SALT LAKE CITY — I’m excited I had the chance to talk with Michael D. Smith, the CEO of Americorps for the Fox 13 News at 4. Americorps is celebrating its 30th anniversary and it was 30 years ago, in 1994, that I signed on to serve in a program that preceded Americorps and then became a part of it.
There are now four thousand Americorps Members in Utah, cleaning up our environment, teaching and counseling kids, and doing any number of other valuable things that Utah agencies and non-profits see as important needs.
Smith was in town to support a new partnership between his agency and the state of Utah called the One Utah Service Fellowship that is providing about 900 positions for high school graduates and college students to help around the state while learning valuable career skills. Americorps members earn a living wage and get money for tuition or student loans.
For two years after I graduated from the University of Utah, I worked as a VISTA, which is now a part of Americorps. VISTA stands for “Volunteers in Service to America” and it was created in 1964 as a domestic form of the Peace Corps. VISTAs are college graduates who organize projects to fight poverty.
I worked full time at Salt Lake Community College helping start what became the Emma Lou Thayne Center for Service and Learning. It was a challenging and rewarding way to spend my time between college and graduate school.
If you want to know more about Americorps, just go to Americorps.gov.
