10/21/2009 11:52:00 AM East coast VISTA member finds welcome at school
AmeriCorps VISTA member Sam Kissinger hails from New Jersey but now works in the reading program at Humboldt Elementary School where he also will create a volunteer program that will sustain itself after he completes his year with VISTA.
Trib Photo/Sue Tone
From an urban school in New Jersey to a rural school in Humboldt, Sam Kissinger said he looks forward to putting his teaching degree to work.
"I've been blessed with a charmed life, and now I want to help people who need my help," Kissinger said. "This fits all the criteria I was looking for."
Applying for a position out of state with AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) has given the 24-year-old college graduate an opportunity to move across the country and build a life of his own. Kissinger said he especially likes the open space of northcentral Arizona.
Prescott has about the same population as Montclair, NJ, where he grew up, but Prescott is spread out - 32 square Arizona miles as opposed to 6 square New Jersey miles.
Humboldt is smaller yet with a population of 4,400 covering nearly 23 square miles. Kissinger said he breathes easier in Humboldt, "a totally different environment," than when he worked in Manhattan.
Kissinger is setting up a literacy program at the school where he will provide extra reading support for the second-graders. He will work with small groups of 12-14 students.
The next phase of his job this month is to seek out volunteers from the community to fill positions in the reading program.
The school already has good parent participation, Kissinger said.
"I see them on the playground, in the lunchroom. I see a lot of people with a Visitors sticker."
HES Principal Cole Young said Kissinger fits right in, and the staff immediately embraced him.
"He's been a phenomenal addition," Young said. "Sam will be spearheading a reading initiative that includes setting up the reading lab to work with the most intensive kids. The other one is the gifted class, challenging students specifically in fluency and comprehension skills and higher level thinking skills."
Kissinger completed his student teaching in an inner city school in East Orange, "a rougher, tougher neighborhood," where he worked with eighth-graders.
"It was a different world than what I grew up in," he admitted. "I came from an upper middle class white family, and I was teaching lower economic minority students. It was an eye-opening experience."
The VISTA program was one of three options Kissinger looked at after graduating from Montclair University with a secondary English teaching certificate. The other two were to find a teaching job or go back to school to get a second degree in journalism. Spurring him on were payments coming due on his student loans. He applied too late for teaching positions and for journalism school, but AmeriCorps accepted him into the program.
"It was a frustrating and scary time with the economy getting worse and people losing their jobs," he said.
Kissinger has found a circle of friends with his fellow VISTA members, and they often volunteer at each other's events. In August, for example, he helped run an activity at the Big Brothers Big Sisters End of Summer Picnic.
VISTA volunteers in Yavapai County recently received a grant from the Corporation for National Community Service that will expand the number of AmeriCorps VISTA members from 16 to 36, said Maggie Garvey, Program Director for the Yavapai County VISTA Project. VISTA's stated goal is to eradicate poverty and its effects by strengthening the non-profit civil sector, Garvey said.
VISTA members receive a living allowance of $10,380 a year, as well as deferment of federal student loans and a $4,725 education award at the completion of their term of service.
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Posted: Monday, October 26, 2009
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Sam is an awesome worker. We are so glad to have him.
