Why Do Millennials Choose Service?

Why Do Millennials Choose Service?

Millennials (noun) birth years ranging from the 1980s to the 2000s;

Alternative names: Generation Y

National Service (noun) serving ones country of origin through government service programs military or non-military

With the economy still down and unemployment rates averaging at 7% for the past three years, it’s no wonder that people are looking to service organizations and opportunities to get ahead. It’s a known fact that Millennials in the United States have the highest rate of service-oriented population. Some of it has to do with the war, some of it has to do with that high unemployment rate, and some of it has to do with the vicious cycle of “I need work experience to get a job, but I need a job to get work experience.” Mostly- well, in my own opinion, at least- Millennials are serving because they see the value in it. Service oriented positions such as military service, national service, or state and local organizations have seen higher rates of applications that ever before. An article from Fortune.com gives statistics to back this up:

“In 2011 alone, AmeriCorps received 582,000 applications for only 80,000 spots. This number is up from 360,000 applications in 2009. While a down economy may have something to do with increased applications, millennials are the most service oriented of any generation. The National Conference on Citizenship reported that millennials lead every generation with a 43% service rate compared to a 35% service rate among baby boomers.”

Of course we can count the military as service and in my opinion it’s some of the most courageous types of service that you can do. However, for the purposes of this blog, I’m strictly going to be speaking to National Service- because after all, it is what I’m most fluent in. At my VISTA Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) we learned the common trends among generations. We learned that the Baby Boomer generation are work centric and accept challenges thrown their way. We learned that Generation X members value their work, but balance it with their home life. And we learned that millennials are team-oriented. According to my PSO workbook millennials “want meaningful work” and are “part of a no-person-left-behind generation, they are loyal, committed and want to be included and involved.” This, I feel, is the most prominent part of my generation. Although we are tech-savvy and we suffer from severe “screen-time”, we mostly care about others and about those around us- and use our tech skills to communicate with one another often. We tell each other about what we’re doing, what interests us, what causes we are fighting for at the time. Maybe I’m biased and this isn’t how my whole generation is. Perhaps it’s because I have spent the last two years surrounded by people who have a similar mindset as me when it comes to service, but perhaps not- I want it to be true and I think that the number of applicants to AmeriCorps in 2011 prove that my generation is as compassionate as I believe they are.

Of the five members of Green 5 last year (4 corpsmembers and myself), three of us chose another year of service. That is probably an unreasonable ratio and more than likely, not every team had people rejoining a service program, but I am willing to bet that if there was a poll done for Life After AmeriCorps at least 30% of NCCC members went back into service.

So, why do we choose this path? Why do we say “I’d rather get paid like dirt for a year of accomplishment, than work 40 hours a week right out of high school or college”? That’s not to say that my classmates who jumped directly into the workforce are not receiving accomplishments. All I mean is that dedicating a year to national service is done for a sense of pride because really there are limited other benefits. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we grew up with it. AmeriCorps turns 20 this year (VISTA is turning 50) and though it’s still not the prominent household name that us service members hope it is, AmeriCorps is roughly the same age as most of its members. In my travels with the agency, I have noticed that when I tell people outside of my age bracket that I ‘work’ for AmeriCorps they are more likely to ask what that is. I guarantee that any service member is sick of tell the public “it’s like the domestic Peace Corps.” However, when I share with another millennial that I am an AmeriCorps member, they are far more likely to say “I knew someone who did service with AmeriCorps” or “Oh, I have a friend serving in [insert state here]” I know that many of you are thinking “well, of course they know someone, you have to be young to serve!” But that’s simply not true. The only AmeriCorps program with an age restriction is NCCC. And that is strictly for corpsmembers. There is no age limit to be a Team Leader. There is no age limit to be a VISTA. There is no age limit to serve State and National. I should note that I am strictly speaking about national AmeriCorps programs- I am not speaking to programs such as City Year or other AmeriCorps funded programs.

