AmeriCorps Success Stories

During my two years of service for AmeriCorps, I would not be exaggerating to say that the experience taught me more about my community, the families in my community, the schools, the children in those schools, and myself more than any formal classroom. AmeriCorps taught me more because we were fully involved with hands-on, hearts-on, day-to-day lessons. We had our pitfalls and triumphs as we struggled through times of frustration, anger and disappointment, and basked in times of enlightenment, excitement and jubilation.

Despite the challenges we faced, I am sure we all have some inspiring moments that are particularly memorable and had great impact in our lives. I am very happy to have the opportunity to share mine. I have many stories to share and it is difficult to choose only one. I chose this one because several seemingly coincidental factors put me in a place where my "weakness" gave me a distinct advantage in making a difference in a child's life.

I am hard-of-hearing, so I was quite apprehensive about tutoring children in reading since being able to listen carefully was very important. Because I am an avid reader, value what literacy has to offer, and am a strong advocate for children and their rights (which includes a good education and strong reading skills), I was able to put my trepidation aside. Of course, the unique AmeriCorps training boosted my self-confidence and helped me develop the skills I would need to be an effective tutor.

My memorable even began with a very mischievous young man just entering his fourth grade. He was in a reading group where I was also assisting the teacher. This group of children was reading well below grade level and some were ESL students.  When he became my tutee, I got the chance to see how he functioned in a one-on-one setting compared to in the classroom. The difference was amazing! In the classroom, Julio (I will call him) would often become disruptive- tease other students in the room, defiantly lean his chair back on two legs (and sometimes put his feet on the table), and snicker with his friends during quiet reading. During our tutoring sessions, Julio became a student that was eager to please and ready to work. He showed me respect and courtesy I found lacking in his behavior in the classroom. When I questioned him about the discrepancy, he would just shrug his shoulders. Looking back on my experiences, I soon realized that his antics in the classroom could be attributed to attention seeking behavior. He had all my attention to himself during our one-to-one reading sessions, so there was no reason for such behavior then.

Julio struggled. He showed lack of self-confidence when he read each word questioningly. I worked hard to help him find ways to increase his confidence in reading. Something struck me about Julio and it took me a while to my finger on it. I discovered that he had a peculiar way of pronouncing some of his sounds. It took me a while to realize and trust what I was hearing. I noticed that Julio pronounced his "s" and other soft sounds the way many deaf and hard-of-hearing people do.

I launched an all out investigation to discover what was the problem and what I could do to help. I had a feeling that Julio had an undetected hearing loss and it was making learning difficult for him. I began to make inquiries and talked to several different people, including the Language Specialist of the class I was assisting, the Success For All facilitator, the bilingual assistant, the school counselor and the school nurse. I heard that often children learning English as a second language will mispronounce sounds, but I felt this different. So I pushed on.

When I learned that the school nurse was conduction preliminary hearing tests, I asked her to please pay particular attention to this child and told her my reason. hearing loss is an invisible disability. School nurses have so little time and so many children to attend to, it would be easy to miss the fact that a child has difficulty hearing. I know from experience. Drawing from my own experiences with school hearing tests, I wanted to be sure that Julio's test accurately reflected his level of hearing. My persistence paid off. The nurse said that there did seem to be at least some degree of hearing loss and that she was referring Julio to an audiologist.

Julio had been at the school for four years. The teachers and other staff are very dedicated to enriching and empowering our children through whatever capacity they serve them. The adage "It takes a village to raise a child" is poignant and true. Each of us has something to offer with our unique personalities, abilities, gifts and experiences. Sometimes it takes a certain mix of these qualities to reach a child as I have seen happen more than once during my terms of service. It gives me a sense of "a job well done" to know that I made a difference in one child's life. Julio came to me before the school year was over and said that he was scheduled for surgery. The audiologist had referred infections and had never received proper treatment. The infections eventually caused the hearing loss. This coupled with the fact that Julio was leearning English as a second language really challenged him in the classroom. Julio proved to be a resilient young man.

How AmeriCorps Changed My Life
Elizabeth Pulse

It's hard to think about a specific moment when AmeriCorps changed my life. To me, the whole experience of AmeriCorps has greatly affected me. Before I joined AmeriCorps, I was at a crossroads in my life. I was in a troubled relationship, working a dead-end job to support my young son and me, frustrated because a six month hiatus from college turned into two years. I knew I needed to find a way to get back on track to fulfilling my dream of graduating from college and having a career in social work. In late January 1999, I answered an ad for a community service worker position. AmeriCorps was becoming involved in a new home visitation program, and was recruiting 50 people from all walks of life. It sounded like a very exciting and innovated program, and my childcare and education worries would be taken care of, so I decided to join.

In February, I embarked on a very long and interesting journey. We began our intensive training, which prepared us specifically for our service. I met quite a few people - young and old, parents and grandparents, male and female, from all ethnicities and all cultures. After our program hit a snag, we were given the task of researching resources on anything and everything in the greater Sacramento area. We were split up into three groups, and spent months visiting agencies, researching specific issues, and talking about how we were going to present our resources. During this time, we were able to really get to know one another, and I made a few very close friends. I know for myself, being in AmeriCorps allowed me to interact with so many different people whom I never thought I would be friends with in a normal business setting. Some people left for bigger and better things, but we kept in touch.

In August, the opportunity arrived - we were ready to go to our different sites and begin our work as home visitors! Although we were all excited, several of us were nervous and uncertain about what we would be doing and how we could keep in touch, being spread throughout the area. We also were going to work with several new people, and were a little cautious. The AmeriCorps experience really paid off at our site, because we were comfortable working with different people, and we were all very new to the home visiting experience. So, with resources in hand, we set out to promote our program and help families in need of support and encouragement to fulfill their dreams. I never hesitated to sign on for another year, because I was determined to see the impact of the service that my fellow AmeriCorps members and I did. I wanted to continue making a difference.

In my new term, I gained confidence and now I hope that I can accomplish whatever I want to do. With a little encouragement, I enrolled in school and worked on my personal relationships. I am now very proud to say that I will graduate in December 2000 with an A.A. in Social Sciences, and am days aways from getting married. I strongly believe that had I not joined AmeriCorps, I would not be as successful as I am today. With only weeks to go until my second term of service ends, I have reflected a lot on what I learned and accomplished. I know I have grown and changed a lot, and I hope that others who join AmeriCorps will have as much success as I did.

To learn more about AmeriCorps, call 1-800-942-2677 or visit AmeriCorps at www.americorps.org.  You can find California State specific information at www.goserv.ca.gov.