NYCC VISTA Members 2009-2010
NYCC VISTA members are recruited nationally. They have varying backgrounds, abilities, and professional goals. All NYCC VISTA members have Bachelors degrees and have had significant experience in college-level community service and/or service-learning programs. These volunteers dedicate a year of their lives to the alleviation of poverty. Here are their stories...
Locations of current VISTAs in New York State
Liz MixSUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Syracuse, NY
emix@esf.edu
Ryan is in his second year of service at Alfred University. He is their Service Learning Coordinator and works with students enrolled in the Gary Horowitz Service Learning Experience as well as working with faculty to incorporate more service learning courses while at the same time developing community contacts and partnerships.
Ryan originally hails from Boston, Massachusetts (yeah son!) and is adjusting easily to life in Alfred. He dislikes skunks, because they smell really bad, and is afraid of getting run over by a deer.
Jason Beck
Jason Beck grew up in the small town of Holgate, Ohio and attended Miami University—majoring in Political Science and English/Creative Writing. He co-wrote an honors thesis on service-learning and worked for an affordable housing agency in Cincinnati before enrolling in the AmeriCorps VISTA program. Jason’s desire to be a VISTA can be traced back to his reading of Jean-Jacque Rousseau, Benjamin Barber, and Harry Boyte during his political theory classes at Miami. The democratic ideals these theorists espoused spurred him to work toward a “strong” version of democratic society. Now serving his second VISTA term at Colgate University, Jason functions as a liaison for community partners on campus. He assists faculty in developing service-learning courses that work with impoverished communities in Utica, and also advises student groups volunteering in the city.
Sara Tomar
Rachael Bruketta
Buffalo State College; Buffalo, NY
bruketrs@buffalostate.edu
Hello! I am currently serving as a VISTA in Buffalo, NY as a Youth Outreach Worker at Buffalo State College. I moved to NY this past August to start my project. I am 22 years old and a recent graduate from Illinois State University. I studied Political Science and Sociology and would like to do something policy-reform related when I grow up. My current goal is to encourage enthusiasm for volunteers from campus and around the community... and to gain as much perspective as possible.
I'm originally from Rochester and just moved back after living in Houston, Texas for 2 years where I was a 5th grade reading teacher for a year and worked as a VISTA with the College for All Texans Foundation coming up with programs to help middle school students prepare for the future. I'm planning on going to grad school next year to become a children's librarian because I love young adult literature and working with kids!
I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California and am I recent graduate from UCSC majoring in Community Studies with an emphasis in agriculture, food and social justice. Before beginning my studies at UCSC I was a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Argentina for a year completing another Senior year of high school. Also due to that experience and a 6 month field study in Costa Rica completed as a requirement for my major I am fluent in Spanish and currently beginning to learn Portuguese. I love meeting all kinds of people and love learning about different kinds of culture and lifestyles. I am very excited in spend a year in a community distinct from that in which I grew up!
Get sick, get well
Hang around an ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write Braille
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you
failed
Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
I'm Janelle. I am a recent graduate of Binghamton University, receiving my MA in History. I am a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc, a community service based historically Black Greek Letter Organization. I don't have a favorite color. And, I am addicted to LOST.
I'm lucky to have the opportunity to serve and give back through AmeriCorps and my sorority. In my second year of graduate school, I realized that I wanted to work with and in nonproft agencies. So I finished my MA, and joined the AmeriCorps VISTA.
Holly Kahn
Hobart & William Smith Colleges; Geneva, NY
kahn@hws.edu
Hello! My name is Holly Kahn and I am currently serving at Hobart and William Smith for the 2009-2010 school year. I graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 2009 with a B.S.ED in Childhood and Special Education. Working with people has always been a passion of mine and I am so excited to begin this new journey! During my four years at Geneseo I served as an Orientation Advisor, Resident Assistant and Tour Guide as well as I was an active member of my sorority, Phi Lambda Chi, and I participated in many volunteer activities such as Relay for Life, the Livingston County Day of Caring and Geneseo’s 100 Volunteers program.
As the VISTA at HWS, I serve not only the college community but the larger community of Geneva in several ways. First I will be working with the Geneva Reads program. Geneva Reads is a literacy program designed to raise the level of literacy of people of all ages in the community as well as to increase the importance of reading in the community. I am very excited to begin working with this program, especially with my education background.
Secondly, I will be implementing a Community Based Research Project in the city of Geneva. The project, created by students, faculty and community members, will be the implementation of a community garden in an area of the city that has issues with access to fresh produce. Students and other community members will be involved in helping me to make this project a reality for the citizens of Geneva.
Finally, I will be working with student on the HWS campus in their volunteer efforts. This will include working with students to help implement campus wide events, participate and organize an Alternative Spring Break trip, support our Community Service House and help to train and supervise some of our Bonner Leaders.
