By AMY DOBNER | Special to The Sun
On Aug. 17, 2010, I joined 225 other young idealists in starting a year of service.
Together we sat in Center City, unsure of what the next ten months would bring, but excited for the challenges we would face. We were ready to start our City Year.
City Year is a non-profit organization that unites diverse 17–24 year olds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world.
As tutors, mentors and role models, corps members keep students in school and on track to high school graduation.
City Year serves in 20 cities across the United States. Every 26 seconds a student in the United States drops out of school. Corps members work to stop this drop out crisis.
I am a 2004 graduate of Cherry Hill High School East. While at East I was active in the Drama Department. After graduating I moved to State College, PA to attend the Pennsylvania State University.
During my four years in college I participated in the Penn State Dance Marathon and Phi Sigma Pi, a national co-educational honors fraternity.
When I graduated college I had a degree in Political Science and Psychology but no plan on what to do with them. Initially I moved to Denver, Colo., to work on a political campaign and then back home to Cherry Hill to work in the health care industry.
While I enjoyed learning new skills I knew that I did not want to build a career in either field.
I started to explore different options and kept returning to my childhood dream of becoming a teacher.
I looked into education programs but wanted the opportunity to gain experience in the field. While in college I realized how lucky I was to receive a public school education that prepared me for higher learning.
I also realized that this opportunity was not given to students only a few miles away from my school. From the moment I realized this I wanted to work to change this disparity.
One day while looking at an online job board I found a posting for City Year Greater Philadelphia.
After reviewing the website I realized that this was my chance to make a difference. I applied to City Year and in May I was invited to join the 2010–11 corps.
Each morning I stand outside my service site, Ben Franklin Elementary School, and greet students as they prepare for the day. I join my class of seventh graders in Social Studies, Language Arts, and Math and help them comprehend the lessons presented by their teachers.
I spend my afternoons running multiple after-school programs designed to enrich each student’s experience at Franklin. Throughout the entire day I build relationships with students that have a positive impact on them and keep them coming back to school.
City Year has given me the opportunity to discover more about who I am and what I want to be. After only two months in City Year I know without a doubt that teaching is the path I want to take. I have also been given the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students. On my first day working in schools, I was paired with a seventh grade student in Math class. I worked closely with this student throughout the class time. By the end of the period, I had taught her about mean, median and mode.
A month later that same student asked me to make up problems so she could practice these skills. Immediately she correctly solved the problem.
It is these wins that keep me invested in keeping these students in school. I have met peers from around the country that are dedicated to the same ideals I am. We work together each day to provide powerful service to the city of Philadelphia.
If you are interested in joining City Year, visit the Web site www.cityyear.org for more details.
