Service Career Opportunities

Americorps*VISTA Ohio Campus Compact

Americorps*VISTA Program
AmeriCorps*VISTA is a national service program in which volunteers live in the communities they serve, designing programs that will continue after they complete their service. Created in 1965, VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) was designed to meet the needs of underserved communities and to address and combat poverty. In 1993, AmeriCorps was created and merged with the existing VISTA program. The Corporation for National and Community Service, also created in 1993, has oversight for all AmeriCorps*VISTA programs.

Goals of OCC's VISTA Program

Integrate service into faculty instruction and students' studies, making community service and service-learning a valued element of the undergraduate experience.
Enhance students' responsibility, citizenship, and awareness of the community while reinvigorating higher education's concern for improving the quality of life in society.
Strengthen the impact of that service on the welfare of communities and the education of students in institutions of higher education.

Three Categories of OCC's VISTA Program

Youth Outreach Leaders collaborate with local school districts to create tutoring/mentoring programs that target low-income/at-risk students and address moving children out of poverty. Example: Hire and train college student tutors for a city-wide America Reads program for elementary school students.
Service Leaders assist faculty in the development of service-learning classes and projects that will target poverty-related issues. Example: Establish and maintain an information center by which faculty can match up courses with service opportunities.
Campus and Community Collaboration Leaders formalize partnerships between the campus and the community to integrate and streamline outreach initiatives. Example: Create partnerships to establish service-learning and community service experiences for individual students and classes.

How to Join

Log onto the Ohio Campus Compact Website

City Year

Vision Statement

City Year's citizen service vision is that citizens of all ages and backgrounds will unite to serve their community, nation and world, and that one day the most commonly asked question of an eighteen year-old will be: "Where are you going to do your service year?"
City Year's civic leadership vision is that one day every citizen will have the skills, values and inspiration to be a leader for the common good.
City Year's social entrepreneurship vision is that one day human inventiveness and compassion will be unleashed systematically to solve the pressing social problems of the day.
City Year's mission is to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership and social entrepreneurship.

About City Year

City Year, Inc.'s signature program, the City Year youth service corps, puts idealism to work by tapping the civic power of youth for an annual campaign of idealism that generates transformative community service, breaks down social barriers, inspires citizens to civic action, develops new leaders for the common good, and improves and promotes the concept of voluntary national service. City Year corps members, ages 17 to 24, unite from diverse racial, educational and socio-economic backgrounds for a demanding year of full-time community service, leadership development and civic engagement.

How to Join

Log onto the City Year Website

Americorps

What is Americorps?

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet our country’s critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment.

AmeriCorps members serve with more than 3,000 nonprofits, public agencies, and faith-based and community organizations. Since 1994, more than 400,000 men and women have provided needed assistance to millions of Americans across the nation through their AmeriCorps service.

Americorps Programs

AmeriCorps*State and National: AmeriCorps*State and National supports a broad range of local service programs that engage thousands of Americans in intensive service to meet critical community needs.
AmeriCorps*VISTA: AmeriCorps*VISTA provides full-time members to community organizations and public agencies to create and expand programs that build capacity and ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty.
AmeriCorps*NCCC: The AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps is a full-time residential program for men and women, ages 18-24, that strengthens communities while developing leaders through direct, team-based national and community service.

How to Join?

Log onto the Americorps Website

Peace Corps

Mission: In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Volunteers complete 27 months of training and service overseas. PeaceCorps members receive a small living allowance during their service experience and have the option to defer student loans.

To apply In a nutshell:

1. You submit the application.

2. We contact you for an interview.

3. You get medical and legal clearance.

4. You qualify based on skills and suitability.

5. We contact you with a placement.

For an extensive look into the application process, log onto www.peacecorps.gov

Teach for America

Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity.

Their mission is to enlist our nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational inequality.

Impact: Their theory of change calls for providing more students growing up in low-income communities with the educational opportunities they deserve, while growing the force of influential Americans who will work from every sector for fundamental change. The nearly 17,000 individuals who have joined Teach For America over the past 16 years have proven that their impact is both immediate and lasting.

Eligibility:

Graduating college seniors and college graduates from all academic majors are eligible to apply. Applicants must have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.50, receive their bachelor's degrees from an accredited university by June 2007 and, due to AmeriCorps requirements, they must be citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents of the United States.