongside Campus Compact staff and support the multi-state cohort of AmeriCorps members throughout the United States.

"As the Outreach and External Communications VISTA Leader, I provide project capacity to the Campus Compact VISTA team. I also collaborate with the VISTA communications team for social media campaigns and develop materials to support the host site development and member recruitment processes. My AmeriCorps experience has been transformative. It has helped me grow personally and given me the chance to support VISTA members and communities sharing similar life experiences and future goals."