We come back to the same question… Why millennials? I’m still not sure, but I know that I am glad to be part of a generation that has chosen this path to define themselves (well, the definition that I like to go by for millennials, anyway). I will leave you with a quote which closely sums up how I feel about joining the national service network:

 “The one percent of Americans that serve in the military and their families are bearing an inequitable burden to keep our country free during this time of war. Shouldn't we ask citizens to protect our communities here at home by improving our schools, responding to natural disasters, and bringing clean energy to our neighborhoods? Through national service we can strengthen our democracy, meet pressing challenges, build a more active and engaged citizenry, and live up to America's promise to ‘form a more perfect union.’“

Quotes taken from (respectively):

http://fortune.com/2014/06/16/why-millennials-should-ditch-corporate-jobs-for-public-service/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-marquez/dont-cut-national-service_b_824383.html

What Does Being a VISTA Mean to Me

As with any program or organization, there is an end goal; a main objective that the personnel are working towards. With NCCC it was to ‘strengthen communities and build leaders through national service.’ At Whole Foods, it’s to teach the community about natural and organic foods to make the earth more sustainable. At VISTA, the main objective- the end result we are all volunteering for, is to end poverty; to fight this epidemic in our country with national service. The way we do it is through community engagement and capacity building. VISTAs come into a poor community, make connections, engage the community, and are supposed to leave with certain tasks completed so that anyone could come into their role and know exactly what to do. That’s all good and great and seems fairly simple… if poverty can even be simple. So there are two questions here: 1. Have I been building capacity and engaging the community and 2. What does poverty and being a VISTA mean to me?

The first question is far easier to answer- like, WAY easier. Have I been building capacity? Well, okay, maybe not that easy, but nonetheless simpler than the question of poverty. I’m not entirely sure if I have begun to build any long lasting, sustaining partnership just yet. My previous blog about the connections I’m making may have been misleading. I am certainly in contact with many potential partners and attempting to create some sort of connection between agencies, but capacity building is all about making a sustainable partnership. Something that will last throughout the entirety of the two parties. A bond so strong that it almost seems foolish to not have had it in place all along. For example, if I were working at a food bank that was lacking in donations, one of my capacity building techniques could be reaching out to local grocery stores and receiving a portion of their goods that cannot be put on the shelves. This partnership makes sense, it should have been there all along. Am I doing anything at the CCC that is comparable to this? At first, I’m unsure. I sort of feel like day in and day out I’m not making a big impact- I’m working on projects that eventually just get put in the trash or won’t get funding to continue, but then I realize that capacity building is all about starting small. I can’t pick up the phone and call an apprenticeship, tell them how wonderful our corpsmembers are, and hang up with a direct hire connection made. It doesn't work that way. The small steps I make every day, the follow up emails, the phone calls I make to our current apprenticeship partner- that’s the sort of stuff that builds sustainable connections. Granted I have been blessed with a strong partnership already from the VISTA before me and all the hard work she had done before I got here- the partnership she created so I could step in and know exactly what to do and where to start. In a way, I am building capacity… in a way. I hope by the end of my year I’ll go back to this question and say, “I made that strong bond between agencies and that’s going to last for a while.”

As for engaging the community… It’s a little different at the CCC than it would be working at a food bank. The community we’re talking about here is the corpsmembers. They are the reason that I’m in the office every day and it is easy for people to lose sight of that. In fact, I feel as though there are many HQ employees that have lost sight of that. One thing I remember most at NCCC is the Regional Director always telling the Team Leaders “We are here for you and you are here for the corpsmembers.” He would always say that and anytime I would make a decision (well, majority of the time unless it involved going out of our way to see Dana’s team…) I would revert back to that advice. I am here for the corpsmembers. And a year later, I find myself thinking the same thing. I am not trying to making a connection with apprenticeships for myself, I mean, it might be kind of cool to become a sheet metal worker, but I am not in the business of self-promotion  right now. When I first started here, I was a little hesitant to talk to corpsmembers. To be quite honest, I found them sort of intimidating, which is strange considering I spent the previous 11 months bossing them around, but the corpsmembers here are always dirty and tired from the hard work they did and they were probably intimidated by me. More recently I've found that when I think back to the advice I got from NCCC, all I want to do is talk with the corpsmembers. So, really, the answer to the question is No, I haven’t engaged the community yet. I haven’t found out what they desire for employment after they leave the corps. If there is one thing I succeed at this year, I hope it’s being able to connect with corpsmembers and find some interests they have, instead of blinding creating partnerships that they don’t want any part of.

