Service Opportunities

Americorps

AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace Corps, engages more than 40,000 Americans in intensive, results-driven service each year. AmeriCorps members train volunteers, tutor, and mentor at-risk youth, build housing, clean up rivers and streams, etc. AmeriCorps is made up of three service units: AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, and National Service.

VISTA

AmeriCorps VISTA Members Serve economically challenged communities to increase the capability of people to improve the conditions of their own lives.

NCCC

This is a full time, ten-month residential program for men and women ages 18-24. Members help meet the nation’s critical needs in the areas of education, public safety, and the environment.

National Service

The Corporation for National Service oversees AmeriCorps, and has implemented over 101 service projects in MA alone. These projects include serving communities through local non-profit organizations, schools, religious organizations, etc. to tutor and mentor children, coordinate after school programs, build homes, organize neighborhood watches, etc.

All of these programs focus on the improvement of society and the quality of life of the underprivileged through group-based service projects, combining, among other strategies, those of leadership and team building. For more information, view the AmeriCorps Web site.

Teach for America

Teach for America is an educational program created by a Senior at Princeton University, whose vision was to “call upon the most talented recent college graduates from all over the country to dedicate two years of their lives to improving the educational opportunities of the disadvantaged and underprivileged.” This program selects 500 applicants each year, and places them in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, Washington D.C., etc., to teach various subjects to children in underprivileged school systems. “Corps Members are united by a common vision that one day, all children in this nation will have an equal opportunity to attain a quality education.” Training includes classroom observation collaboration and work with returning core members, alumni and experiences educators “to learn and effective approach to teaching.”

To learn more about how you can apply, contact Susan Engel, Class of 1959 Director of the Education Program, contact Teach for America at P.O. Box 896, New York, NY 10108, or view the Teach for America Web site.