Home > Monday, October 15, 2007

Graduation Day

In the last week of AmeriCorps Green 5 kept busy with final team position meetings, end of the year paper work, making a banner, presenting their final Debrief, writing resumes, and other last minute details.

On the night before graduation Joanna’s parents took the team out to dinner at a Hibachi restaurant in Sacramento. The food was delicious and it was the last chance the team would have to dine together before the end of AmeriCorps.

After the team came home from dinner there was a Halloween themed Ameri-Prom in building 922. Corps Members and team leaders dressed up for the occasion and it was a lot of fun. Che and Leann dressed up as each other.

Early Thursday morning there was a graduation rehearsal where Team Motivator Awards and Mock Awards were presented to the Corps. There was also an amazing slideshow presentation of the entire year that everyone got a copy of. Vanessa was voted Team Motivator. For the Mock Awards Jared was voted AmeriCorps poster child, Leann won best hair, Erin won best eyes, Che won hardest Team Leader to get a hold of, and Green Five was voted as the quietest team (minus Jared).

A few hours before graduation, the team sent Che on a wild goose chase scavenger hunt for Mr. Wiggles, the team gnome. Similar to the scavenger hunt Che made for the team at the beginning of the year to find out about their very first project in Alpaugh, California, the team took Polaroid pictures of each Teammate hiding Mr. Wiggles in various places around campus. The last clue took Che to the piano room where the entire team sat waiting for her. The team gave her a framed photo of the team and several individual tokens of appreciation.

Following graduation there was a big reception. Corps Members received yearbooks, copies of the slide show, and lots of hugs from fellow Corps Members as well as from friends and family that came for graduation. There were lots of laughs and a few tears. A lot of people went out after the reception while others had a whole 9 months of packing to do before the next day. At 3:30 am on Friday the first shuttle bus left for the airport. Surprisingly, most people woke up (or hadn’t gone to bed yet) in order to say their goodbyes.

It hasn’t even been a weekend so AmeriCorps still doesn’t feel like it’s over. Chelsea is taking care of final Team Leader business in Sacramento so she isn’t even done yet. After graduation Jared flew to Los Angeles with his mom and sister. Orlando, Erin, Jo, and Leann are road tripping down the California Coast. Last night they stayed with Kelly, the team’s housemate in Alpaugh who is now going to graduate school in Santa Barbara. Before the four of them head back to Sacramento to fly home on October 12 they hope to stop at the café in Alpaugh. Vanessa is the only one who is at her home in Minnesota.

Now members of Green Five share some thoughts on the end of the program that they wrote down before graduating.

Joanna

So how do I accurately sum up the most insane 9 months of my life? I hardly even know where to start! I will say this: there is such a sense of pride that comes from the kind of work that I have had a chance to do this year. I love being able to say that I de-molded a house, led 20 volunteers in a house gut, and worked on top of ladders and roofs despite being absolutely terrified of heights.

It’s even great to be able to brag about all of the crazy stuff that happened: “Hey Joanna! What did you do this summer?” “Oh, I got to live in a warehouse in 100 degree weather with crummy food and a sewage system that backed up everyday. So how have you been?”

The places I have been this year will stay with me throughout my life. I certainly have a lot of love for New Orleans, with the music, culture, and kindness of the people we worked for (and the incredible meals they cooked for us!), but my favorite place was a little town called Alpaugh in the middle-of-nowhere California.

It’s such a tiny, empty place, but I loved the open, flat landscape and the environmental work that the team did. I also loved that the team got to live and work in such an isolated area because it really helped everyone bond during the first round. And of course, I loved going to the only café in town which served the greatest Mexican food I’ve ever eaten (what can I say? I really like food!).

Alpaugh is definitely a place I would have never been to if it wasn’t for AmeriCorps, and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to see a part of America that most people don’t get to see.

I did have my share of hard times in AmeriCorps. There were days when I just couldn’t deal with the work and the insanity, days when I seriously considered quitting the program, days when I would have given anything to not be constantly surrounded by 80 volunteers crammed into a church basement. I’m glad I decided to stick it out and a lot of it was due to the support of my team. We became so much like a family throughout the year even though it was a real challenge at times to live and work together 24 hours a day every day.