Now, onto the lighter subjects… Just kidding, we’re talking about poverty.

What does poverty and being a VISTA mean to me. Well, that’s a really tough subject. At our Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) in Denver in April, we had a very open and honest talk about what Poverty is. Now, growing up in Chelmsford and going to college in North Andover didn't expose me to much poverty, but my volunteer work with Campus Ministry at soup kitchens in Lawrence gave me a little taste. At first I thought poverty juts mean being poor or homeless- living on the streets and not having a job. And maybe that is what poverty overall is, but at PSO, I learned there are so many more levels of poverty, things I had never even realized, considered, thought about until other VISTAs opened my eyes to it. Poverty is an epidemic. It’s a cycle that’s never ending and it runs rampant in our country. Poverty doesn't discriminate against people. And not all people choose poverty. Who would willingly spend their days on the streets with no food, water, or clean clothing? There are people who are trapped in poverty and are complacent, sure, just like there are people content with their 9-5 desk job that they have done for 35 years. One thing that everyone should be aware of, though, is that these complacent people are not the majority of poor people. The majority of homeless people are struggling to make their ends meet and are motivated to do bigger and better things, but they are trapped. They can’t get a higher paying wage because they are homeless, but they can’t afford anything other than the homeless lifestyle. It’s a cycle- if you take nothing out of this lengthy paragraph, let it be that poverty and homelessness is a cycle and those who are able to get out of this cycle are what all VISTAs hope their communities become. Right here in Sacramento, I see more poor and homeless people than I have ever seen before. And it’s not pretty and it’s not easy to talk about and poverty has a different meaning to everyone, so don’t think that my definition or that my way of thinking about poverty is right because it certainly is not, it just my opinion of a hard way of life.

I don’t want to go down that path too much because it’s a sensitive and sort of controversial topic, as I’m learning through my year. The main point I wanted to touch on with poverty concerns my similar take on corpsmembers. That is who I am here for. The CCC recruits most of their corpsmembers from locations with at-risk youths. This includes young adults ages 18-25 who are homeless, don’t have a high school diploma, are aging out of foster care, or don’t have the necessary means to live independently. And like I said, poverty is a cycle, but those corpsmembers who come from a disadvantaged background enter the CCC with a different mindset and leave with what we hope to be the ultimate success story. So, like I said- these are the people I am here for. I have committed myself to another year of national service to give back to young people who may not be able to help themselves. These members may have been stuck in poverty for the entire lives with no idea how to get out and then they find themselves learning the meaning of hard work and bringing in minimum wage. We hope that these members will be able to grasp their new reality and continue on this lifestyle. That is who I’m here for. That’s what being a VISTA means to me. That’s why I live on a living stipend less than a CCC corpsmember- to engage with my community and to help them succeed in life and become something greater. I plan on doing another post like this closer to the end of my year and seeing how my mindset has changed or not changed… I guess we will wait to see what else this year has in store.

Sacto

Wow, talk about the worst blog updater this side of the Mississippi. How do I ever expect to get a career in social media when I can barely manage my own blog?! My apologies!

What would you like an update about first? Work or California life? Well, I’ll give you some brief updates about work and then tell you about what else I’ve been up to!

Things here at the CCC are going well. Tony had me create a list of personal goals I would like to achieve by the end of my year- things like better time management, professional presentation skills, or website design and social media expertise. So far, he has been giving me some tips on staying organized and been giving me opportunities to gain the skills I want. For example, last week I had 6 small tasks I needed to complete by Tuesday and I couldn’t figure out how to prioritize them. Tony helped me set up task assignments on my email, schedule calendar reminders, and plan out multiple steps for each task in order to get them accomplished on time. Like a total boss, I completed all my tasks in the time parameters and now am waiting on other partners to get back to me.

