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| Anya and her UNCG supervisor Joe Frey. |
NC Campus Compact VISTA member
Anya Piotrowski will end her year of service this month. (Most of our VISTAs serve August - August terms, but Anya's placement began in February 2012.) Anya has made a great impact at her host site, UNC-Greensboro, and community partner, the
Interactive Resource Center (IRC). Throughout her year, Anya has worked to help the IRC, in partnership with local grassroots organization Transition Greensboro, build a
sustainable community garden at the IRC day shelter. Anya's made herself an amateur expert on organic and permaculture gardening through classes at the local Cooperative Extension office; organized over 400 volunteers for workdays throughout the year; and raised over $5000 in cash, grants, and in-kind donations to support the garden. She helped create internship positions that will support the IRC's housing department and the garden, and will leave behind a comprehensive garden manual to guide the intern and other volunteers managing the project.
On campus, she spear-headed the university's first campus-wide
Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week and advised a group of students who organized themselves to sustain the event and continue engaging UNCG with these issues.
Check out the Prezi Anya created to sum up her work.
Anya will take what she's learned about building community partnerships and higher ed engagement to her new position as the first VISTA Leader at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee. She'll lead a project that
places VISTA members at local community-based organizations to build capacity and engage college and community volunteers. Good luck, Anya!
