Carla's big goodbye: A year in view as your VISTA Leader

I started off my year by writing a blog post introducing myself, so it seems only fitting that I close with one as well. It seems like such a long time ago that I sat in a UNC Greensboro conference room (on my first night on the job I might add. Chad wasn’t shy about getting my feet wet.) listening to the Executive Director of the Interactive Resource Center speak about homelessness. I still remember what she said that day when a student asked, “but what can we do?”

She replied, “you might think you can’t do anything now, because you don’t have any money to donate, or any time to volunteer, but there are lots of people to do those things.” She told us a story about a group of people sitting by a river and suddenly they see babies starting to float by.

Immediately, they jump into the strong current and form a chain to pull the babies out of the river. It is tiring and the babies just keep coming. But these people are so busy and caught up in getting the babies to safety, that no one has the time or the thought to go upstream and see who is throwing the babies in the river in the first place (no babies were harmed in the making of this analogy).”

This is what a system of oppression looks like. It is so insidious that you can’t see it, and you are so caught up in it, that you don’t realize that your actions aren’t creating sustainable change. She went on to say that what we can do is learn. Keep learning about these systems, grow your passion and thirst for knowledge; get to know people and their stories. And above all, never stop asking why. Because ultimately, “we’re a community of people, not a community of systems.”

That’s hard for me sometimes, because I’m a numbers person. Here are some of those numbers from the past year:

• Counted 5,678 volunteers
• Reviewed 288 timesheets
• Wrote 50 Tuesday mails
• Wrote and edited 30 blog posts
• Sent over 3000 emails
• Put in 1,800 of work

Those numbers mean I accomplished something right? Maybe, but as much as I love bulleted lists and data, it can never tell the full story, because it isn't really the core of the work I did or helped support. The numbers are only a small glimpse at trying to quantify the immeasurable. How can you really count how much community you had a part in building?

I feel confident in saying that not a single one of these NC Campus Compact VISTAs enjoyed my phone calls to remind them of a deadline, or to guide them through editing reports or blog posts, but they humored me, spending hours trying to get it right.

Each of these VISTAs wants to get it right, and that’s what is really at the core. I may have called with critiques, but as I spent hours reading  reports, and signing off on timesheets, I didn’t see the numbers. I saw each of them spending day-in and day-out, weekends and nights, and over-nights, in pursuit of their passions and in pursuit of the change they know is possible.

I saw them worrying about how events would go, or how much volunteers would like them or if they would even show up, or finding the best way to communicate with their supervisors or community partners, or running out of time. And I saw them on the other side of it all, having met new people and gained new experiences, ultimately invigorated by the work that not only they achieved, but by the guidance they facilitated in others to realize their own passions and goals and purpose.

So VISTAs, maybe your accomplishments aren’t the most quantifiable right now. Maybe you feel like a single disconnected cog, or a footnote under someone else’s name. But just because you are only the spark of an idea, that spark brings a light. It has illuminated a way of doing and being present in the world that either wasn’t there before or wasn’t noticed.

We can invent new technology, review spreadsheets, come up with outcomes and improvements, algorithms and quantifiable impact, but each of those numbers is a person and each of those people has a story that is meaningful. Gather them together and share them with others. After all, we’re not a community of systems, we’re a community of people.

I’ve lived in Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky, North Carolina again, and now I’m off to Virginia to serve as the Operations Associate for the D.C. region Teach for America team. The people I have met along the way have helped shape my path to this point, and it’s much easier to see what it looks like looking backward, than looking ahead, but I suppose that’s part of the journey.

I am so excited to join the TFA team and continue to learn and grow and meet new people. The climate of education in the country is over the burner right now, and education reform is taking lots of different avenues. I am excited to get into the thick of things in the nation’s capital to continue my own education of social justice. I expect that some people will touch my life with meaning, and others will confirm what I dislike about society and stoke my passion for change.

Someone wrote me a letter once, with the best advice I’ve ever gotten. I’d like to share it with you here, because as I wrap up this year of VISTA service, and this period in my life, I am struck by how many people I have met along the way who have reached out when they didn’t have to, or spoken up when they witnessed injustice, or taken initiative to start something new, whether or not they thought it would be successful.  These people continue to inspire me to pursue not just my own passions, but the ability for everyone to have the same opportunity of their own pursuits.

“You don’t have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don’t have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don’t have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don’t have to maintain an impeccable credit score. 

You do have to be kind. You have to give it all you’ve got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. 

But that’s all.”

NC Mayors recognize importance of National Service

April 1st marked the second annual Mayor's Day of Recognition for National Service. Nationwide 1,760 mayors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico united in support of national service. Thirty North Carolina mayors participated, which is a large increase from last year. A full list can be found here. Together, these mayors represent more than 110 million Americans, or one-third of the U.S. population. These mayors carried a common message: National Service Works for America. We at North Carolina Campus Compact were honored to participate in several of these events alongside such a diverse and vibrant group of AmeriCorps programs.

Dr. Lisa Keyne, Executive Director of NC Campus Compact, joined the Honorable U.S. Congressman David Price, Burlington Mayor Ronnie Wall; Gibsonville Mayor Len Williams; and Mr. Frank DiSilvestro, State Program Specialist with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), to recognize the commitment to service of the Alamance County RSVP Volunteers and local AmeriCorps members. The celebration was held in conjunction with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the newly renovated Crump Village Education Resource Center, a community center that will provide educational space for residents of the Burlington Housing Authority as well as the broader community. BHA is also a key community partner of Elon University, and many Elon students support youth programming at Crump Village.