I wrote a draft MOU (memorandum of understanding- it’s just a casual agreement between two or more partners) and submitted it to NCCC for review. Once I hear back, I will be finalizing the draft, submitting it to the Corpsmember Development director and then possibly creating a professional presentation to give to executive and legal staff for final approval. While creating the document, I learned new skills, too. I learned different writing styles and how to create a giant DRAFT watermark over a document in Word. Google is a lifesaver, I tell ya. Other tasks I completed included getting statistical data about former corpsmembers who have been accepted to apprenticeship partners, creating flyers for CCC centers about apprenticeship opportunities, and working to create a consistent organizational system in my cubicle and computer. The connections I’ve been making and the work I’ve been doing so far is what I thought it would be, but it is a little slower than I had anticipated. That’s not always a bad thing, though, especially considering: 1. I have several partnerships I’m working on at once so it’s easier to keep them on track and 2. Dana and I are still getting settled in here in Sacto (that’s what the locals call it… sometimes.) and it’s more difficult to focus on my tasks when I have a lot going on at home.

Although I have many ideas work to do by the executives/ anyone I cross paths with in this place, I cannot possibly finish everything I have been given ideas about. There are a few tasks I will be able to complete, however. This potential partnership with NCCC, for one and continuing the partnership with the labor union that was created earlier this year will be my second objective. I will also be creating a few more apprenticeship partnerships that will fulfill the rest of my requirements. I’m not scared- I’m crushing this VISTA year.

As for my achievements outside of work… Dana and I have been getting acquainted with our surroundings at our new apartment. I know I have said it about a billion times by now, but we really do have such a great spot. We practically walk wherever we need to go or to do whatever we want to do- unless we wanted to go for a hike or something. We could even walk to go swimming in the river, if we really wanted it! It’s great to have our own things and be able to cook delicious and healthy meals, take walks around the city after dinner, come back to the apartment and just hang out or watch TV. Soon enough all our belongings will be here from Wisconsin (or New Jersey- because why not send our stuff across the country for no reason…that’s a long story that I will not bore you with.) and we’ll be really settled in. The last two things we need are a coffee table and a dresser, but our next stop to get one is at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Hopefully we will be able to go this weekend and pick out a few things. We are really into getting furniture but sort of making it our own. For example, we got a cart from Scott, who I used to share a cubicle with, and we spray painted it a teal/ bright blue color and then pulled the wheels off the bottom and now we use it to hold our toaster oven and other miscellaneous kitchen items. We also got some polyurethane spray and used it on our new kitchen island cart to make sure the wood doesn’t get damaged by the craziness that happens when I cook.

We have also been hanging out with our friends Allison and Andy a lot because they just moved here, too. For those of you who may not know- Allison and Andy are the second cutest AmeriCouple from last year (i.e. they met in FEMA Corps too) and now Andy will be working with Dana on the IMAT team. We have also been out with the team I work with once, so we are being as social as possible. Other than that, things are pretty boring around here, which isn’t bad. I kept saying I couldn’t wait to have my own place and get into the routine of things, and that has certainly happened and I love every second of it. I’m sorry that I have been slacking on keeping up here- I will try to do better. Things at work have slowed down for the next week or so, but who really knows. Speaking of work… I should get back to that…

P.s. I apologize for the lack of photos on this entire page. Dana is the photographer, not me.

I Got to Midtown!!

Where to begin… with work or with play? I suppose I’ll just begin where we left off and go chronologically so you can all pretend like you’re soaking up the sun here in California with me and Dana.

Friday was a big step into “big girl world” over here. Dana had lunch with her new supervisor at FEMA and a few other members of her team, then headed over to NCCC campus to see some old pals. Meanwhile, I was in a meeting with Tony creating a master list of projects I’m going to do this year… Okay, Tony, I get that I said I wanted to be more organized, but come on, I’M READY TO DO SOME WORK! It’s not that I haven’t been doing work here at the CCC- I have. I have been attending meetings and sending emails, but I have done a lot of talking about what I’m going to do this year and less doing of said things. I know I know- be patient, I’ve only been here a month, but a month is a lot of time in the terms of a year! Especially if I am going to try and complete all these tasks! I have started taking more initiative though and expressing my concerns to Tony, so I’m confident that if I keep on this path and pattern then I’ll be doing so much and feel like i’m really making a difference.

