UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AMERICORPS

PUBLIC BOARD MEETING

Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022
PARTICIPANTS

Board Members and AmeriCorps staff:

CATHY MCLAUGHLIN, Chair

Executive Director

Biden Institute at the University of Delaware

LESLIE BLUHM

FAGAN HARRIS

Chief Executive Officer

Baltimore Corps

SHIRLEY SAGAWA

ALVIN WARREN

Vice President, Career Pathways and Advocacy

LANL Foundation

MICHAEL SMITH

Chief Executive Officer

AmeriCorps

Invited Speakers:

MAYA CARTER, AmeriCorps member

Breakthrough Central Texas

JESS GOMEZ, AmeriCorps member

Jumpstart

JUDITH HICKS, Foster Grandparent

Northern Arizona University Foster Grandparent Program

CECE NAÑEZ, AmeriCorps member

City Year

VALERIE TU, AmeriCorps member

FoodCorps AmeriCorps

Commenters:

ZAHRA ALI, student, Augsburg University (Minnesota)

Youth representative, National Youth Leadership Council’s board

SAAGAR GUPTA, Coordinator, Service-Learning Programs at American U.

NORIANA JAKOPIN, service learning advocate

* * * * *
A G E N D A

Opening Remarks by the Chair

CEO Report

OGA Committee Report

Approval of FY 2023 Annual Grantmaking Plan

Simple as ABC: AmeriCorps Puts Students on the

Path to Success

Public Comments

* * * * *
P R O C E E D I N G S

(4:00 p.m.)

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Good afternoon. The meeting of the AmeriCorps Board of 

Directors will now come to order. I want to thank everyone and thank all 

of you for joining us today for this meeting. My name is Cathy McLaughlin, 

and I'm honored to serve as the Board chair.

I would like to welcome our new Board members who have joined us since our 

last meeting, Leslie and Shirly, for our meeting today. They were 

confirmed after our last meeting, so this is exciting to have them join 

us. AmeriCorps is unusual among federal agencies and having a Board of 

directors appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. I'm

excited to serve with colleagues who bring such a vast experience and 

expertise from many backgrounds.

First, before we begin, I'd like to thank the AmeriCorps staff at 

headquarters and around the country for your commitment, hard work and 

professionalism and carrying out AmeriCorps' mission. We couldn't do what 

we do without all of you. I'd also like to express my deep appreciation

the 250,000 dedicated members, volunteers and staff that serve AmeriCorps 

and AmeriCorps Seniors program across the country. Every day you do the

vital work to improve lives, expand opportunity, strengthen communities,

and unite our nation. We are grateful for your service and proud to be 

your partners.

Let me go over today's agenda. First, our CEO, Michael Smith, will provide 

his report to the Board. Then Fagan will report on the Oversight 

Governance and Audit Committee. The Board would then consider a resolution 

on AmeriCorps 2023 Annual Grantmaking plan. We will then have a virtual 

tour to learn about AmeriCorps’ impact and education. We will conclude by 

opening up the meeting for public comments.

If you'd like to make a comment, please indicate your interest by using 

your "Raise your Hand" feature on Zoom. If you are joining by a conference 

call instead of Zoom, you will not be able to comment. But there's still 

time for you to join Zoom.

I'd like to share a brief recap of the Board's activities today and what 

we'll be doing tomorrow. Earlier today, the Board met with senior staff 

about several topics, including the Agency's work to strengthen financial 

management budget matters, the Agency's legislative and regulatory 

priorities, and the FY 23 grantmaking plan. We were pleased to see the 

progress made on key agent priority of raising member living allowance, 

living allowances and stipends to recruitment and retention and to advance

equity, which is a major focus of our Board meeting in May.

Tomorrow, the Board will be meeting at the White House with senior 

officials to discuss the President's unity agenda and the ways we can work 
together with the White House and other agencies to strengthen the role of 

national service in meeting critical challenges, expanding opportunity and 

fostering national unity. We will then meet with the AmeriCorps inspector 

general. As a board of directors, ensuring federal resources are properly 

and effectively spent is a key priority, and we recognize the important 

role of the Inspector General in helping us strengthen fiscal management 

and accountability. Finally, we will meet with the union president and 

close out the day with discussions on AmeriCorps member recruitment, 

Schools of National Service and Board engagement opportunities. I'm 

excited and impressed from our conversations today and the reports we've 

been getting the past few months about the excellent work that's being 

done across the country and the Agency's progress on many fronts.

Now, it's my great pleasure to introduce AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith.

Michael has done an incredible job since taking the helm of the Agency 

just in January -- it might seem longer than that, Michael -- bringing his 

decades of experience in public and non-profit sectors to help AmeriCorps

increase its impact and effectiveness. Michael, I'll turn this over to you 

now.

MR. SMITH: Thank you, Cathy, so much. And thank you to all of you, our 

extended AmeriFamily, for joining us today. Let me start by saying how 

grateful we are to have such outstanding Board members who bring 

extraordinary knowledge and experience in matters related to our mission.

We are excited to work with all of you to increase the impact of service 

and volunteering and tackling the nation's biggest challenges. I'd like to 

thank our amazing AmeriCorps team and our thousands of partners across the 

country who support this extraordinary system of national service that is 

so important to the health and the well-being of our nation. It's a 

privilege to lead this Agency, not only because of the transforming work 

we do every day, but also because of the passion and commitment of all of 

those in our AmeriCorps family. Over the past few months, I've had the 

opportunity to meet hundreds of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps senior 

Corps volunteers every day, AmeriCorps senior volunteers every day, and 

every project that I visit, every member or volunteer that I meet, I am 

more confident about the power and the potential of national service.

