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FL|CC recognizes and congratulates its AmeriCorps VISTA members who completed their service terms in May and June.

Jill Gedeon, Catalyst Miami

Celebrating FL|CC AmeriCorps VISTA Members

Jill Gedeon served with Catalyst Miami, a community based organization working to improve and engage communities in Miami-Dade County. Jill facilitated the Sound Out Youth Ac-tion Team, a free 22 week evening leadership training to em-power youth to explore issues related to community involve-ment, education and school improvement. During her term, she empowered over 30 youth to graduate from the Sound Out Youth program.

“What I like about my year of service is my work with students in inner city high schools to foster and empow-er leadership abilities and implementation of civic en-gagement for youth in Miami-Dade County by giving the youth the tools needed to create community projects on issues that are affecting them by means of using their

youth voice (s).” - Jill Gedeon (middle)

Stephanie Walker, Adventist University

Stephanie Walker served with Adventist University of Health Sciences in Orlando, FL, working with underprivileged elemen-tary schools within 15 miles of the campus as well as connect-ing veterans to community resources. She helped to match col-lege students with opportunities to mentor and tutor elementary age students.

“I loved the opportunities when I was able to provide direct service. My favorite was being able to tutor youth in an af-ter-school tutoring program that our college students vol-unteered at. I also enjoyed witnessing the relationships that were built between the college students and tutees, it made me feel that I had accomplished my job.”

- Stephanie Walker

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Ted Rivera III served with the Center for Leadership and Civic En-gagement (CLCE) at the University of South Florida . He secured 29 community partners and 57 community partner host sites for the USF “Stampede of Service” on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, en-gaging 2,380 volunteer participants with many coming from 204 stu-dent organizations. He engaged community organizations by hosting community “meet and greets,” held CLCE Orientation/Service Pro Training Sessions for new community partners, and managed the Service Pro volunteer database. During his tenure as a VISTA, he recruited a total of 57 official community partners on Service Pro, bringing the total number of community organizations partnered with the USF CLCE to 142. Ted leaves an incredible legacy with USF and in the Tampa Bay community.

Ted Rivera III, University of South Florida

Ashli served in a capacity building and coordination role to assist students, faculty, and staff in enhancing civic engagement and involvement in solving community is-sues. In the area of education, she worked to strengthen the capacity to leverage uni-versity resources to boost educational success among the school members of the Community Learning Partnership (CLP) in Miami Shores.

“Whether it was planning monthly service projects, long-term service

programs or awareness campaigns, I knew I was doing something great.

I loved seeing the gratitude of those we were helping, as well as hearing how

the service impacted the volunteers. It made me realize how much I wanted to

continue working in the non-profit world, specifically with education. I want to

give back to my community and help youth reach their full potential. I want to

afford them some of the opportunities I had growing up, and help them through

some of the obstacles they are sure to face.” -Ashli Van Horn

Ashli Van Horn, Barry University

Nathan Beck, Chautauqua Learn and Serve School

Nathan Beck served with two other VISTAs at the Chau-tauqua Learn and Serve Charter School in Panama City. Chautauqua emphasizes service learning in its cur-riculum to prepare disabled students for the workforce by giving them the skills, knowledge, behaviors, and habits of citizenship needed for a productive life. Nathan engaged students with disabilities and volunteered his time to paint murals and travel to service projects with them. Nathan co-chaired the Empty Bowl Supper, which fights hunger in the local community. Much of his work at Chautauqua involved enriching and improving educational activities for at-risk students and revamping the local public transit system to accommodate the disabled.

Nathan loves volunteering his time with adults with disabilities and people facing poverty. He plans to stay with Chautauqua and hopes to reenroll as a VISTA.

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Kaleena Waters, I Have a Dream - Overtown

Kaleena Waters served with I Have a Dream Overtown, Inc., a non profit organization that works with low income students in the Overtown commu-nity by providing mentoring, tutoring, enrichment, and opportunities for tui-tion assistance. Overtown is a historically African-American community in Miami-Dade County.

“My year of service with the I Have a Dream Overtown program has

most definitely impacted my views on poverty and how I view the

world. My knowledge of the Overtown community was little to none

before I started serving. These students are the true definition of

‘your community does not define who you are’….I have experienced

my students coming to school and overhearing them ask each other

if they heard ‘gunshots’ last night. If they heard about who died in

the street last night. I have one student that actually witnessed a

drive-by shooting and a pregnant woman being shot down outside

the corner store. This is the neighborhood my students are living in.

Serving with this program has opened my eyes even more to poverty

and the need to do something about it. Helping my students in their

schooling and helping them to prepare for higher education so they

will not have to live in the living conditions they are living in now is

what I do everyday, and I love it.” - Kaleena Waters

Erica served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Florida State University Center

for Leadership and Social Change working to establish community agency

partners and student Ambassadors to build the capacity of community agen-

cies to utilize student volunteers and university partnership. Erica organized

several student Ambassador training and development opportunities including

the FSU Challenge Course for Communication, free participation in the three-

day Florida Volunteer Administration Certification Program, a Non-Profit and

Volunteer Management Workshop, as well as group program meetings. Erica

directly supported student Ambassadors in their efforts to build capacity at

their agencies, shadowing 11 student Ambassadors and visiting 10 partner

agencies to get a first-hand experience of their service and the impact they

had on the agency and community. Erica developed a Community Partner

Grant Pilot Program involving three partner agencies to help create a more

streamlined process for student volunteer intake at the FSU Center for Lead-

ership and Social Change.