Okay, so anyways back to being a “real grown up” (i’m sorry.. WHAT?!) Dana picked me up at work on Friday and we headed to our apartment to patiently await the arrival of our new furniture. We had picked out a couch and a loveseat from a furniture outlet and it came right on time. We were so excited! The apartment was finally starting to look like a home… a little. After that we went back to Tami and Mike’s (Janet and Steve’s, right mom?) to pick up the rest of our stuff. Our new bed wasn’t supposed to arrive until Saturday morning, but we were so eager to get into our new place that we decided one night on the floor wouldn’t kill our backs- and it didn’t… for the most part. Saturday morning the delivery guys came with our mattress! Now we had a bed, too! As tempting as it was to put the sheets on our bed and lounge in all its comfort for the day, we knew that we needed to get things done (not for America- I’ll get to that later) We headed to the mall to make a few returns, get an internet plan set up, and then go grocery shopping. After we checked everything off our list and made one very important phone call to my dad (thanks again, the kitchen island is going to work great!), we went back home to get ready for the night. We had planned a special night to celebrate finally moving into our place, so we got all dolled up and walked over to a brewery a few blocks away where they have one of my new favorite beers. How awesome! We could walk! And we could keep walking to the sushi restaurant we went to for dinner- Half price sushi!! All within 10 blocks of our house! WOO!! I never thought I would like living in a city, but with all the trees, little parks, and old Victorian homes, Sacramento doesn’t seem so metropolitan. Sunday we met up with one of Dana’s coworkers for brunch and chatted for a while, then we went home to do some arts and crafts. We applied polyurethane to our mobile kitchen island to protect it and spray painted the cart we’re putting the microwave on bright blue. PS, shout out to Auntie Lynne and Auntie Gail for a microwave! After our projects were complete we got all our things ready for work. Monday was Dana’s first day of work, so we hit the hay early to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.

Hmm.. I guess that I didn’t really go in chronological order but I just told you about all the fun things we did and none about work… Okay I will do that now!

A big change here at work is that I now have my own cubicle! It is quite small, but it has a lot of space to hang things (hint hint… send me some pics!) and it is alllll mine! As far as projects go, I am working on a few things right now. Aside from my list of lists, I am working with a Northern California Union (NorCal) to create a partnership between their apprenticeship program and the CCC centers in the northern region. the partnership was already in place before I began my year, but I am working to expand it to the last center in the northern region so we can then move forward and connect the union’s southern counterpart with our southern centers. I think the latter half of partnership will take up a lot of my time this year, if I can get the apprenticeship program to be interested in the CCC. I have a meeting with NorCal and the CCC Tahoe center in two weeks and it will be my first time promoting this partnership on my own.

Another partnership I am working on is with AmeriCorps NCCC and the CCC. Tony wants me to take this project on independently because he think that with my knowledge of NCCC and the skills I want to personally gain this year, everyone will benefit. The next step we are looking at in this process is two-fold. I have to create an unofficial document as an understanding between the two agencies and get each side to agree on the jargon. I also am going to have to present this idea to the CCC executive team before the partnership is in full effect. In addition, I may have to present the idea to NCCC leadership! Needless to say I am nervous but excited about this opportunity. I have expressed to Tony that I want to get better at doing formal presentations this year, so he wants this project to help me reach that goal.

I have also expressed to Tony that I am very interested in learning to professionally manage social media, so he is going to plug me into one of his projects so I can learn. He also wants me to help him redesign some aspects of a website he is in charge of. Everytime we talk about this particular project, I get very excited. It seems like something I would be really interested in and could become talented in. I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want to do after this year and I’m not even close to sure yet, but I think that having a variety of different tasks and projects and having a supervisor who cares about my interests is going to help me find my way. I have also been thinking about educating myself in marketing or maybe website design! Who knows?! The possibilities are endless.