I think about my new friend, the 81-year-old foster grandparent that I met 

in Maine, Grammy Fran. There's a little video on our LinkedIn page if you 

want to learn more about Grammy Fran. Grammy Fran didn't let the pandemic

stop her from serving her kids. After her school shut down during the 

COVID pandemic, she secured free laptops for her fellow volunteers, 

learned how to use laptops and other. . .like, they had training for each 

other. And within weeks they were back with their kids, reading stories 

and giving support and even starting a remote crafts program. Grammy Fran 

told me that she put together crafts kits and would drop them off to the 

teacher so they could distribute in the neighborhood. She has been a 

foster grandparent for 21 years, and she says her service gives her 

purpose, meaning and a life of abundance. She told me, and I quote, “I 
might not have much to leave when I die, but I can leave a legacy every 

day by what I do.” I just. . .can you feel it? We all need to go to Maine 

and see Grammy Fran.

I think about a young man I met in Baltimore at a service project with 

second gentleman Doug Imhoff. (And the second gentleman has become such a 

great champion of our work.) The young man was raised by a single mom and 

his family had been touched by homelessness. He talked about living on 

porches, dropping out of school, and losing his friends to violence and 

drugs. He told me that he found his purpose, his calling, and even his 

career path in AmeriCorps through our partner at Civic Works in Baltimore.

I think about Improve your Tomorrow, a program that I visited in 

California, that is breaking generational cycles of poverty by engaging 

AmeriCorps members as mentors for young men of color, helping them 

graduate high school and go to college. Their impact is extraordinary. 

Black and Latino students receiving mentoring through Improve Your 

Tomorrow have a high school graduation rate of 99.5 percent compared to a 

statewide rate of 81 percent.

I heard story after story about young men who overcame incredible odds 

thanks to the mentoring they received and are now giving back to other 

young men as mentors themselves. And I think what you hear there is that 

transformative power of not only making a difference in the communities 

we're serving, but how our AmeriCorps members are being changed

themselves.

You know, if we talk about some other recent accomplishments, I can't help 

but to think about the United We Stand summit at the White House last 

month, which really lifted up an important truth that we all know from 

doing this work. Service is a uniting force. When people from different 

backgrounds come together to serve, they focus on what they share in 

common, not what divides them. And of particular importance to all of us,

our boss, President Biden, used the summit to call for a new era of

national service to foster stronger communities, to bridge divides and our 

society. To carry that call forward, President Biden asked AmeriCorps to 

take a leadership role in advancing the United We serve Campaign to 

encourage Americans to serve with an emphasis on bridge building and 

social cohesion. And over the coming weeks, we will be following up on the 

summit, including exploring opportunities for national service 

partnerships with other federal agencies, developing training for members,

and skills like civic bridge building, working with the Office of 

Personnel Management and our friends at Peace Corps to enhance pathways 

from service into federal service -- which we are so excited about -- the 

opportunities there and working with philanthropic partners to support 

service and civic engagements that foster unity and social cohesion.

The summit was one of many highlights since the Board met in May.

AmeriCorps and our partners have been hard at work meeting critical needs 

in communities across the nation, and we are making progress on many 
fronts. And I'd like to share if it's okay, Madame Chair, a few 

highlights. Right now, AmeriCorps is playing a key role in responding to 

natural disasters in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Missouri, just to name a 

few places. We have deployed more than 240 AmeriCorps members to support 

communities hit hard by natural disasters. In Florida, we have 100 

AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team members that are responding to Hurricane 

Ian. In Puerto Rico, we have 82 FEMA Corps and SBP AmeriCorps members that 

are responding to Hurricane Fiona. And in Missouri, we have deployed 55 

members to support flood relief. And throughout all of those projects, 

they are working on challenges such as survivor assistance, the hard work 

of mucking and gutting, tree removal, wellness checks, supporting our 

partners at FEMA with logistics and so much more. But beyond that work 

that's happening right now, these efforts represent just the first phase 

of our involvement. We stay on the scene long after the TV cameras are 

gone. In fact, our data show that members that are serving right now will 

likely. . .those members and those teams will likely be in the community 

for 3 to 5 years after major disasters.

Just yesterday, we released a study that shows that national service 

disaster response efforts return nearly $12 for every one federal dollar 

investment and reduce construction costs, increase tax revenue, reduce 

spending and employment and education outcomes for AmeriCorps members and 

their service. And our disaster service work meets another critical need, 

which is building the future Emergency management workforce. FEMA, our 

partners on FEMA Corps, they've hired 23 percent of the 5600 FEMA Corps 

graduates over our last ten years, and 70 percent of this most recent 

graduating class was issued job offers. So it's making a tangible 

difference right now.

AmeriCorps members and volunteers continue to address the everyday 

disasters of illiteracy, hunger, homelessness, poverty that afflicts way 

too many Americans. We continue to implement our groundbreaking public 

health AmeriCorps program, which is our $400 million partnership with the 

Centers for Disease Control, and that is working to not only meet state 

and local public health challenges, but also working to develop the 

workforce pathways for public health centers. And last week, I had the 

pleasure of joining our Board member, Fagan, at the swearing in of the 

Baltimore Public Health AmeriCorps members. And we are well on our way. I 

think we now have nearly a thousand public health AmeriCorps members that 

are getting sworn in and are ready to serve all across the country.

AmeriCorps projects continue to provide teaching, tutoring, mentoring and 

other educational support to students across the country. I think many of 

you probably know that our largest footprint for AmeriCorps is actually in 

the schools. We have nearly 70,000 AmeriCorps members that are in the K-12 

setting in about 12,000 schools across the country. And I think what we've 

learned coming out of the pandemic is, these programs will be more

important than ever to address learning loss and provide supplemental 

instruction and support social and emotional development.
And that is exactly why we want it to go even a step further by partnering 

with the White House, the Department of Education, and our outside 

partners to launch the National Partnership for Student Success, which we 

did last June. This partnership is a three-year effort to recruit, train, 

support and engage an additional 250,000 caring adults to serve as tutors, 

mentors, student success coaches, wraparound service coordinators, and 

post-secondary transition coaches to help students succeed. Because what 

we've heard from our educators, yes, they need to be paid more. Yes, we 

need to invest more in the infrastructure. But they also said we're being 

asked to do so much as just one individual. So please come in and help us.

