Making a Difference Serving the Community in NEPA

Serving the community is what AmeriCorps is all about. During AmeriCorps Week March 14, 2023 NEPA members and myself had the opportunity to travel to Harrisburg to attend the conference. There were amazing workshops we attended! For the workshops, I picked Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement, presented by Hillary Kane, The Director of Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) and the Getting it Done: Living and Leading Intentionally by Tray T.S. Deadwyler.

During the Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement session, the presenter talked about the range of possibilities by which we can work on making a connection to contribute and help the public good. During the session, we learned about the pathways we can take and the people these pathways were developed by; during the session, we also learned that there is not just one solution or one path; there are many different ways to engage in public service and help our community. During this session, we had a hands-on activity in which we were given a case study, and we were also given many different paths and or options people could pick from in order to fix the problem the case study presented. For this activity, we went up to the board and wrote the path we picked, and after everyone had their picks, we all explained why we picked the pathways we picked. This activity allowed us to listen to each other's opinions and see how the same problem can be tackled to help the community.

For the Getting it Done: Living and Leading Intentionally session, we learned how the way we think can and will affect the way we lead; we also learned about the importance of discipline and how we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. this session opened my eye because I have always had the mentality that some things were just too hard for me to accomplish, but the way the presenter demonstrated and explained what we had to do inspired me to do better.

The AmeriCorps week conference was also a way for us to network and get to know many other AmeriCorps programs and organizations and what they do. One of my favorite parts about the conference was getting to spend time with my fellow members, and I enjoyed bingo! Although I didn't win, I got to put myself out there and interact with other people. Overall, this was a very beneficial experience. I have learned so much in my year of service, and it is sad that is coming to end, but it makes me happy this organization and all the members are here to help the community and make a difference.