My favorite memories of the team are when we all got to work together on a construction project or even when we were all complaining. It was a wonderful feeling for me to be part of something like AmeriCorps, especially when I got to be on a team with such amazing people.

So to sum up this Ameri-Year: this program was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and it was exactly what I needed.

Erin

It’s amazing to me that this year is almost over. It has been a long nine months that I’ve been in AmeriCorps, but it feels like only yesterday that I first arrived in Sacramento. When we first started in January, I was nervous about the large commitment that I had taken on and now it feels like without even blinking an eye, those nine months are over.

It is true that when I started, I had no idea what would happen throughout the year, and maybe if I had, I’d have been even more apprehensive about joining. But thinking about it now, I wouldn’t have changed my experiences for anything. AmeriCorps has done more for me than give me some of the most amazing experiences in my life though, it has caused me to take a moment and realize what I value in my life, what I plan on doing in the future, and has even made me question my own boundaries and goals. It has opened up my eyes to many possibilities and has also shown me that there are many things that I also don’t wish to pursue in my life.

In just two days, I’ll be leaving campus in Sacramento and embarking on a whole new aspect of my life, life after AmeriCorps. I am excited to see what has changed in my life because of this experience. I am also excited to get started on some of the goals that I have for myself including finishing school and doing some more traveling. In fact the week before returning home, Jo, Leann, Orlando, and I will be spending some extra time exploring the Southern coast of California (and we are all really excited for that!) So until I get back to New Jersey and let this whole experience settle in, I will be enjoying the company of those that I spent the last nine months serving with.

Vanessa

It’s hard to imagine that in a couple of days I’ll be back in Minnesota. Right now I am so absorbed in this moment, the fact that I have room inspections in an hour and then I’ve got to finish my resume and find a ride to the post office...

The reality started to hit me on our last day of work. Even before we flew down to New Orleans in March we anticipated the six-day road trip back to Sacramento at the end of the year as the team’s last hurrah. Now that we are spending our last days with the entire Corps in the same place that we started nine months ago for training, I’ve had a chance to think about the many ways that I have changed this year.

At one of our last team meetings Che gave us the letters we wrote to ourselves at the beginning of the year. It was nice to see that nine months later I am still working towards the goals that I had at the beginning of the year. One of the reasons I joined AmeriCorps was to try to sort out my passions and figure out what I want to do with my life. AmeriCorps has opened up a world of opportunity and experience but the most important thing it did was help reaffirm my goals.

Soon after AmeriCorps I am going to do an international volunteer work camp in Ireland. Without AmeriCorps, I wouldn’t have the confidence to travel abroad by myself and work with a group of people from all over the world. I am looking forward to this exciting new experience, and many more after that. I have a pretty good feeling that AmeriCorps isn’t over yet—that is, this experience will continue to affect many of us long after we graduate.

Orlando

In the twilight of our time together the lights fade, time moves faster, the talking becomes louder but the triumph of a journey becomes a whisper in the soul. To all things… an ending. Everyone on my team is now a part of me forever.

Jared

Wow. Nine months. Over. Those are pretty unbelievable words to write. At the beginning, it seemed so daunting; long program, one team, four projects. But looking back, it has turned out to be one of the most incredibly moving experiences of my life. I don’t know how many life skills I attained doing AmeriCorps*NCCC. For a program that prides itself on tracking quantifiable results, the most meaningful outcome to me cannot be numerically counted.

I have found a love for service and to help other people. I have found confidence in the work environment; something that I always knew I could display, but have always fell off in. And even personally, I have met the most influential people to date so far, people that will no doubt do great things in this world and its’ communities. When I think to the thought process for joining, I think I had a totally different idea of what it entailed. I actually didn’t really know what it entailed, and so I did nothing to really prepare myself mentally for it.

And I think this is best, because after experiencing a very rigorous and flexible schedule for so long I don’t believe that anything could have prepared me for it. And I am totally fine with that. I am glad I went into it knowing pretty much nothing, because everything I learned has been appreciated and valued. I will never forget my service time, the people I met, the non-profits I worked for, the communities I influenced, and the overall satisfaction that I got when working for other people that truly need it. Thank you, AmeriCorps.

- The Tribe