And we have seen how AmeriCorps is already helping, how volunteers are 

already helping. And through the National Partnership for Student Success, 

we're going to do even more.

Moving from education to climate: We are expanding our program to address 

the threat of climate change and preparing young people for future green 

jobs. We have more than 15,000 AmeriCorps members and volunteers that are 

currently serving in these projects each year, and there is great 

opportunity to expand this work. For example, this summer, our AmeriCorps 

NCCC program launched a successful Summer of Service pilot focused on 

climate and conservation. And then we have our state service commissions 

in California, Colorado, Maine and Michigan and some other states that 

have recently developed an innovative Climate Corps program, which the 

Washington Post actually highlighted just last week.

Beyond that, we have raised the minimum AmeriCorps living allowance in 

both AmeriCorps State National and VISTA to $17,600 for full time service 

and are increasing the AmeriCorps living allowance -- as Cathy mentioned 

earlier -- and our AmeriCorps Seniors stipend. That amount is not a top 

priority of just this Agency and the Board, but last month, President 

Biden himself called on Congress to raise the living allowance. Not only 

did he ask Congress to raise the living allowance, but he said let's get 

it done. Let's raise it to $15 an hour and let's do it by Fiscal Year 

2025. So we've got a goal in mind, and we're committed to continuing on 

this path to remove barriers to service, advancing our equity goals, and 

ensuring national service is a viable option for all people, no matter 

where they come from or who they are.

And that commitment, I want everyone to know, includes working to increase 

the stipend that our Foster Grandparents and our Senior Companion 

volunteers receive, to ensure our low-income elders have the resources 

they need to serve. I was actually asking Grammy Fran, I said, “Grammy 

Fran, how are you buying those crafts?” She said, “I'm using my stipend.”

I said “Grammy Fran, you're supposed to use that for gas and to buy lunch 

when you're on your . . .” She said something like, “I work to the amount 

of cloth that I'm given.” But we're going to have your backs, our Foster 

Grandparents and our Senior Companions, and make sure that you have the 

resources that you need to serve.
And as we continue to work with Congress to increase compensation levels, 

we are also encouraging grantees and philanthropic organizations to take 

action now -- don't wait for us. It takes a little while to move the ship 

that is the federal government. But you can provide all sorts of 

wraparound supports for our members, and increased living allowances, now.

And we have been so, so encouraged by some of our partners in the ground, 

like Power Corps, that's increased their living allowance, the California 

Climate Corps. We're also even seeing this interesting coalition that's 

coming together from philanthropy foundations like the Shultz 

Philanthropies and Ballmer Philanthropies that are providing resources to 

our grantees to help raise living allowances and [make possible] other 

wraparound benefits.

I also want everyone to know that we are investing in recruitment and 

retention. We have stood up our first centralized recruitment office in 20 

years. We haven't had a centralized recruitment unit in 20 years, and 

we're investing more dollars on marketing and working closely with our 

partners in the field so that everyone who wants to serve hears about this 

incredible opportunity to serve.

We are also making steady progress on our top priority of improving 

financial management and addressing findings from our financial statements 

audit. And I am so grateful for the leadership of this Board in making 

sure that we are keeping our eye on fixing the infrastructure. It's not 

always the fun part of the work, but we can't do anything that we want to 

get done publicly, or working with our members, if we don't have our 

financial house in order -- and we are going to get that done.

So -- this is just a partial list of accomplishments over the past few 

months. It does not include our ongoing work to award and monitor grants 

to run so many other programs, to conduct research, administer education 

awards, and support our members and volunteers that are serving at more 

than 40,000 locations across the country. It's just a highlight.

So looking ahead, we have a lot that is on our plate in the coming months, 

including awarding our largest-ever set of Volunteer Generation Fund 

grants in support of the National Partnership for Student Success. We will 

be releasing our Volunteering and Civic Life in America survey data. We 

will be reviewing our AmeriCorps State and National planning grants. We 

will be mobilizing for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of National Service, 

even though it's been a little warm. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of service 

is right around the corner, and we are gearing up for that. And we are 

going to continue to focus on recruiting and retaining a strong, diverse 

Corps, working to raise living allowances and stipends to make service 

more accessible, and making the operational improvements necessary to 

support the work of our grantees, members, and the volunteer field. So 

with that, I will turn it back over to you, Madam Chair.
MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Michael, Thank you. That is an amazing report and the work 

that's being done the country is so -- everything that everyone's doing 

here, your staff and the volunteers -- it's really made a huge difference 

in the world. So thank you for your leadership. Do any of the Board

members have any comments or want to respond to anything from the report?

We all good? Okay, then let me -- we'll turn this over. We need to hear 

report from our Oversight, Governance and Audit Committee. So Fagan, let 

me turn this over to you.

MR. HARRIS: Thank you so much, Cathy, and I'll join you in just welcoming 

Leslie and Shirley -- two leaders who I’ve admired for a long time -- to 

the Board. So excited you all are here.

Thank you for the opportunity to update the Board on the Oversight, 

Governance and Audit Committee. This committee is reflective of the 

Board's commitment to AmeriCorps’ progress on improving the effective 

stewardship of funds. We will be champions for this important work and 

support the Agency as thought partners in keeping us all accountable. It 

was clear to the Board that the Agency has serious work ahead in this 

area. Our engagement through this committee reinforces the seriousness of 

the work and provides the additional focus needed to be successful.

The Oversight, Governance and Audit Committee met for the first time in 

late August of this year as this was our first meeting. We focused on 

introductions, sharing of expectations, and setting near-term goals for 

the committee. The committee will continue to meet every other month and 

focus on clarifying the purpose and establishing operating procedures as 

purpose and process become clearer. The committee will engage in reviewing 

more audit findings, corrective action plans, stewardship of funds and 

internal controls of the Agency. The committee will continue to provide 

updates to the Board on both the progress of formalizing the committee and 

ultimately the performance of the Agency.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you Fagan. The Board really does appreciate how the 

CEO and the senior leadership team of the Agency have made improving the 

financial management and addressing audit findings a top priority. And we 

commend the Agency for the progress it has made to develop and implement 

corrective action plans to address the audit findings and make other key 

operational improvements. The Board fully supports these plans and action 

steps and encourages the Agency to continue to work with the Inspector 

General and to prioritize resources and attention on addressing findings 

and other improvements and operations in core business practices, which 

will better serve our grantees and partners and meeting the needs across 

the country.

