OneStar would like to spotlight is a special (and unusual) AmeriCorps member whom many of you may know. After many years serving as a fiscal grant administrator for University of North Texas' Texas HIPPY Corps program, Susan Blackburn retired a few years ago… but not for long! Susan quickly rejoined the national service ranks, this time as an AmeriCorps member through Points of Light’s Community Emergency Program’s placement site at VolunteerNow, the volunteer center of North Texas. See below for Susan's inspiring words from her two terms of AmeriCorps service:
Finally I have the words to tell my AmeriCorps story… Only 240 hours to go and this chapter closes, waiting with excitement to see what the next chapter brings and hoping to continue service in whatever capacity I am needed.
My first introduction to AmeriCorps was as a staff member on a HIPPY Corps project sponsored by UNT. This project addressed the issue of early childhood education by giving parents the tools to become their child’s first teacher. As with all AmeriCorps programs we were to change the environment served, leaving that environment better prepared and quietly go on to the next challenge. AmeriCorps was developed along the same guidelines as the Peace Corps – “give a person a fish and feed them for a day or teach a person to fish and allow them to feed themselves and others in the future”.
Through HIPPY Corps I enrolled over 500 members in 6 different sites across Texas and saw incredible results, lives changed, neighborhoods changed and education awards used to help the members gain skills after service. Both those served and the members benefited by time invested in AmeriCorps service. After 10 years developing AmeriCorps programs for UNT and CNCS I retired and was offered an opportunity to become an AmeriCorps member; I took the offer and have reveled in the challenges and changes I have been able to make.
My sponsoring site (Volunteer Now) was familiar to me; the project was brand new – Disaster Preparedness – What was that? Prepare curriculums – you have to be kidding! Give presentations – I have always been the background person, not the person at the podium! The list continued on and as I faced each day’s new challenge I grew in knowledge, began to see why I was chosen. The skills were in me, others saw those skills and soon I began to own those skills myself. What a joy to see myself gain confidence, join a tradition of 20+ years of service and truly make a difference in the community I served.
My time of active service is drawing to a close, but my AmeriCorps adventure is continuing as an AmeriCorps Alum. AmeriCorps Alum groups are there when you need support during the time of active service, they had been in the trenches where we stand and help provide important networking connections, or a shoulder to lean on when the road gets a tad rough.
AmeriCorps is a large interconnected family of programs and resources, use it, grow it and all will reap the benefits of service through community. Thanks to all the staff at OneStar for making AmeriCorps Texas the shining example it is to this country and those served in Texas.
