Greetings

Hello!

          I suppose an introduction is in order since I’ll be posting on here for the next 10 months about my experiences with AmeriCorps. I’m 22, a Michigander, an avid reader, a recent college graduate (Biochem and French double major), a swimmer, a sufferer from migraines and extremely optimistic 99% of the time. I’m sure there’s more to me but that’s a start :)

          I’ll be headed off to Sacramento, CA next Tuesday where I’ll live for a month at McClellan Park (previously an air base) getting trained. After that, my group of 10-12 members will get sent off on a mission (they call it a spike) to help with disaster relief. We won’t know any details about our spike until right before we leave. Once we complete our duties of that first spike, we’ll return to Sacramento and get another assignment. We’ll have a minimum of 3 spikes throughout the 10 months of service. The AmeriCorps NCCC members are all aged 18-24 and relocate from their homes during the service opportunity. My program is specifically dedicated to disaster relief (it’s in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA].)

          Besides giving us the opportunity to help others and giving me the excuse to travel, AmeriCorps NCCC will pay for my room and food as well as a small living allowance. Additionally, contingent upon completing 1,700 service hours, I’ll receive an educational grant that I can use for graduate school up to 7 years from now (paying off student loans is also an option, but I escaped undergrad debt free.) I’d like to say thank you, U.S. government, for these wonderful benefits.

  One of the assumptions that people make when they hear I’m going to volunteer is that they think I was a college dropout or can’t find a job. However, neither of those is true; I graduated w/honors and was working in an internship that was challenging and rewarding with wonderful bosses who were working to keep me on for as long as possible. However, my heart’s desire is a career in Public Health where I’ll be able to help protect people from the toxins in our environment and discover better ways to help prevent disease. I've always loved helping others, whether it was simply helping do the dishes at home or volunteering to deliver food to home-bound senior citizens in Detroit, so I've known for a while that I want to spend the rest of my life serving others (but not in the “Would you like fries with that?” sense.) In order to pursue my dream of working in the Public Health field, I want this volunteer opportunity under my belt to help prepare myself for the needs of the public. There’s a lot of need that I’m currently ignorant of, and moving across the country to help others is a sure way to educate myself as well as show graduate schools that I’m very serious about helping others.

  I’m a little nervous about leaving my family and friends for such a long time; I commuted to college and have always lived at home except for when I studied abroad in Paris, France for 6 weeks (feel free to check out my blog about my travels in France: http://mesadventuresenfrance-hmgerr.blogspot.com, it's in English unlike the title, I promise.) But I'm even more excited for this grand adventure that awaits me, the friends that I will make and the people that I’ll be able to help. In four days I’ll be in sunny California instead of snowy Michigan. I’m so thrilled; it's like I’m holding my breath before I take the giant plunge!

Until later!