Our next matter of business is to consider the Agency's FY 23 grantmaking 

plan. One of the Board's primary responsibilities under the statute and 

bylaws is setting overall policy for the Agency, including reviewing and 

approving the strategic plan and annual updates of the plan. The annual 
grantmaking plan is the formal vehicle through which the Board of 

Directors authorizes the Agency to make competitive grants and enroll or 

authorize grantees to enroll members. This grantmaking plan is for the 

grantmaking, using FY 23 annual appropriations. Given the Agency does not 

have its final FY 23 appropriation for Congress and is operating under a 

continuing resolution, the plan assumes level annual appropriations from 

FY 22. The grantmaking plan will be revisited if AmeriCorps receives a 

higher or lower appropriation for FY 23. The staff has prepared a 

comprehensive and well-designed plan, which we discussed at our meeting 

this morning. I would recommend the Board approve the plan. Would any 

other Board member like to speak on the grantmaking plan before we move 

ahead? No one?

I would like to entertain a motion to approve the FY 23 grantmaking plan.

Is there a motion to move? All in favor, say yes.

MS. SAGAWA: Yes.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All opposed?

The resolution is approved and the grantmaking plan will be posted on 

AmeriCorps’ website. Now, our next agenda item is one I'm really looking 

forward to. At our last Board meeting, we had a virtual tour across the 

country to learn about the impact of American Rescue Plan funding. It was 

one of my favorite parts of the last meeting. For this meeting, our 

virtual tour will focus on AmeriCorps' extensive work and investment and 

education. I'd like to turn this over to Alvin, who will be our virtual 

tour guide.

MR. WARREN: Thank you, Cathy. Good afternoon, everybody. I also want to 

join my colleagues in welcoming Shirly and Leslie to our Board. We're 

excited to have you, as well as our other Board members who couldn't join 

us for this meeting today.

As Cathy mentioned in our last Board meeting, one of the best parts of the 

meeting was actually getting to do this virtual tour. So we're super 

excited to get to hear from grantees and partners from around the country.

So as Cathy mentioned, our focus today is going to be on education. And 

throughout the history of our Agency, education has been one of 

AmeriCorps’ key focus areas. AmeriCorps awards hundreds of millions of 

dollars in funding to support education focused projects each year.

AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers support students 

across the entire education spectrum, from pre-K to college, helping them 

succeed in school and prepare them for higher education careers in life.

They provide a range of services, including early learning, STEM programs, 

classroom instruction, mentoring, afterschool and summer school support, 

tutoring, improving attendance, family engagement, social and emotional 

learning and college access and retention. Altogether, our members and 
volunteers provide educational programming to more than 1 million youth.

That's pretty amazing.

As someone who works for an education focused foundation and who's been in 

engaged in education most of my life, I know how valuable these supports 

can be in making a difference in student's lives. I also know how 

extremely challenging these past two years have been for students, 

educators and schools due to the pandemic. Too many students experienced 

interruptions in learning or negative impacts on their social and 

emotional well-being with a disproportionate impact on lower income and 

students of color. I appreciate how AmeriCorps’ program partners, members,

and volunteers acted quickly and creatively to meet the educational needs 

of students during the pandemic. Looking ahead, our programs will be more 

important than ever to address learning, loss, teacher shortages, lost 

instruction time and mental health challenges.

To help understand the impact of AmeriCorps in education, the team has put 

together a virtual cross-country tour, so we can hear directly from 

AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers across the country. 

So we'll start our tour hearing from Jess Gomez, a Jumpstart AmeriCorps 

member and student at California State University, Dominguez Hills in 

Carson, California. Jess, are you there?

MS. GOMEZ: Yes. Hello, everyone.

MR. WARREN: Hi. Very happy to have you with us. So can you tell us a 

little bit about what you do as a Jumpstart AmeriCorps member? And how 

does how Jumpstart help students?

MS. GOMEZ: Yes, of course. Before I start saying how our program works, I 

would like to say that I'm truly honored to be here. So thank you for 

having me. Our Jumpstart program works towards the day every child enters

kindergarten ready. As a Corps member, I support children's language and 

literacy along with their cognitive and social emotional development. I go 

out in the community and serve the preschoolers of Compton, California.

With our creative minds, we implement session plans two times a week with 

incredible topics to learn. That includes amazing books to read and fun 

activities to play and learn. We were with our children for one whole 

academic year, which I think is phenomenal.

MR. WARREN: That's amazing, Jess. So can you tell us about a moment when 

you knew you had made a difference for a student?

MS. GOMEZ: Yes, of course. I actually have a very interesting story to 

share. A moment when I felt I changed a student's life happened my first 

year serving in Jumpstart. I had a partner child from Head Start who knew 

all the titles of the books we had read throughout the year and even the 

vocabulary words as well. He was able to use them in sentences and even 
demonstrate some vocabulary words such as rush. This made me very happy.

From that point, I knew that this child was ready for kindergarten. I felt 

very accomplished and satisfied because the pandemic year was already 

difficult, as many of you guys know. But the students still managed to 

learn with our program. Jumpstart really works on resilience during these 

hard times.

MR. WARREN: That's fantastic. And imagine maybe you're going to come 

across that student again sometime in the future. You're going to be able 

to take pride in that in that moment where you made a difference in their 

life. So thank you again and keep up the great work.

MS. GOMEZ: Thank you.

MR. WARREN: So now we're going to head a little closer to my home state of 

New Mexico, to Tucson, Arizona, and hear from Judith Hicks, an AmeriCorps 

foster grandparent serving through the Northern Arizona University Foster 

Grandparent program. Judith, thank you very much for joining us. I love 

the background. Can you share a little bit about your service as a Foster

Grandparent?

