In July the
CCSR WSU VISTA Fellows Project recognized the first four VISTAs who completed
their year of service in July. The year of service profoundly impacted each one
of the VISTAs.
Danny
Barrera served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Circles of Hope program through
Peace Connections, in his hometown of Newton. Through his VISTA service
experience, Danny was impacted by the positive changes happening to the people
who were being served. Danny entered service with the intention of pursuing a
graduate degree post-service, but was debating between a Master’s in Business
Administration and a Master’s in Social Work. As a result of his VISTA service
experience, Danny started coursework at the University of Kansas this month.
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| Austin, Chloe, Katelyn and Danny |
The hands-on experience Austin Burke received with the Public
Health Initiatives team at the WSU Center for Community Support and Research
(CCSR) provided him with the skills to get a technical assistant position in
research for Social and Scientific Systems in Raleigh, North Carolina. The research
team he was hired to work with is involved with a GuLF study in public health through
a contract with NIH. https://gulfstudy.nih.gov/en/index.html.
This ties into the hands-on experience he received at CCSR working with local
health department to help them become accredited, along with researching what
is happening with community health workers across the state.
“My experience as a
VISTA directly assisted me in getting the job, said Austin. “I had a diverse
and valuable year that set me apart from other candidates.”
Before Katelyn Hilger started as an AmeriCorps VISTA with
Communities in Schools Wichita/Sedgwick County she was considering several
paths including medical school and Seminary, among other things. Following her experience of tracking donor
data, recruiting volunteer mentors and compiling resources she applied for a
position at COMCARE of Sedgwick County as a crisis case manager with the Community Crisis Center
Emergency Services hotline. She is now working in that position.
A VISTA with Rainbow’s United, Chloe
Stevenson said, “I originally went to college with the intent of graduating
early and going to hair school. When I didn’t graduate early, I changed my
plans after graduation and decided to try marketing to see if it was worth
pursuing rather than cosmetology school.”
Through her year of service on the
development and marketing team at Rainbows, she commented that it became clear
that marketing was a great fit for her and she wanted to pursue the field
further. In Chloe’s position she had the opportunity to network with members
of Rainbow’s Board of Directors. It was through connections she made that Chloe was
hired as a brand coordinator with the advertising agency, Apples & Arrows in Wichita.
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