Meet the Corps - Patrick Ferryman - Helping My Hometown

My name is Patrick Ferryman. I am 20 years old and I was born and raised in Washington D.C. Joining City Year was by far the best decision I've ever made. I've met a lot of great people and was given a lot of opportunities one could only dream of. I joined City Year to give a year to improve my community. I was inspired by a service project that City Year put on at my high school, Eleanor Roosevelt, right here in D.C. At last year's MLK Day of Service, City Year came to my school to build benches and to revitalize the school's atmosphere by painting inspirational quotes and murals of famous people on the school walls. From that moment on I knew that City Year was for me. I did my research to find out more about the organization, applied, and now I'm here today as a proud City Year corps member.

Doing City Year helped me to realize just how important it is for DC natives like me to serve their community. I found my work in City Year to be more efficient because it was easier for me to understand the issues in my city being someone who grew up here. It was easier for me to provide support to the children that I worked with and to give them ideas to help better their understanding of how to avoid peer pressure and focus on their school work. DC children need young, positive role models to look up to for inspiration. Bettering the DC community would be a whole lot easier and more powerful if more DC people would reach out a helping hand.

So for those of you who have a passion for service, I encourage you to look into City Year and see for yourself just why this organization is so great. Join us! You won't regret it.

LET'S BUILD A GARDEN!

The amazing senior corps members of City Year engaged 3rd-5th grade students from Turner at Green, Brown Gibbs Young, and Francis Stevens elementary schools in Washington, DC for after school programing, involving a curriculum focused on building community gardens for all the three locations. The curriculum included 10 lessons facilitated by the corps to help students learn about building gardens, and to explain the concept of where fruit/vegetables come from. The City Year corps members invited the students to help construct the gardens by planting flowers, and painting signs which took place on April 17th. The students unveiled their accomplishments in the garden during the curriculum period, and it all ended with a cool harvest celebration at each of the elementary schools.

I believe that this was such well supported initiative by everyone involved, including the principals of all the schools, the staff of City Year, and most importantly the parents of the students. It was such a fun way for students to learn about gardening, and it was great for them to see that even at an early age that they can make a difference in their communities. (Kind of sounds like our Young Heroes program... *Hint, hint!*) I was glad to see the students participating and taking ownership of what they helped construct. I'm pretty sure that sooner or later the students will be maintaining and harvesting their own gardens.

For More highlights, check out the SLIDESHOW above!

Meet the Corps - Anthony Buenafe - City Year Is How I Honor My Parents

Hey there! My name is Anthony Buenafe. On this blog you may have seen videos of me skipping stones or solving Rubik’s Cubes. Allow me to tell you a bit about my background and why I joined City Year.

I have two very loving parents and two great older sisters. My parents grew up in poor farm towns in the Philippines. Dad still tells me stories about having to carry water buckets, man the chicken coop, tend to the fields, and break his back to get by. He and Mom worked extremely hard to move to the United States and give our family more advantages and comforts than they ever had. Thanks to them, my sisters and I all graduated from college, and we’re pursuing lives and careers they never would have dreamed of when they were young. I think our story is familiar to many Asian American families.

Our family is a strong unit and we make decisions together (i.e. I had to receive my parents’ blessing for anything I wanted to do). My parents liked the concept of City Year, helping underserved communities – they just didn’t want me doing it. They saw it this way: their only son just graduated from one of the best schools in the United States, so why would he head directly to City Year, a non-salaried, inner-city service position? They thought I should take a high-profile job that would put me among the elite class of earners, but I decided to take a job that qualified me for food stamps! At the outset, my parents probably felt my decision to join City Year was an insult to the hard work and sacrifice they had made for me. But now looking back, it has actually been the perfect tribute.

I owe everything to my parents’ selfless support of me and my sisters. This is why I do City Year. By giving back to the children of Washington DC, I feel like I’m giving back to my parents. The war-torn, rural communities of my parents’ childhood days and present-day Washington DC are more similar than you might think. DC public schools are among the most disadvantaged in the nation, just like my parents’ primary schools in the Philippines. When I work with my DC students, I can only imagine that their hardships are as challenging as what my parents faced when they were young. Working to make things better for DC kids is like working to make things better for my parents. City Year is my way of repaying my parents for all the good things they have given to me.

My parents understand City Year now. They see me pour my heart into what I do, and they respect it. When my City Year finishes in June, I still won’t take the easy path to supporting myself. I’m going back to school to get my Master’s degree in Education Policy so I can develop, evaluate, and implement programs like City Year in underprivileged areas all over the United States. I want to continue giving back to others as a tribute to all the love and support my parents gave to me. How ironic – to honor my parents, I keep going against their wishes for me to take a regular desk job! But it’s the right thing for me to do. Serving with City Year is my way of saying, "Thank you, Mom and Dad."

TAKE A TRIP IN OUR TIME MACHINE!

During the District of Columbia's Public Schools' spring break our corps members successfully ran Camp City Year out of three different sites in Washington, DC: J.O. Wilson, Turner at Green, and MC Terrell elementary schools. The City Year corps members worked hard recruiting volunteers, nurses, and spreading the word about Camp City Year across the DC area. Also in preparation for Camp City Year 2009, we worked even harder preparing skits, building "time machines", and securing festive items such as moon bounces. I feel that we demonstrated great flexibility, but most importantly the kids who participated in Camp City Year really enjoyed it.

The kids really bought into our theme for Camp City Year which was "Take a Trip in Our Time Machine!" Each day of the week we traveled back in time to a specific event, and the kids searched for clues to get us back to the present...sound fun? On the final day of camp, the kids enjoyed cotton candy and plenty more on Carnival Day... Yo, Camp City Year was awesome! What more can we say?

Check out the highlights above in our slide show!