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--> On May 18 th , I will have reached the half-way point of my AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) term with Connections to Success, a non-profit that seeks to break the cycle of poverty through training, mentorship, support and hope. I have really enjoyed what I have learned so far, but there are a few things I wish I had known when I had started. 1. Don’t be afraid to take initiative. Yes, it’s always important to run things by your supervisor when working on a project. But your department’s team may be looking to someone with fresh new ideas who’s willing to make new connections with new individuals. And if you sometimes overstep your bounds and mess up, learn from your mistakes and head back on the right track. 2. You don’t have to like everyone that you work with, but you should respect them and perceive them as your ally. So you may be an extrovert, and your colleague may be an introvert. You may not see eye to eye on everything or may...

On November 18 th , I stepped into the office of my new job as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) with the non-profit Connections to Success. AmeriCorps is similar to a domestic version of the Peace Corps, but there are more venues and fields that participants can volunteer with. In addition, an AmeriCorps commitment is usually only one year long compared to the two-year commitment of the Peace Corps. The VISTA differentiation means that my position specifically focuses on the alleviation of poverty in a community through building capacity of current programs and processes.             Connections to Success Image from Google Images The non-profit organization for which my VISTA program partners with is called Connections to Success (CtS). Connections to Success seeks to break the cycle of poverty through the empowerment of individuals through professional development and access to...