MS. HICKS: I teach -- I mentor, excuse me -- I mentor at Wheeler 

Elementary and my kinders -- I do the kinders -- and my kinders, I have 

four classes and I work with them to get their name, their ABCs, their 

numbers, their shapes, their colors. And throughout the year, we progress 

to sight words and reading simple little books. I have one experience with 

one child, and I'll be brief on this. His name was Hayden. And for some 

reason, he had a hard time with the Y. So I developed . . . I came up with 

this idea with him that we were going to spell his name and we have 

parameters. We have the blue line, solid, the dash line and the red line.

Those are the parameters that we use for uppercase and lowercase.

So we started out with his H-A and I asked him to put his finger down and 

finish out the rest of his name. And I -- he looked at me kind of, “What 

are we doing here?” What I did was ask him to say what he had written, and 

it was Ha-den. Then I said, “Is that your name?” He goes, “No, you know my 

name.” And I said, “Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to 

put a V in that space.” And I have a template that has the numbers in 

their letters, etc. And he pointed to a V as if to ask me “Is this right?”

And I said, “If you think that's it, put it down.” He wrote a V within the 

parameters and I said, “Now put a tail on it.” And he did. And I said, 

“Now, what is that letter?” He says, “That's my Y!” I said, “Now is what 

you did your name?” He goes “Of course it is! It's Hayden!” “Yay! All 

right. Now, you know that the Y is the most important letter in your name.

Because without that, it's Ha-den.” And he goes, “That's not my name.” I 

go, “I know, I know. But now you know how to write a Y.”

And he looked at me. He goes, “Well, that was easy.” I said, “Well, then 

why didn't you get it the first time? You've seen it written. Why couldn't 
you write it?” “Because it was hard and you made it easy by telling me to 

put a tail on a V.” I mean, the kid was incredible. I just love that 

little bugger. But I teach him how to go with the simplest way to get the 

light bulb to shine. And when he saw all he had to do was put a tail on 

the V, the light bulb came on and he never, ever missed again. Never. And 

I was so proud of him. I tell you, I was just so, so proud of that little 

guy.

MR. WARREN: Judith. That is just amazing. All of us could tell how 

committed you are, how creative you are, and how caring you are. And that 

is exactly what our young kids need, especially at this time. So we all 

want to thank you for your service. You're just a great example for all of 

us.

MS. HICKS: Oh, you're very welcome. You're very, very welcome. I am six 

years into the program now, and I can't imagine not doing the Foster 

Grandparent program.

MR. WARREN: Thank you for joining us.

MS. HICKS: Thank you.

MR. WARREN: Well, now we're going to move over to Upland, California, and 

hear from Valerie Tu, a FoodCorps AmeriCorps member. Valerie, are you 

there? Oh, great. Good to see you. So can you tell us a little bit of what 

-- about what FoodCorps does and how it supports students?

MS. TU: Yes, absolutely. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Valerie.

The core of what we do at FoodCorps is teach lessons about gardening, 

plant science and nutrition. We kind of filter in some fun taste tests and 

collective class cooking. And when we're not prepping for lessons --

because we go from kinder to sixth grade, which is a lot of

[instructional] differentiation -- we're out in the garden, we're out in 

the cafeteria, just kind of building connection with kids, asking them 

like, what they're eating, what choices are they making in our cafeterias,

and just how their day is going. It's really awesome to build that 

connection. I think if you ask any FoodCorps service member, they'd be 

like, “Oh yeah, I'm famous. Everywhere I go, the kids are like [inaudible; 

covered by laughter]” and it's super fun what we do. But at the core --

and Megan, who's our other service member in the district, put this so 

profoundly, but also simply: And the idea is that our kids, they have 

nothing to prove to us. They automatically have our love, and that's what 

we do for them. We show up, we teach them a little bit about the world and 

the environment and maybe a little bit about themselves.

MR. WARREN: Well, I forgot to say thank you for joining us. We know that 

you're in great demand because of how famous you are. We would all 

appreciate your autograph whenever you get around to it. Actually, Judith 
is a hard act to follow, but I'm wondering if you could share a moment 

when you knew you made a difference in a kid's life.

MS. TU: Yeah. Judith's story was amazing. For me, school gardens are the 

basis of an oasis for kids, especially after these past two years. We have 

a lot of behavioral remediation that needs to occur on our campus. And our 

colleagues, our aides, our counselors, they all bring the kids out to the 

garden because they know through that tangibility, it's just a really 

good, like, moment to heal.

I have this sixth grader and she's really just like, “I'm too cool for 

school. Like, I don't need to be here. Like, where's the darkest eyeliner 

I've ever seen?” And I took her out to the garden just to like...because 

they're in an afterschool program. And the way she lit up and reminded me 

that she's just a kid at heart and like, all she wants to do is like, have

fun and do fun things. And she led the charge of, like, digging out like, 

bugs in the garden and pulling weeds. I was like, OK, I didn't even think 

you'd want to get your hands dirty. But good for her. And, you know, it's 

just very powerful to be in a space like a garden. Thank you.

MR. WARREN: Valerie, thank you for that. I'm a farmer and I've raised our 

three kids in our field so I know exactly about the healing power of food.

So thank you very much.

MS. TU: Thank you.

MR. WARREN: So now we're going to head over to New York City and hear from 

Cece Nañez, an AmeriCorps member serving with City Year New York. Cece, 

are you there?

MS. NAÑEZ: Hi. And it's Nañez, actually. There's a tilde over the second 

N.

MR. WARREN: No tilde in my notes, but I should have known better.

MS. NAÑEZ: No, it's okay.

MR. WARREN: Cece Nañez... 

MS. NAÑEZ: It's okay.

MR. WARREN: ...thank you so much for joining us. Well, can you tell us a 

little bit about City Year and how it supports students?

