We continue to share stories of the work our 2016 AmeriCorps Alums award winners have done and continue to do in their communities.
Our annual National Service Alums awards honor and celebrate one person from each major stream of national service, including AmeriCorps State and National programs, AmeriCorps VISTA programs, National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), and SeniorCorps programs. Each year, we take your submissions and choose one award winner from each program who are then honored at the Serve Illinois Opening Day program in our state capital, Springfield, IL.
This interview is with Bevin Callan, AmeriCorps Alum of NCCC.
Why did you choose to serve?
I chose to serve as I was finishing up my senior year of college. I knew I wanted to go to grad school, but wanted to take a year or two off first to give back. I was looking into the Peace Corps when a professor of mine told me about AmeriCorps and the opportunity to give back to my own country.
I applied to a couple different programs and was accepted to the NCCC Southeast campus. This was in 2003 when the campus was still in Charleston, SC. My Corps Member year we had zero natural disasters, so my team focused on environmental projects. We were the only fire team at our campus that year and got to participate in a prescribed burn of 180 acres to restore a longleaf pine forest. In addition to three environmental projects, my team tutored at Mary Ford Elementary School, helping them prepare for end of year exams, and we supported the Child Life Department of the Arkansas Children's Hospital. I loved my experience so much that I came back the following year to be a Support Team Leader where I had the opportunity to assist the Unit Leader with identifying projects for the 7 teams in my unit, managing their paperwork, and visiting their project sites. Best job I ever had!!
I applied to a couple different programs and was accepted to the NCCC Southeast campus. This was in 2003 when the campus was still in Charleston, SC. My Corps Member year we had zero natural disasters, so my team focused on environmental projects. We were the only fire team at our campus that year and got to participate in a prescribed burn of 180 acres to restore a longleaf pine forest. In addition to three environmental projects, my team tutored at Mary Ford Elementary School, helping them prepare for end of year exams, and we supported the Child Life Department of the Arkansas Children's Hospital. I loved my experience so much that I came back the following year to be a Support Team Leader where I had the opportunity to assist the Unit Leader with identifying projects for the 7 teams in my unit, managing their paperwork, and visiting their project sites. Best job I ever had!!
What are you doing now?
I have spent the last ten years since completing my AmeriCorps experience working for various nonprofit associations and foundations in Chicago. I am also part of the leadership team for the AmeriCorps Alums Chicago chapter, started in 2010. The last couple months I decided to leave full time employment to focus on a dream of mine, writing children's books.
How has your service experience changed your worldview?
My AmeriCorps experience opened my eyes to the inequality that exists in our country and awakened the desire in me to do something about it.
Out of all your experiences with AmeriCorps, what was your proudest moment?
That's tough. Hurricane Ivan hit at the start of my second year, and we went from a campus with no disaster projects to a campus of 90% disaster projects. It was a HUGE adjustment that lead to forming relationships with the Red Cross, FEMA, and several other agencies. The following year Katrina hit and our campus had teams leading the way in helping affected communities (I was out at this point, but did return to help train team leaders for disaster projects). Disasters have continued in various parts of our country and the NCCC Southeast Region has become the disaster relief campus, even moving locations to Mississippi so they are more centrally located in the region. Then FEMA Corps was created based on the NCCC Southeast campus disaster recovery program. This makes me proud, to have been a part of something that so positively impacts our country in our moments of greatest need.
That's tough. Hurricane Ivan hit at the start of my second year, and we went from a campus with no disaster projects to a campus of 90% disaster projects. It was a HUGE adjustment that lead to forming relationships with the Red Cross, FEMA, and several other agencies. The following year Katrina hit and our campus had teams leading the way in helping affected communities (I was out at this point, but did return to help train team leaders for disaster projects). Disasters have continued in various parts of our country and the NCCC Southeast Region has become the disaster relief campus, even moving locations to Mississippi so they are more centrally located in the region. Then FEMA Corps was created based on the NCCC Southeast campus disaster recovery program. This makes me proud, to have been a part of something that so positively impacts our country in our moments of greatest need.
What is an invaluable lesson you learned in your service?
I learned many valuable lessons. My AmeriCorps experience completely changed who I am today. The lesson that I am currently applying to my life is money management. When I was in NCCC our bi-weekly living allowance was $150. I learned to be a minimalist and to save money even when starting with very little. This lesson has allowed me to save and prepare to take my current sabbatical to focus on writing my book.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about AmeriCorps or the program you served with?
I wish more people just knew about AmeriCorps in general. Every time I talk to someone about my experience I hear, "I wish I had known about AmeriCorps when I was out of HS/college", "Would you be willing to talk to my kid/niece/nephew about AmeriCorps", or "Could you send me information on that?" Our 1 millionth AmeriCorps member signed up this year and our advertising is strictly by word of mouth. If we could promote AmeriCorps, just a little bit, we would drastically increase the numbers of participants.