As a part of the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, I look forward to helping make both HWS and the larger Geneva community a better place through my efforts. In the future I hope to pursue a degree in Higher Education, specifically Student Affairs, and continue to help make the lives of students and the colleges I work for better than before.
After spending my first 2 years of college at SUNY Oswego as an undeclared student, I picked a Psychology major and managed to graduate on time. On the path to graduation during my last two semesters I realized that I had only slightly managed to narrow what I wanted to do with my life. So feeling undeclared once again and not wanting to go to graduate school undecided I thought working as a VISTA with NYCC would be a good way to help me decide between my options. Luckily enough I applied for and was offered the position at SUNY Oswego, my alma mater. I accepted it and now I get to spend another year here in the snowy Oswego. I do a lot of different things, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself so far :).
Laura Notarangelo
Hello all! I’m Laura Notarangelo and am excited to be the VISTA at Syracuse University. I’m from East Longmeadow, Massachusetts and graduated with a bachelor of science in Fashion and Retail Merchandising from Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts. I also completed an English minor and was part of the Honors Program. At Lasell, I lived in the community service house for two years, completing at least forty hours of service each semester. I also traveled to Chicago on an Alternative Spring Break trip to work with Vital Bridges, an organization that assists individuals who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. The last semester of my senior year I lived in Manhattan and interned full time at Family Circle Magazine in the Beauty & Fashion department. I’m looking forward to working as part of a team to improve the area around me.
Alma Mater is SUNY at Fredonia, B.F.A. in Media Arts
Life Member of Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity
During my time at Fredonia I volunteered in many community service projects. When I found out about VISTA (specifically the NYCC program) I wanted to continue working on a campus with students to help make my vision of more students doing community service a reality. Since I had gone through college because of federal grants, I felt I owed something back.
I'm now in my second year of service at BU. My role at Binghamton University is to act as a liaison between the campus and community agencies. My goal is to collect data and help with many campus programs to further the idea of service-learning. I hope to have established a process for capacity building in these programs by the end of my term. I find my duty to be a very fulfilling one.
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend” -Theophrastus
Jeremy WattlesHamilton College; Clinton, NY
jtwattles@gmail.com
I grew up outside of Syracuse, New York, in a suburban development built on top of backfilled wetlands. After graduating from Cicero-North Syracuse High School and then Colgate University (where I studied Literature and ran Track and Field and Cross Country), I spent three years in Edinburgh, Scotland, earning my MSc in Literature, and working a wide range of jobs—everything from dishwasher, waiter, assistant bar manager, caterer, tutor, and project administrator for Scottish school drop-outs who aimed to earn their bachelor’s degrees. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel through the British Isles and to many countries in Europe, and to have made friends with people across the globe. I remain interested in travel and different cultures, creative writing, running long distances, music and art forms of all kinds, our place in this thing we call history, national mythologies and identities, and substantive debates about the sacred, the profane, the hilarious, and the absurd.
As someone whose commitment to volunteerism and service is relatively newfound, I come to the VISTA program curious to learn more about the causes of poverty, as well as various strategies to combat it. At Hamilton College, I am part of the Community Outreach and Opportunity Project (COOP), where I advise and support the student-run volunteer group HAVOC, assist in the Bonner leader service-learning program, and participate in strategic planning for the COOP’s various other service activities and aims. I am also the Resident Assistant at the ABC (A Better Chance) house, which provides an opportunity for inner-city high school students of color to attend Clinton High School, become young leaders in their community, and progress onto a college education.
Martha Diaz
Erik Nevius
Sara Doane
Stephanie Crane
Katie Rogers
Hey There! My name is Katie Rogers. I am currently serving as the VISTA at SUNY Geneseo – I didn’t go to school here, but I did grow up just down the road in Livonia, NY. I graduated in May ’09 from Champlain College – majoring in Business – focusing on Non-Profit Management, Marketing, and Human Resources. After VISTA I look forward to attending graduate school for Elementary Education.
At Champlain, I participated in a variety of service projects – including a couple very similar to what I am working on here at Geneseo. I was a DREAM (Direction through Recreation, Education, Adventure, and Mentoring) mentor – look it up, it’s an amazing program, I spent a week in New Orleans 18 months after Hurricane Katrina helping rebuild, and I studied abroad in Belize – where I studied Environmental Science and Sustainability and tutored two young boys in reading and writing.
Here at Geneseo I will be working with the HEROS program and Livingston CARES. HEROS (Higher Educational Resource Opportunities in Schools) is a mentoring program that matches SUNY Geneseo students with local middle and high school students. HEROS focuses on ending the cycle of poverty through education. Livingston CARES is a non-profit humanitarian organization. Livingston CARES currently organizes four service trips to Biloxi, Mississippi to help out with Hurricane Katrina Relief.