Now recruiting for our next VISTA Leader!

NC Campus Compact seeks a dynamic, creative VISTA Leader to begin service in late October, 2013. Our VISTA Leader supports a cohort of 20 VISTA members serving at campus and community-based sites across North Carolina. All members work to strengthen a partnership between a campus and a key community organization serving low-income people. Projects address K-12 education, food security, or economic opportunity. Join the North Carolina Campus Compact VISTA team and fight poverty with the power of higher education!

The VISTA Leader will serve at the Compact’s office in Elon, NC, on the campus of Elon University. NC Campus Compact is an association of 40 colleges and universities committed to being “engaged campuses” that develop a student’s sense of citizenship, leadership, and civic responsibility, and impact the community by partnering with local organizations to address real needs.

LEADER DUTIES: The VISTA Leader will work with the Program Coordinator to: 1. Enhance member communication, 2. Develop and present trainings and resources, 3. Coordinate new VISTA recruitment and selection, 4. Collect and analyze member progress reports and performance evaluations, 5. Conduct site visits and project monitoring, 6. Advise members to ensure project success, 7. Engage VISTA alumni, and 8. Expand an alumni mentoring program. As a key part of the NC Campus Compact staff, the Leader will also support professional development for students, faculty, and community partners, and will have primary responsibility for managing the Compact’s social media outreach.

QUALIFICATIONS: Must have ONE YEAR OF PRIOR VISTA SERVICE and a Bachelor's or Master's degree to apply! Must be U.S. Citizen or have permanent legal resident status. The ideal candidate will have knowledge of higher education community engagement, strong writing and organizational skills, knowledge of Adobe products including InDesign, comfort using Twitter and other social media platforms, and full proficiency in MS Office programs.

BENEFITS: Living allowance, Health benefits, Choice of Education Award or End of Service Stipend upon completion of year of service, Childcare assistance if eligible, Relocation allowance, Training & professional development, Housing support

HOW TO APPLY:

1. Send a current resume and letter of interest to Chad Fogleman, Program Coordinator, NC Campus Compact (cfogleman2(@)elon.edu.) Questions? Email or call 336-278-7197.

2. Submit your updated AmeriCorps application through AmeriCorps.gov to our VISTA Leader position listing: https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?id=51898

Learn more about our VISTA program by checking out the rest of our blog!

Moving Forward and Looking Back

V for VISTA

Though we're excited for our new VISTAs to come on board, we can't forget to say goodbye to our outgoing 2012-2013 group. In late July, to celebrate their transition, NC Campus Compact VISTAs from all over the state traveled to NC Campus Compact HQ for service and reflection. VISTAs traveled from schools as far away as Virginia Tech and Elizabeth City State University and just down the road from Duke.

The group started their day on Elon University's campus at Loy Farm, an Environmental Education Center. The property is currently being developed for multiple uses including a garden area and a greenhouse. Some of the produce is used by Elon's Campus Kitchen program or donated to local food banks. The VISTAs were introduced to the farm and worked as a group to help harvest vegetables, move equipment, and clean out storage containers.

After a few hours of hot and sweaty work the group headed to the Elon Lodge for their afternoon. There they spent their time reflecting on their year of service, tie-dying t-shirts, and saying goodbye to one another after being NC Campus Compact VISTAs together for a year.

For one activity VISTAs passed a ball from person-to-person answering questions about themselves and their experiences over the past year. Questions started with, 'if you could be one animal, what would it be and why?" (I'd be a chicken. Chickens are tasty.), and progressed to, 'what was your worst experience this year?' (just one story for this one, he hit it out of the ballpark), and finally, 'if you could have a conversation with the person who will be a VISTA at your site after you're finished, what would you tell them?'

This last question was an important part of our next activity: building a survival guide for our 2013-2014 VISTAs.This guide, broken up into chapters about things like working with community partners and navigating living on the VISTA stipend, was handed over to the new VISTAs at our orientation event on Friday, August 16. Each of the VISTAs also had the chance to tie-dye tshirts and make signs for the My Service in 6 project.

We also learned a little more about what our VISTAs have planned now for their next adventure.  Four of our VISTAs are staying on for a second year of service as NC Campus Compact VISTAs. Several VISTAs will be starting graduate programs or entering the workforce. Sara Brown, for example, accepted an internship with Heifer International. Alejandra O'Connor, will be returning home to Raleigh for a few months before shipping overseas as a member of the Peace Corps. Sally Parlier will end her VISTA service but stay on at Durham Tech as the school's new volunteer coordinator. Congratulations and best wishes to all our 2012-13 VISTAs!

2013-14 VISTA Orientation

Each year North Carolina Campus Compact invites new VISTAs and their supervisors to join us to share ideas, get to know one another and us, and learn about what it means to be a NC Campus Compact VISTA. On Friday, August 16, seventeen VISTAs, their supervisors, and their community partners met at Elon University for NC Campus Compact VISTA Orientation.

To kick off the day and break the ice the group got to arrange themselves as though the room was a map of North Carolina. Groups introduced themselves and talked briefly about their projects. The group also participated in an Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator session led by NC Campus Compact Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Keyne and discussed different ways they can work together and use differences in their type preferences as strengths rather than challenges to overcome.

Dalton Hoffer and Aubrey Swett talk VADs.

In the afternoon Mary Morrison, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement joined the group to lead a session on Making Campus and Community Partnerships Work. Afterwards, during breakout sessions returning VISTAs Takira Dale (Duke), Christina D'Aulerio (Queens), Marion Hudson (ECSU), and Ariel Mitchell (LRU) moderated conversations with the new cohorts about case studies and professional expectations. They also shared their knowledge about everyday life as an NC Campus Compact VISTA and how to live on the VISTA stipend.