AmeriCorps Week 2017
AmeriCorps, a network of national service programs, has had a longstanding relationship with Emerald Youth since 1998. Charged nationally with “helping others and meeting critical needs in the community,” Emerald Youth AmeriCorps members serve in various roles throughout the organization.
Each year during AmeriCorps Week, members across the country are recognized for the extraordinary impact they make across the United States every day. AmeriCorps Week is being celebrated nationally March 4-11, 2017.
As part of AmeriCorps Week 2017, Emerald Youth is highlighting the service of some past and present AmeriCorps members (Learn more about Summer and Fall 2017 AmeriCorps positions here).
Logan Anderson
Logan Anderson serves as an AmeriCorps member with Emerald Youth Sports.
"Serving with Emerald Youth has made me realize how much I enjoy coaching kids.
Prior to my involvement with AmeriCorps, I had never really considered coaching as something I wanted to do. However, I've enjoyed it so much that I plan on being a volunteer coach for Emerald Youth even after my time with AmeriCorps concludes.
I serve in AmeriCorps with Emerald Youth because it provides me the opportunity to make a positive impact with kids from a variety of backgrounds, and it has allowed me to establish relationships with numerous children and their families through sports like volleyball and basketball."
Megan Haubner
Megan serves in AmeriCorps as Emerald Youth's volunteer coordinator.
"Emerald Youth AmeriCorps has given me the opportunity to serve while I am in school. I have been able to interact with several unique communities within Knoxville and better understand the city as a whole. Through this, I feel as though I am able to call Knoxville my home - not simply the place in which I attend school.
The primary reason I started serving in AmeriCorps with Emerald Youth is because I am also a part of an urban focus, inner city intentional community program. AmeriCorps with Emerald Youth has enhanced this experience by allowing me to get completely submerged and devoted through my life as I work, live, and serve in the same community.
My service with AmeriCorps allows me to be engaged in the community through contact with new and recurring volunteers. I am able to interact with individuals through local colleges, nonprofit organizations, schools, and churches as I represent Emerald Youth and AmeriCorps."
Laura Bean
Laura serves as an AmeriCorps member in Emerald Youth's College Street Ministry with teens and young adults.
"AmeriCorps has given me an opportunity to engage in areas I am passionate about - education and inner city renewal - while building meaningful relationships with urban youth.
This experience has taught me that the work I am called to is both harder and more rewarding than I imagined. Coming out of college, I knew that I wanted to work in the non-profit and education sectors. By facilitating Emerald Youth's new high school academic learning center called "College Street," I've been given the opportunity to do just that. I feel like this is an incredibly rare gift - to be able to work in the field you are called to right out of school!
I believe relationships and education are the best ways to empower urban youth and that every student has incredible potential. Emerald Youth has the unique capability to impact these students' holistically - to enable them to be bright, healthy, prepared leaders in their communities.
Through our College Street ministry, we are providing Emerald's students with tutoring, homework help, college readiness, and career prep. This means that by being a part of Emerald Youth they have access to personalized, one-on-one academic help that may not be available at school. Through this, we are also building positive relationships with the students.
Every day, I make it a point to tell the students I am glad they came. My goal is that students would walk away feeling more prepared to reach their academic and career goals, and they would feel confident and cared for."
Jasmine Burns
Jasmine serves as an AmeriCorps member in JustLead at The Restoration House of East Tennessee.
"Emerald Youth AmeriCorps has changed my life in so many ways.
It has given me the experience of service and making a difference within a child's life and the community I live in. It has humbled me and has allowed me to view life from a different perspective. Through AmeriCorps, I've also increased my social skills and ability to effectively work with other people to accomplish a goal.
I serve in AmeriCorps with Emerald Youth because it gives me a chance to fulfill something I'm passionate about: working with city youth. I look at this position as more than just something "to do" - it's an opportunity to help a child, relate to them and positively influence their life for the better!
I am accomplishing and gaining life lessons, making the community a better place, and gaining valuable leadership skills that will take me far in life. I am so grateful to be able to serve Emerald Youth and to give back to the Knoxville."
Tim Ramsey
Tim serves as an AmeriCorps member in JustLead at Second United Methodist Church.
"Emerald Youth has changed my life by opening opportunities for me to help my community through connections with neighborhood kids and parents. I serve because I can impact a child's life by showing them love and that I care about them. Through AmeriCorps, I am accomplishing goals that I have not only set for myself, but for children as well. I’m able to connect with the kids on a level where I understand what they go through, because I have been in their shoes, as I grew up in a similar neighborhood as theirs."