VISTA Camille Smith with a
signed proclamation of support
from Mayor MacFarlane

VISTA Jacob Lerner participated in an event in Chapel Hill with Mayor Mark Kleinshmidt and members of the NC Literacy Corps. VISTA Camille Smith participated in an event in Raleigh with Mayor Nancy MacFarlane. VISTA Anna Donze participated in an event in Winston-Salem with Mayor Allen Joines, and VISTAs Bevelyn Ukah, Devin Corrigan, and Carla Davis participated in an event in Greensboro with Mayor Nancy Vaughn. Each Mayor issued a proclamation of support to National Service and spoke of the importance of AmeriCorps initiatives happening throughout the city, and in many cases, throughout the State. VISTA Leader Carla Davis recounts her Greensboro event experience: "The feeling of community in the room was palpable as AmeriCorps members shared their service experiences and projects."

VISTA Anna Donze with other
AmeriCorps members & Mayor Joines

North Carolina Campus Compact is dedicated to leveraging higher education resources to support community organizations, and to create well-rounded programs that address K-12 education, hunger and homelessness, and food security. And we, with other AmeriCorps organizations, are working toward a common goal for North Carolina: to enhance the quality of life for its citizens. Currently the Opportunity Index ranks North Carolina 37th in the nation, but when we can align with local government, the speed at which this this goal can become a reality increases.

Thank you to all of our North Carolina Mayors for recognizing the work that North Carolina Campus Compact and each of our VISTAs is doing to mobilize college student volunteers, create partnerships with non-profits, and fight poverty. The Corporation for National and Community Service annually engages more than five million people in service at more than 60,000 locations in 8,500 cities across the country through AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other sponsored programs, and we are glad to be even a small part of those numbers.

Check out our Twitter feed for more Mayors Day pics and tweets @NCCampusCompact. 

New VISTA Leader, Carla Davis, joins NC Campus Compact Community!

I've jumped into the thick of things here at North Carolina Campus Compact! Since Tuesday the 19th, my first day, I've already gotten to attend a Hunger and Homelessness Awareness event at UNCG put on by NC Campus Compact VISTA Devin Corrigan with the Interactive Resource Center and Office of Leadership and Service-Learning, listened in on a VISTA-led webinar, and gotten to talk one-on-one with almost all of our VISTAs! I am so excited to join the Campus Compact team and am soaking up all of this knowledge like a sponge (that roughly translates into spending most of my time readingreadingreading!).

"How did I get here?" you ask. Great question! Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

I grew up in Decatur, Georgia, with my two sisters, Rose and Maya, and my Mom. My younger sister Maya is still close to home in Athens, GA, and my older sister now works in Washington DC at the Environmental Investigation Agency. If you're in the area, also check out her band! My two younger brothers, Ed and Nico, live with my Dad in Greenville, NC. As of right now, Ed (15) wants to be an aerospace engineer, but is first learning the magic of operating regular cars, and Nico (12) is seriously considering zoology and currently is running his own massage business around the house.

I grew up wanting to be a three-way tie between professional soccer player, car mechanic, or librarian, but also always really enjoyed being on a team. My love of team sports evolved into a passion for volunteering, fostered both by my family, and my close-knit community of Decatur. I started out my volunteering stint because my older sister was doing it, and so it must be the coolest, right? My older sister went on a mission trip every summer to work for the Appalachia Service Project, spending a week in Appalachia repairing the homes of low-income families. I tried it out, not thinking I would like it, but I kept coming back year after year, not because it was cool, but because of the people; the people who volunteered beside me, yes, but more especially the families I met. Sure we came for a week and repaired a leaky roof, but I left with a strong sense of community. These families lived without adequate access to so many things, but they were rich in the bonds they had with each other, and together they got by. I started to think more deeply about what community meant, and how I could live my own life to engage in a bigger community. What did it mean that I could go back to my warm bed after a week working on a home far less safe than mine, and then say I lived in community with those people? The answer for me was that I couldn't. I wanted to learn more about the inequalities that pervade our society and what it meant to stand beside someone in their struggles, and yet not make them out as my own.

So, I started college at Montclair State University in New Jersey where I played lacrosse, was an Academic Assistant, and acted as Vice President of my Residence Hall Student Council. I finished up with a degree in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, joining the ultimate frisbee team and working with the Student Power Union to engage students in their school governance. Every summer in between my college terms though, I worked on staff for the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) in Kentucky, where I oversaw volunteer groups just like mine and got to know the families for which we worked for a whole summer, instead of just a week. After graduating from UNCG, I went back to Kentucky and worked as an AmeriCorps Office of Surface Mining/VISTA with the Housing Development Alliance (HDA), which builds and repairs homes for low-incomes families and teaches financial literacy.

While I believe that providing quality housing to low-income families (and everyone) is important, what drew me to these organizations was their over-arching missions of building a stronger communities. ASP is often referred to as a relational ministry with construction on the side, while HDA seeks to strengthen communities by creating quality homes. While ASP and HDA have laid their foundations with housing, NC Campus Compact works through education to build these strong communities. I believe the causes of poverty and inequality overlap in so many different ways, from lack of access to quality housing, or education, or healthy food, but I believe that that core of the solution lies in connecting people with one another and strengthening the ties between them.

These NC Campus Compact VISTAs are building the systems that help non-profits sustain communities, but more than that, they are breaking down the systems that challenge our communities by connecting people with one another. As Liz Seymour, the Executive Director of the Interactive Resource Center of Greensboro, so aptly said last Tuesday night at a "Faces of Homelessness" Panel, "After all, we're a community of people, not a community of systems."

I am so excited to see how Campus Compact VISTAS are working with and within their communities across North Carolina to engage volunteers in their local non-profits, and how I can best support each of our VISTAS in a successful year of service!