MS. NAÑEZ: Yes, I would love to. Also I want to thank you for letting me 

join today. I was really surprised when I got the invitation because I was 

like, “Are they sure? Me? They want me to speak?” But thank you so much 

for having me.
So, yeah, City Year. So City Year places student success coaches, which 

are us. In other words, a mentor. But we like to call them student success 

coaches all across the US in systemically underserved communities. So what 

that basically means is we're put in -- here in New York City, we get put 

in different boroughs. We have about 15 partnerships here. And we go into 

a classroom, we get a partner teacher -- we work with K-8 -- and we assist 

the partner teacher with behavior management. Mostly, like, we're there 

for the support of the student in more ways than a teacher is able to 

dedicate the time to do right – like, they have 60 kids a day. There's no 

way they can get to all 60 kids, but we have the time and flexibility to 

do so. We can pull them out and have those coaching conversations. We can 

have those one-on-one times in class to where we can get them to 

understand the problem. We can get them to understand the text, and we're 

basically just a helping hand.

And then we also do afterschool programs, which we then also write lesson 

plans for them to do. We do clubs, we do transitions. They have snacks 

with us. We do homework help, which is really a big focal point for us 

because as a lot of us know, especially now that the pandemic is declining 

a little bit -- I mean, we know Covid is still alive and real -- but 

parents are back to work. They cannot dedicate the time they would like 

to, to their students at home.

Some of them, there's a language barrier and they don't understand the 

topics. They don't understand the problems. So for us, that's where we 

come in. And it's a benefit that, we call it “near to peer,” because we're 

closer in age to our students than teachers are, and their parents. And 

some of them, it's been so long since they've done math, they don't even 

know how to do it anymore. And that's understandable. So we really focus 

on the homework help aspect.

MR. WARREN: Thank you Cece. Can you tell us a story about when you feel 

like you had made a difference in a student's life?

MS. NAÑEZ: Absolutely. This is my second year serving with City Year and I 

was privileged enough to get placed back into my same school from last 

year, JHS 123 in the South Bronx in the South Bronx. And one particular 

student who I still have in my afterschool class, his name is Galdino, and 

he last year was very reactive, as most of our students were. Like, their 

social cues were not the same anymore. They were used to being talked to 

and talked at from a screen. They didn't know how to interact with 

children anymore. Like, it just was very new and different. And there is a 

language barrier with him sometimes, in terms of him understanding the way 

that people talk to him, and he immediately will react.

And I noticed that and I kind of was like, “Okay, well, like, -- what's 

going on?” Because there's something deeper than at the surface level as 

to why you're acting like this. And he had a lot of personal things going 

on at home, and his -- in school was really the only escape for him. And 
so he was trying so hard to just like, fit in everything that he wanted to 

do.

And when I saw him excel was when we started doing art in after school. We 

partnered with Marquee Studios, and he is so talented. And it was just 

crazy. Like when I saw him draw, I was like, “Whoa, like, where did this 

come from?” And that was his outlet. And my old partner from Afterschool 

and I came together. We bought him a sketchbook, we bought him art pens, 

pencils because we wanted him to focus on where his passion was. And after 

we did that, we noticed a huge change in his emotions and in his demeanor 

and the way that he would approach people because he was getting out all 

of those emotions instead of projecting them onto everybody else. And so 

having him this year and seeing the growth that he's had is amazing.

He was actually, he – there was a seventh grader that was, like, bothering 

him. Rightfully so, he was annoyed. And instead of reacting, he came and 

he said, “Hey, Miss Cece, I need to talk to you.” So I'm like, “Okay.” So 

we go out in the hallway and I'm like, “What's going on?” And he's like, 

“I am really frustrated. This kid is annoying me. I've already told him to 

stop and he's not listening. You know, like, and I remember what you 

taught me last year, like, so that's why I came and talked to you.” 

Because I stress self advocation with my students so much, because we 

can't read your minds. I would love to know every single thing that's 

going on through their head, but I can't.

And so for him to have the maturity to come and talk to me and advocate 

for himself was huge, because that's growth, right. Like, progress is not 

linear, excuse me, linear for these students, but like, it's slow but 

steady. And for him to know that, like, he made the right choice, because 

I was like, “I'm so proud of you right now.” I was like, “Do you 

understand what you just did?” And he was like, “What? I just told you 

what I was feeling.” I said, “Exactly. You told me what you were feeling 

instead of reacting.” I said, “Because last year that could have led to 

you getting into a fight. That's just the reality. It could have led to 

that point. And you grew – like, you're talking; you're vocalizing how you 

feel.”

And it's just a beautiful thing to know that’s our impact, even though 

they don't tell us every day that they love us; they don't tell us every 

day that they appreciate us when they grow, and they have situations like 

that. We [still] know the impact that we make.

MR. WARREN: Absolutely. It's just really amazing to hear that example of 

the power of those one-on-one interactions and the kind of support that 

students just really need at this time. So I just want to tell you, thank 

you so much for your service, Cece.

MS. NAÑEZ: Thank you, I appreciate it.
MR. WARREN: All right. Now, we're going to we're going to wind up our tour 

heading to Breakthrough Central Texas to talk with Maya Carter. Maya, are 

you there?

MS. CARTER: Yes, I am.

MR. WARREN: Welcome. We would love to hear from you a little bit about 

Breakthrough Central Texas and how it supports students.

MS. CARTER: Thank you again for the opportunity to speak. This is an 

amazing opportunity and I'm glad that you guys are going to be able to 

hear a little bit about how we work with our students. So at Breakthrough 

Central Texas, we serve students within the greater Central Texas area. So 

that's mostly Austin. So the students start in middle school and it goes

all the way up to college and we help them through six years past high 

school. So whatever they choose to do after they graduate from high 

school, we will be with them for six years following that.

We just started a new program called our PSAP program, the Post-Secondary 

Advising Program, and that essentially helps students who are at a high 

school that. . .who probably didn't go through the traditional 12-year 

program. Essentially, we give them the option to opt in or opt out for 12 

-- for also six years following high school graduation. And we can help 

them through college, if they choose to go to a technical school or if 

they want to go to a traditional for a year, then whatever that may look 

like. I specifically work on the college and career access program, and I 

help students basically who want to go to college or who want to find a 

career after high school. So -- and most of our students are first 

generation -- and we make sure to include our families as a part of that, 

because a big part of the students’ lives is the families, and making sure 

we consider all avenues of that.