Erica Busard, Florida State University

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Erica Lindegren, New College

Beatriz Hernandez, University of Florida

Erica Lindegren served with the New College Service Learning and Volunteer Office, connecting college students to the community by providing service opportunities. She worked with her fellow VISTA, Nicholas Manting Brewer (pictured on far right), to organize volunteer opportunities throughout Florida, including Alternative Fall and Spring Breaks and National Days of Service. Erica taught an “Arts to Action” class that focused on using art as a public awareness raising tool and a way to engage the community. She also taught a Community Based Leadership class that placed four students in internships with commu-nity based organizations to explore the function of non profits in social change.

“My year of service has helped me to see firsthand the ways that direct and indirect programming and service impact poverty. It has expanded my perception of what poverty looks like, from a lack of access to healthy foods to unequal access to education to differing knowledge of basic rights or laws. I had prior awareness of issues of poverty on a global scale from work-ing with Oxfam America and as an Anthropology and Internation-al Studies major who worked with issues of development and gender inequality. The Florida Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA program helped me understand issues of poverty on a more local level and how it affected my immediate community.”

-Erica Lindegren (pictured on left with her supervisor Konnie Kruczek and VISTA Member Nicholas Manting Brewer)

Beatriz Hernandez served with the Florida Opportunity Scholars Pro-gram at the University of Florida, a scholarship and support program for low-income students who are first in their families to attend col-lege. She worked to provide materials and support for low income students, including information on financial literacy and career devel-opment. Partnering with community organizations and the University of Florida Center for Leadership and Service, she connected low in-come University of Florida college students to serve as mentors to middle school and high school students through the FL|CC College Access and Success mentoring program.

Her most meaningful experience: “Getting to teach a first year experience course for freshman college students who are first in their families to attend college. Having the experience to interact with those students and the opportunity to develop my skills as an instructor were priceless. I became close to my students and was able to see a significant change in their transition to col-lege.”

- Beatriz Hernandez

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Tom Earl

Community Tampa Bay

Rachel Smith, Florida Southern College

As an AmeriCorps VISTA at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Rachel collaborated with local colleges, businesses and community partners to coor-dinate Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week activities and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service projects. She facilitated a partnership with Camp Fire USA and the American Red Cross for MLK Day of Service in January 2013. Twenty-eight Florida Southern students and a number of community volun-teers went to homes in the Lakeland community to check their smoke detec-tors and teach residents about fire safety. For this project, FSC students com-pleted a combined total of 140 service hours. She coordinated a team of 20 faculty, staff and students for the local Paint Your Heart Out Event and orga-nized Alternative Spring Break trips for students. She strengthened existing partnerships and developed new partnerships with civic, educational, social service and religious organizations that service disadvantaged communities in Polk County.

“Before I started my service, I was aware of the issues facing our world, but had no idea of the amount of poverty in our own country, let alone in my local community. My years of service have taught me that one person can make a difference and create change. I’m much more aware of my own community now than I was before I started my ser-vice. I also take greater pride in being a proactive and productive mem-ber of my community.” -Rachel Smith

Tom Earl: Front row, middle

Rachel Smith: on right

Tom Earl completed his second year as an AmeriCorps

VISTA with FL|CC . During his service term, he con-

tributed to Community Tampa Bay’s vision of a commu-

nity free from all forms of discrimination by cultivating

leaders to change their communities. He co-facilitated

Be Intentional Institutes and mentored, recruited and

engaged high school teens in Community Tampa Bay’s

ANYTOWN program. In 2012, the Be Intentional Insti-

tute provided 183 diverse youth with dialogue, conflict

mediation, diversity education, and facilitation skills. In

2013, Tom Earl and his fellow VISTA member, Nadia

Rumbolt, partnered with the Tampa Bay Rays to host a

Youth Summit, celebrating the International Day to

Eliminate Racial Discrimination. The event created and

further developed partnerships with the Pinellas County

Urban League, Pinellas County JobCorps, and the

Central City YMCA.

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Page 6 CELEBRATING FL|CC AMERICORPS VISTA

MEMBERS

Kate Farley served at Eckerd College connecting students to schools serving in STEM and College Access and Success mentoring. Kate orga-nized programmatic events to engage Eckerd students in volunteer ser-vice at schools and organizations such as Academy Prep, Melrose Ele-mentary School, Bay Point Middle School, Maximo Elementary School, and other similar agencies directly addressing issues related to retention, graduation, and access to higher education for low-income youth.

“My year of service gave me ample time to reflect on the im-portance of service in one’s life. This year further grounded me in my passion to serve others. It educated me about various so-cial justice issues. The biggest impact VISTA had on me was teaching and forming me as a leader in my community. I worked under Brian MacHarg, Director of Service-Learning at Eckerd Col-

lege, and his guidance taught me various methods of leading a group of people in service. I feel I am leaving VISTA more confident and grounded as a leader. In the fall of 2013, I am enrolled to start gradu-ate school at University of Denver Joseph Korbel School for International Relations. I plan to focus on International Development in the Middle East specifically focusing on women and education. The Flori-da Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA program was a great start to my career and I am very thankful for this professional and educational opportunity.”

Kate Farley, Eckerd College

Jaheera White, Catalyst Miami

Jaheera White served at Catalyst Miami, working with fellow VISTA members to engage communities in social change. Jaheera was involved in developing a partnership between Catalyst Miami and the University of Miami William R. Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development to host the VISTA Collaboration Program: A Nonprofit Leader-ship Series. This year-long leadership series consisted of monthly meetings and development sessions throughout the year to promote collaboration between VISTA members and non profit organizations in Miami-Dade County. Within this program, participants shared their initiatives with their fellow service members, colleagues, alumni, and the University of Miami community. Florida Campus Compact thanks Jaheera for her service and the legacy she leaves.