Get Me to Midtown!

Oh wow, it has been a loonggggg time since I wrote! My apologies, things have been a little crazy around here.

Let me update you briefly on what’s been going on:

Work is good. Tony is giving me a lot of projects to start into and there are a few that I am really excited about. The first one is working with AmeriCorps NCCC and creating a partnership between them and the CCC. I know what you’re thinking “Lisa, aren’t you the partnership there?” LOL no, not quite like that. Although I am very helpful when it comes to knowledge about AmeriCorps NCCC, my main goal of this project will be to make write an agreement for both agencies to help corpsmembers advance into the Team Leader role more easily. I’m excited about this project, not just because I get to work with my current employer and former employers alike, but also because I will gain so many skills like formal presentation skills, formal and technical writing, and capacity building. Another project I will be working on is to hopefully create a video and presentation to fit into a corpsmember development course. The video will show corpsmembers a step by step process of applying for a job, interviewing, and going to work. This project is going to test my creative skills and help me learn more about computer software like Photoshop and Prezi.

Outside of work, things have been very busy! As most of you know, I drove down to visit Auntie Gail for my birthday weekend. It was only 5 hours (“only 5 hours?!”… 5 hours to me is nothing! I’ve driven across the country like 5 times now!) We had a lot of fun!! We went to her school BBQ, walked around San Luis Obispo, walked around Pismo Beach, hung out with friends, went to breakfast, went on a walk, we did so much and in only 2 days!! It was a great time and it was so much fun to be with family on my birthday!

Last weekend was also AMAZING. Saturday I was able to pack up most of my room at Mike and Tami’s, go to the farmer’s market, and take some time to relax before Sunday. On Sunday morning I sprung out of bed, too excited to sleep any longer. I had to be in San Francisco by 3:20pm to PICK UP DANA AT THE AIRPORT!!! WOOOOHOOO!!!!! BEST DAY EVER!!!! I thought I gave myself plenty of time by leaving Elk Grove at 12:00pm. It takes about 2 hours to get to San Francisco airport from Sacramento, but I needed gas and it was Memorial Day weekend, so I was being extra cautious. Luckily I gave myself an extra hour to accomidate for any hiccups I would hit along the way because as soon as I got to Oakland, traffic hit a stand still. In an hour, I went less than 5 miles. I was so annoyed. This was supposed to be the best day ever, now I was stuck in traffic, had to pee, my hair was getting frizzy, and there was npthing good on the radio, and to top it all off: Dana’s flight arrived 20 mintues early! I finally made it to the airport, said a quick hello before I sprinted to the ladies room- leaving my Mini illegally parked on the curb. Ahhh, I felt so much better so Dana and I hit the road back to Sacramento. We headed straight to our soon to be apartment (after a quick stop at In N Out for some burger-, animal style, of course). We met with our landlord Rich, Dana admired the place (good job picking out an awesome apartment, Lisa), we signed our lease and were given the keys. WOOHOO!!! Our apartment is a one bedroom, smack-dab in the heart of Midtown Sacramento. It has an entry room (like a mudroom, I guess?), a living room, a huge kitchen, a bedroom, built in storage, one bathroom, and HUGE windows- like biggest windows I’ve ever seen and some are so pretty and have stained glass panels. IT’S GREAT! Now… if only we could move into it…. After we signed the lease we took a short walk around the corner and found a cool German beer garden. We knew we had made the right choice.