And essentially, we help them in all aspects of what it would be like to 

succeed in college. So if that is financial aid or if that's helping with 

applying to the schools itself or transferring to schools, withdrawing 

from schools, we provide direct service to students. So we can go to 

campuses and stuff. I specifically serve students within different parts 

of Texas, so I will travel to those colleges. One school that I can say 

that most people probably will know off the bat is Texas A&M in College 

Station. That's one of the bigger campuses that I serve directly, and 

that's a big part of what we do.

MR. WARREN: Fantastic. Can you tell us about a moment when you knew you 

had made a difference in a student's life?

MS. CARTER: Yes. So this is actually my third year at Breakthrough Central 

Texas. And I'd say one of the things that made a huge impact, just even 

more recently -- because it's a growing story, it's something that keeps 

building on -- This first year, I was working with a student who was 
enrolled in Texas State University in San Marcos, and she was trying to 

become a dental hygienist, but she wasn't really sure, like, how to go 

about doing that. And she was really, like . . . she was taking the 

classes and everything; she signed up for everything, but she felt very 

overwhelmed; she felt super stressed -- like she thought she was doing

everything wrong. We provide tutors, so I got her a tutor to help her with 

her classes and everything. She said it still didn't feel like it was 

helping a lot, so she decided to withdraw from school.

I kind of lost track of her after a while, unfortunately. When people 

think of Austin, they don't think of rural areas, but we have a lot of 

rural areas and a lot of our students are in those rural areas. It was 

hard to connect with her sometimes because her wifi wasn't the best, so we 

decided to just meet at a Starbucks every now and then. So I remember I 

met with her at a Starbucks my second year serving, and we're just talking 

about what her plans were for the future and what she wanted to do. And 

she'd decided that she was still interested in doing something dentalrelated, so she decided to go to dental assisting school, so I helped to 

look for a program. She applied to some programs. She decided to do one --

she completed it and everything.

And then we met up not too long after she completed it and she was 

working. And then while she was working, she got a little bit more 

experience and she felt a little bit more comfortable with everything. And 

then fast forward a few months later after that, and she was like, “You 

know what, Maya? Actually, I think I can be a dental hygienist. What they 

do is easy! I can do that – I can totally do that!” and I was just like: 

“OK! Good for you!” It was a huge confidence boost -- she went from crying 

on Zoom that first year, being like “I'm not going to pass my classes!” to 

like, “I can do that!” And as we speak, she's actually in college right 

now and she's on track to become a dental hygienist.

MR. WARREN: That's right. That's awesome. What an inspirational story to 

end on. And Maya, I'm glad to hear that you're in Austin, because there's 

a conference happening there called the Grant Makers for Education 

Conference. And a good number of my colleagues are there, so I'm hoping 

you could just break away for a little bit and make sure they're actually 

going to the conference. All of the live music around there...

MR. SMITH: Not hanging out on Sixth Street!

[general laughter]

MS. CARTER: ACL [Austin City Limits music festival] just ended. So I mean

-- they might, you know?

MR. WARREN: Okay we'll talk offline. I'll talk offline. No, thank you very 

much. Just we really, really appreciate your service.
MS. CARTER: Thank you for the opportunity. Again, this is amazing. Thank 

you.

MR. WARREN: Well, once again, this is an amazing part of our meeting. I 

think that we're going to keep this going. But I just want to -- on behalf 

of the whole Board, Michael, all of our team here at AmeriCorps -- I want 

to thank you, Jess, Judith, Cece, Valerie, Maya. Your service is 

inspirational. We're grateful for your work and we wish you continued 

success. Hearing your stories made me think of this quote: "Education is 

not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." The extra support, 

the caring, the concern that each of you talked about, and that other 

AmeriCorps members and volunteers provide, can be that spark in the lives 

of our students and our young people so that they learn how to read, so 

that they stay on track to graduate. So they find their way into a career 

and they succeed. So thank you all again. Madame Chair, I'll hand it back 

to you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you. Thank you, Alvin. And thanks to all of you for 

those stories. Again, as I said, as Alvin said, it's our favorite part of 

the meeting, hearing from you, hearing what you had to say. Because if 

there's any question of whether we're doing what we should be doing, 

hearing those stories really makes all the difference in the world.

But in the time remaining, we are . . . the Board is now open to hearing 

comments from members of the public on what's been discussed today. I'd 

like to remind you to keep your comments to two minutes so we can 

accommodate as many of those who wish to speak. The Board takes all of 

these comments seriously from our stakeholders seriously, and we follow up 

with the appropriate AmeriCorps staff members who have the most knowledge 

about an issue. So we may not comment on everything that you say, but feel 

free to share with us. It's really important.

And now I understand that LSI will . . . if you just raise your hand, LSI 

will identify you and we'll move through these comments. So, LSI, anyone 

that has their hand up?

LSI: Yes.

MR. GUPTA: Hello.

LSI: Saagar?

MR. GUPTA: Hi. Yeah. Happy to introduce myself. I hope everyone can hear 

me. Happy also to get the video going too, if that's doable. But hello, 

everyone. My name is Saagar Gupta. I am the coordinator of ServiceLearning Programs at American University in Washington, DC. When I was 18 

and going to college, I chose American University on a whim. I was 

selected for the Community-based Research Scholars Program in my first 

year of college, which was new -- it was new to the nation as a program --
and I met about 40 students who all had this passion for community service 

from high school, who were all selected into this program. And I got to 

see us bond over service learning as a concept.

It inspired me to get involved with something called the Eagle Endowment 

for Public and Community Service, which was an AU-run grant-distributing 

organization that gave money and mentorship to students who do community 

action projects. Eventually, I became the coordinator and I helped fund 

and mentor over 40 students to do impactful projects, which I'd love to 

share some examples of.

