Strengthening community/school connectios: John Bernet’s first year in the ‘real world’ working as an Americorps*VISTA
May 4th, 2009 by Michael Karelis
By John Bernet
john.bernet@gmail.com
My name is John Bernet and I am a Community Connections Coordinator/Americorps*VISTA at the Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr. Elementary School for the Greater Homewood Community Corporation. Since August 1st of 2008 I have been working in a neighborhood elementary school and its surrounding communities to create and strengthen connections and partnerships between the school and its parents and neighbors. Dedicating a year to community service through Americorps*VISTA is a large commitment. You don’t make any money. When I filed my taxes I was kind of shocked to realize that I was in the very bottom bracket of the tax ladder and owed nobody any money. It really drove the whole thing home. In joining Americorps*VISTA, regardless of where you are going or what you are doing, you are making a commitment to fight poverty while being poor, literally. And that’s when it goes from just normal community service to something a little bit more intense. It’s not just coordinating a volunteer day here and there. It’s more than just getting donations or putting together an event. It is a year long, fully involved commitment to helping other people for basically no reward at all.
And yet, over the course of my VISTA year I hadn’t really noticed this situation until tax time. That got me thinking on the whole experience, and it stuck me how positive the whole experience has been. Not only have I been fortunate enough to work at a wonderful school, Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr. Elementary, but I work for a wonderful company, the Greater Homewood Community Corporation. Occasionally one gets horror stories that come back through the grapevine about terrible VISTA years at awful sites where the people were just allowed to answer the phone all day. This job is definitely not that. In fact, I’m occasionally too busy to answer the phone. Best of all, it’s not just busy-work that I spend my days doing. It’s actual, interesting, tangible work. Whether it’s coordinating a volunteer day, finding resources for an event, or figuring out how to get two ends of one partnership together, very rarely do I find myself thinking I am stuck doing mindless stuff.
My VISTA position really works out to be a phenomenal transition between college and what everyone keeps calling real life. College leaves you in a mind-set built around straightforward goals, with very clear steps to achieving them: 1-Go to class, 2-Do your homework, 3-Study, 4-Pass your tests, 5-Finish your finals, 6-Get and A.
The world doesn’t work that way, and VISTA has been a great way to grow away from that. The beginning of the year usually has some pretty clear goals left over from the prior year’s VISTA, and it gives you a chance to get the lay of the land. But when those are finished and you’ve become accustomed to community work, you will find yourself with a good amount of freedom to begin designing your own programs, realizing your own needs, and defining your legacy as a VISTA in the community. Not only that, but you wind up doing it with skills you never knew you had.
This is another realization that hits you suddenly. About a month ago, sitting down after a day-long string of meetings and phone calls to coordinate three different projects with a number of different people, I realized that if I had found myself in that situation a year ago I might have just sat down and cried, but now I hardly even think about it.
Going into this position I really didn’t think that it would turn out like this. I was pretty convinced this year would be a job, and I would do it, and then go on to some other job. That was about as much as I was expecting. It has, however, blown my expectations out of the water and given me a year’s worth of very valuable training and practice for the professional world.
Interested in becoming an AmeriCorps*VISTA? Check out this amazing opportunity!
AmeriCorps*VISTA position available at Montgomery College Takoma Park/Silver Spring in August 2009
