Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
Emily Dickinson by Jaclyn Casey

As a first time member of AmeriCorps, I did not know what to expect. I participated in the Education Branch of AmeriCorps where I volunteered in a Title 1 elementary school in Bozeman, Montana. A Title 1 school is a school where at least 40 percent of the children in the school attendance area are from low-income families. Sadly, over half of all public schools receive funding because of this issue.

I spent all of my time in a first grade classroom where I spent the day working with students one-on-one, teaching the whole class, and tutoring students before school. Many of the children in the class were not getting the support that they needed at home; not because their parents were abusive, but because many of the parents were forced to work two or more jobs to keep the family afloat. Unfortunately, many of these families had a single parent who had the responsibility of taking care of three or four children financially, emotionally, and physically. I was happy to be at school before the children got there because I had three students who came into the classroom right when they got to school so that I could work with them one-on-one to finish their homework, teach them reading strategies, or help them with assignments that did not get finished.

Most of this time was spent with a little girl who took kindergarten twice and was from a family with a mother who worked two jobs and had two older brothers who were never home. Every morning when she came into the classroom, her eyes would light up at the sight of me. I know it meant a lot to her that I was consistently there for her, gave her the love and attention that her mother was not able to give while she was away, and helped her with her homework so that she was not the only child that didn’t get it done. She was very behind in reading, so whenever we finished her homework we would practice reading. We saw her improve drastically; she went from the critically low group to the on-grade level group.

AmeriCorps provided me with a way to put my Elementary Education degree to work where it was needed the most. I feel really blessed that I not only got to know these wonderful children, but that I touched every one of their lives in some way.

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