Monday was a holiday so we were able to get a lot done. We went shopping for a new mattress and some living room furniture. We got everything we needed and set up delivery times. After we shopped til we dropped, we headed back to Mike and Tami’s for the night- we knew Tuesday would be a busy day, too. We were not wrong in our assumptions, although Tuesday turned out to be more fun than Monday. The first thing we did was head from Mike and Tami’s to our apartment to drop off some of my clothes that I wouldn’t need for the next few days. On Monday we had measured out all the rooms in our apartment, so Teusday we were able to just start shopping! We hit up Target (who doesn’t love a good Target trip?!?), Walmart, and then Ikea. NOTE TO ANYONE WHO IS EVER TRYING TO BUY THINGS FOR YOUR HOUSE: GO. TO. IKEA. First of all, make sure you block off like 3 days to go there because I’m pretty sure that is exactly how long it takes to walk through the entire store. And secondly, GO TO IDEA FIRST BEFORE YOU GO ANYWHERE ELSE!!! Rookie mistake, Dana and I went to Ikea last and what did we find?? Everything we had been looking for and everything we had already bought but at lower prices and cuter colors or styles. Needless to say, yesterday after work we spent our time returning things to Target and Walmart.

We walked out of Ikea after what felt like 4 days and were ready to build some stuff! We had bought a mobile kitchen island and a shelving unit that we needed to put together and we were motivated. We got back to the apartment, ripped open the boxes, scanned the instructions and- oh crap, we need a screwdriver. Luckily we have very nice neighbors below us who offered to lend us some tools, so we were able to build the kitchen island. It looks great and I can’t wait to chop so many vegetables on it!

I’ve been at work the past two days now, but all I can think about is getting everything settled into our new little apartment. Tonight is the first night we are going to spend there and tomorrow I’ll be able to walk or ride my skateboard to work.

I can’t believe all of this is happening. I feel like a real grown-up; getting an apartment, having an 8-5 office job, living in California. I have a lot to be thankful for and I know that I wouldn’t be where I am, excited about all the things in my life, it I didn’t have the support of everyone back home. I miss everyone a lot, but there is not a doubt in my mind that where I am right now is exactly where I want to be and where I am supposed to be.

I hope I’ll be able to write more once everything gets more routine. I have all these day dreams in my head about longboarding to work, building partnerships and getting CCC corpsmembers meaningful employment, longboarding back home, cooking all the great food I got at the farmers market, and drinking some craft beer on the porch of my apartment in Midtown with Dana. Yeah, that’s the life.

A Change of Pace

Now, I am sure a lot of you are wondering where I live, who I live with, what my life is like outside of the office… Well, you’re in luck because today I will tell you all of that.

Currently I am renting a room from a couple named Tami and Mike. They have 3 dogs and 3 cats. They live in a neighborhood called Elk Grove that is about 10 miles south of downtown Sacramento. I met Tami and Mike through some other people. I inquired to a Craigslist posting from a girl about my age looking for a roommate. When I explained my situation- that I would only be needing a room for a month or two as I wait for Dana to come out here, she told me that she was unable to assist me because she needed a more long term roommate. She then went on the give me her mothers phone number because her mother often takes in foreign exchange students and has rented a room in her house before. I called her mom right away and we chatted for a quite a bit, getting to know me and what not. She explained that she was eager to help me get a room, but unfortunately she was unable to help because she was already renting to someone else. However, she was going to find me a place to stay. She asked around her work and some of the groups she is a part of and eventually I received a phone call from one of her friends, Tami. I worked out really well. Tami and Mike don’t have any children, so the dogs are like their kids. I have my own bedroom and don’t pay a lot to live with them. So far, everything has worked out really well. They are super nice and welcoming.

Now, let me tell you about their three dogs. The have a corgi named Robbie or Bobbie (I’m not really sure which or if it’s both…) he is really cute, but he whines a lot when he doesn’t get his way. Cameron is a dog like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. She is my new best friend, even though she likes to lick my face to wake me up. Cameron and I sit on this big comfy chair in the living room and watch TV… or I like to think we do that, but really what happens is that she is laying on the chair so I come try to sit with her, she gets annoyed and leaves me, but eventually comes and sits on the ottoman. It’s really quite nice. The youngest dog is named Max (or Moose) and although he is the youngest, he is by far the biggest. Max is an Anatolian shepherd and at 5 months old already weighs about 50 pounds. He is going to be a BIG dog… I just hope I have a place of my own before he gets too big!