To keep it quick: There was one [example] where a student who was a member 

for a charity had gone into a foster home [to serve]. In the classic 

community-based pedagogy, we ask students,” What is one thing we could do 

that would make your day-to-day experience better?” And they [the foster 

home children] responded that “We wish we had more outdoor recreation 

time. We had a basketball court. It's a little rundown.” So we funded it.

The students recruited volunteers. Talked to the facilities [people], 

built it, and it's now insured for 15 years -- a whole generation of youth

who are able to go through that. That's one of 40 other projects, all 

service-learning based, all community researched.

And it changed my trajectory. I went for an MPA in nonprofit management. 

Our Eagle Endowment ended up winning “top college philanthropy” in the US;

I went on to get selected by Red Bull to go on to Social Action Spring 

Break, and it really changed how I approach service. I went into directing 

a nonprofit on the development side and then into executive recruiting and 

coaching.

And now I'm actually back at American University running service learning 

programs for AU, my alma mater. As a first-generation American, an 

immigrant with immigrant parents, I was so focused on jobs with financial 

security, that if it weren’t for service-learning education, I would 

probably have never been inspired to join this field. So I thank you for 

the time. I urge you to please support funding for service-learning and 

follow the written comments for the Coalition for Service Learning and 

support that in the House Labor H bill. Thank you.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All right. Thank you very much. Next LSI?

MS. JAKOPIN: Hello, my name is Noriana Jakopin. I am a student at the 

University of Maryland, and I'm here to urge you to support the 

reinstatement of service-learning programs in public schools and higher 

education institutions. Eight years ago, as a sophomore in high school, I 

was lucky enough to be part of a public school system which has a servicelearning graduation requirement.

In looking to complete this requirement, I found the Hydrocephalus 

Association, a small nonprofit for a lesser-known neurological disease
[that was] in need of volunteers. Eight years later, I went from volunteer 

to intern to my current role as a part-time staff member in their research 

department. I immediately felt the passion of my coworkers for the mission 

to improve the lives of those with the condition and have always taken 

immense pride in my work there. At a nonprofit without great public 

visibility, it's an “all hands on deck environment,” which let me clearly 

see the impact my work had on their mission -- even when I was just 

starting out and having to manually enter thousands of [items of] contact 

information. In addition to the joy I felt for making such an impact, I 

had access to invaluable mentorship, which has shaped me both as a person 

and as a professional. Without my mentor, I don't think I would be nearly 

as prepared to enter the world as a well-rounded, thoughtful adult.

Furthermore, as a budding research scientist with a fascination for

neuroscience, I have had direct access to people who are doing what I 

aspire to do, which has kickstarted my career. Eight years later, I am now 

helping with strategic planning, collaborating with research scientists in 

the field, and on my way to publishing three papers in peer-reviewed 

scientific journals. Because my school had service learning, I was set up 

on a path to success. And it is my hope that all young people have that 

same opportunity. Please help me make that possible by supporting the 

reinvestment in our nation's service learning programs and the 2023 House 

Labor H bill. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you so much for that story -- it's important to hear 

these kinds of stories and for us to take on these challenges -- and 

giving that model. We talked earlier today about the model of career, this 

leading to a career, and you're a perfect example of that. So thank you 

for sharing that story. Do we have anyone else?

MS. ALI: Hello. My name is Zahra Ali. I am a student at Augsburg

University in Minnesota, and I'm also a youth representative on the 

National Youth Leadership Council's Board. I'm here in support of the 

Coalition for Service Learning’s comments on reinstating service learning 

programs and prioritizing grants towards public schools and higher 

education institutions in economically-disadvantaged communities.

I believe that service learning is a tool for building community, a 

necessary tool for building community and connecting young people to -- at 

school for various programs towards career professionals, local businesses 

and resources that they might not otherwise have access to or might not 

even know are there. In my experience, service learning helped me contact 

professionals in the Minneapolis suburbs who were cultivating education 

equity in schools and allowed me to bring their resources, skills and 

knowledge to my own school, which was having some issues around racial 

diversity. And during the distance learning time, service learning also 

helped connect my high school to libraries who really needed resources 
around technology, media literacy, and help supporting students and 

parents who were doing distance learning at home.

As a future teacher, I see service learning as an invaluable resource in 

connecting with students and enriching their learning. I appreciate you 

taking the time to listen to our stories on service learning and its 

impact, and I implore you to supply young people with this path to 

lifelong learning.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you so much for your comments.

I know we're getting close. How much time do we have? Okay, we can go. Do 

we have somebody else?

LSI: There are no others.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay. All right, well, then, if there are no other 

comments: In closing, I'd like to thank the members of the Board, the 

AmeriCorps staff, and the members of the public for joining us today. This 

has been an important discussion to strengthen and advance the work of

AmeriCorps and to help the Agency meet its mission to improve lives, 

strengthen communities and foster civic engagement through service and 

volunteering.

Michael, did you have anything you wanted to add? Or if not . . .?

MR. SMITH: No, Madame Chair, please.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: So is there a motion to adjourn?

MR. HARRIS: So moved.

MS. MCLAUGHLIN: All right. Without objection, the meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all for joining us today.

(Whereupon, at 5:00 p.m., the PROCEEDINGS were adjourned.)

* * * * *
CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY PUBLIC

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

I, Thomas Watson, notary public in and for the District of Columbia, do 

hereby certify that the forgoing PROCEEDING was duly recorded and

thereafter reduced to print under my direction; that the witnesses were 

sworn to tell the truth under penalty of perjury; that said transcript is 

a true record of the testimony given by witnesses; that I am neither 

counsel for, related to, nor employed by any of the parties to the action 

in which this proceeding was called; and, furthermore, that I am not a 

relative or employee of any attorney or counsel employed by the parties 

hereto, nor financially or otherwise interested in the outcome of this 

action.

(Signature and Seal on File)

-----------------------------------

Attorney, District of Columbia BAR #41135

My Commission Expires: May 31, 2024