I saw a year of AmeriCorps*VISTA service as a fantastic opportunity to try something different, and it ultimately transformed my entire professional career and personal life. Without AmeriCorps I never would have realized how much positive impact I can have on society. Without AmeriCorps, I never would have found myself working towards an MBA in Public & Nonprofit Management at Boston University. Without AmeriCorps, I never would have met my wonderful wife. In effect, my AmeriCorps experience was the single most transformational experience I have had in my life.

My AmeriCorps work with Massachusetts Campus Compact established Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Center for Community & Learning Partnerships, connecting Wentworth students and faculty with the surrounding Mission Hill community. Since my year of service five years ago, Wentworth students are now completing nearly 100,000 hours of service every single year. This demonstrates the power of AmeriCorps to not only be a chance for direct service, but also to establish sustainable practices to give even more citizens the opportunity to serve.

-Eric Whitney, AmeriCorps*VISTA 2004-2005

— Kris Carter

At the conclusion of a year in the Americorps National Civilian Community Corps, I remember hearing a quantified list of our achievements as a campus: miles of maintained trail, hours of at-risk students tutored, hurricane damaged roofs repaired, trees planted, etc.  I assume politicians will defend cost cutting measures against these very metrics—no small task, but presumably accomplishable given the current political climate around fiscal responsibility.  However, relying on this narrow operalization of the NCCC’s output attacks a man of straw, for the greatest achievements of the program are less tangible, much harder to measure, but incredibly real.  Besides the obvious benefits to the communities helped by NCCC teams, one must also look to the impact on the corps members themselves, and how these individual impacts feed back into the community, in order to accurately weigh the benefits of NCCC.  How does one measure “how much” corps members commit to life-long service, and the value added to our nation in doing so?  For starters, one could look to the careers pursued by former corps members—which are disproportionately in fields of public service—and to the words of former corps members to see how a year of service helps to shape the work that they perform.  This will undoubtedly give a fuller, more accurate analysis of the success of NCCC than calculating the cost of sandbags filled, acres of invasive plants removed, or any other quantity that is far too simple to measure such a rich construct.  It reminds me of an equivocal and often hollow phrase often used in my current field of education: data driven decision making.  When taking data into account, one must not be boorish or myopic; one must evaluate all consequences of the decision, no matter how difficult that may be.  To not do so reveals ignorance, or worse, cowardice.  A straightforward examination of our nation’s spending future shows that changes in the “Big 4”—Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, and Social Security—are both necessary and sufficient in order to move towards fiscal responsibility.  The twenty-something thousand dollar price tag per year of corps member service (which is easily recovered by future gains due to the investment made in the environment, schools, and communities), is but a drop in the bucket.

— Doug Gagnon (Charleston, SC)

— Monica (Dorchester, MA)

— Dawn (Boston, MA)

— Hana Nobel (MA)