Terrence Foushee - On AmeriCorps (clip)

Terrence Foushee (TF): So, after camp I applied to the Americorps program. Americorps in Triple C, the National Civilian Community Corps, which is the only team-based Americorps program, where for a year you serve in different cities, different towns across the country for about two months at a time doing particular service projects. So you typically worked for some sort of non-profit organization, and you pretty much are their free labor but you’re paid through the Americorps organization. And in my first year of Americorps, there was a program at the very end of my first year. So again you did four projects, and the fourth project with your team there was one project where you could actually apply for. Most of the projects were randomly assigned. There was one that you could sign up for, and it was called the summer of service, where the team that was selected from the applications would get to work with about a hundred students from the Aurora-Denver area, like the inner-city area. And pretty much you teach them about servant leadership over the course of about two-and-a-half weeks. The first week would be kind of an introduction to the program, the second week you would do service projects each day, and then you'd finish it out with about 5 days of camping in Leadville, Colorado, which is like 10,000 feet elevation, like in the mountains doing trail building work. I’d never camped before and it was kind of like the blind leading the blind because I was expected to–it was, I think three of us, three counselors per ten students and neither, none of us had any real camping experience. Like I think one of them had a bit more than we did but we led those students on a camping trip, and I developed really strong bonds with those kids and I think it was another moment that was kind of solidifying for me. Maybe, teaching is the route to go, it’s like you are energized by working with these youth and navigating new experiences. Not just for them, but for yourself as well. It's not like you know, “Hey I’m teaching them to camp because, you know, they need to learn.” It’s like, “I don't know how to camp, right, and I'm getting uncomfortable while working with them while they're uncomfortable so that we can become comfortable together.” And I think it was like another moment that again solidified, “Hey, maybe this is what you should be doing…”