Elk Grove is a really nice suburb of Sacramento. It has everything anyone could ever need in the town. Restaurants, shopping, grocery stores, parks, a bike path- everything. It’s also only about a 20 minute commute to downtown, without traffic. With traffic, my commute is about 30 minutes, which is still not bad. There are buses that run into the city, but it’s just as easy for me to drive and parking isn’t too bad, so I don’t think I’ll rely on public transit.

This past weekend I didn’t do too much. On Saturday I drove around a part of Midtown (Midtown is the more residential part of Sac, whereas downtown is more… well, downtown) called McKinley Park. It was really beautiful and there is a big park where there were many activities going on. Although it would be a really great place to live, I’m just not sure that Dana and I would be able to afford the rent at this time. We’re going to stick to places closer to where I work. After exploring for a little bit, I went home and took Robbie and Cameron for a walk around the neighborhood. It was so sunny and warm that I got to wear shorts and a t-shirt!! Late on Saturday night Tami and Mike came home. They had been on a vacation to Florida all week. Sunday morning I woke up and had coffee with Tami and when Mike got up he suggested we go out for breakfast… and we take the “bikes.” I thought, “oh how lovely, we’ll go on a nice bike ride to a breakfast place. Then I won’t feel so bad eating eggs, pancakes, and potatoes!” Wrong. I was so wrong. When I stepped outside, Mike had pulled his motorcycle out of the garage and Tami was on her little moped-scooter thing. They handed me a helmet and told me to get on the back of Mike’s bike. WOOHOO!!! What a cool thing to do on a sunny Sunday morning! They took me to a great breakfast place and then we ran a few errands (I think mostly so I could ride on the motorcycle more!). After that, I went on a walk around a big park in the neighborhood and then I had some errands of my own to do.

Overall, I think my time in Elk Grove with Tami and Mike is going to be very enjoyable. It is a great starting point for me this year. I’m not sure how long I will be living with them, but at least I know I will be safe and comfortable. Although, I really can’t wait for Dana Marie YOLO to get out here!!!

Learning, Learning, Learning

Day 5:

On Friday Tony took the VISTAs back up to the Greenwood site to watch the corpsmembers graduate from their fire training. We even got to watch a slideshow the crew had made for the members. The pictures were incredible and I can't believe what hard work the members did in just a few short days of training! After the graduation, Tony showed us around the site and introduced us to a few people. One of my goals for this year is to learn as much about the CCC as I can. The organiations history, values, and structure. I figure the more I know about the organization and its members, the better I can help them after their service years and I will have better insight into what they like to do. With that siad, I spent most of Friday talking to CCC staff and previous members about how the CCC works. I found that although the CCC is similar to NCCC in values, the structure of the program is quite different.

Here are some basic facts that I've learned about the CCC:

·         Members are 18-25, unless they are veterans, then they can be up to 29 years old.

·         Work on crews of approximately 8 individuals

o   There are many positions within a crew including corpsmembers, crew lead (I and II), C-1 (conservationist 1, which corpsmembers can get to once they have completed a year with the CCC and take an oral exam)

·         The CCC has 27 different sites. 7 of these are residential, which means that members live at the location full time. At the other non-residential sites, members commute from their home to the site and then to work each day.

·         Residential sites often send their crews on “spikes” which last anywhere from 4 to 14 days. These projects require crews to go to a remote location and work every day on the project.

·         CCC service terms are one year in length.

o   Teams do not all graduate at the same time.

o   Members join the program and join crews at intervals and graduate at intervals. Often times, three or four members- from different crews- will graduate at one time and then the crews where they have left will gain a new CCC member.

·         Because the California climate is vastly different throughout the state, Crews are trained in a variety of projects and the projects depend upon the location.

After we left Greenwood, we went back to the office and finished up our work for the day before taking off for the weekend. I learned so much about the CCC on Friday, but to be quite honest, I don’t remember every detail and even if I did, it’s so intertwined that it would be difficult for me to explain. A=I hope this gave you a little of an idea of how the CCC works and what it is all about.

Oh, also, the CCC motto is: “Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions… and more!”

And no, that is not a joke. That’s the actual motto. It’s a pretty cool place.