Willow Glen Resident
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City Year lets young adults focus on community service
By Tiffany Carney
After high school graduation some students know exactly what they want to do with their lives, what colleges they want to attend and what careers are appealing, but others just can't seem to decide. City Year is a program designed for young adults who want to make a difference, but are not quite sure how to do it.
According to associate program director Jo Bender, 25, City Year is similar to the Peace Corps, but all service is done within the United States. City Year San Jose has 60 full-time corps members who serve the schools and communities throughout the city.
City Year is an AmeriCorps service program founded in Boston in 1988 and in San Jose in 1994. Today the national program has 16 sites throughout the United States and one in Africa.
City Year is composed of young adults, age 17-24. Each corps member is required to submit an application and essay and complete two interviews. Once accepted into the program, corps members commit to 10 months of full-time, community service.
Half of the San Jose corps members are from California and the rest come from other states. The program is available to those anywhere in the United States.
"There are people coming straight from high school and people who have already graduated from college with different backgrounds, and you get to learn a lot from them," Jeannie Zhang says.
The team-based organization places corps members in different service areas according to their interests and preferences, says Bender. According to Lee Mathes, a Senior Corps member in his second year with City Year, 75 percent of corps members work on school campuses daily in after-school programs, tutoring or mentoring students.
Mathes, 21, says the signature colors of the organization are yellow and red. Each corps member is required to wear a uniform of tan boots, khaki-colored pants and red City Year jackets, all donated by Timberland clothing company. In San Jose, the city asked corps members to wear yellow instead of red jackets to avoid conflicting with gang-related colors.
Twice a month, corps members work on service projects with members of the community. According to Mathes, City Year corps members completed 100 projects in the San Jose area in 2005-06. Some of their projects include litter removal, painting, graffiti clean-up, public school painting and murals, creek cleanup and park maintenance.
City Year also has a special commitment to San Jose's Strong Neighborhood Initiative areas. City Year corps members and volunteers often assist SNI areas in completion of top 10 priority lists of improvements to the neighborhood.
Zhang, 23, of San Jose and attended college in New York. After graduation, she decided to move back home and give back to her community for a year before attending medical school.
"A lot of our work here at City Year is working with underprivileged kids," says Zhang, who works with third-graders at an elementary school in East San Jose. "I tutor them in reading and math. These are the kids who are behind in their classes, and the tutoring will help them get back on track," Zhang says.
According to Bender, each corps member completes about 40 hours of City Year-affiliated work per week, not including weekend service projects. In their service year, corps members also gain experience in leadership skills, public speaking, team building and project management to prepare for a future career, Bender says.
Every corps member receives a stipend of $250 per week, and after completing two years of service, each receives an AmeriCorps Education Award of $4,725 after their City Year graduation for college tuition and job training.
After graduating from the program, some corps members come back to work as City Year employees. Bender says about 80 percent of employees were corps members at one time and now facilitate community projects, run programs, conduct marketing and more.
City Year headquarters is at 142 W. Santa Clara St., San Jose. For more information, visit www.cityyear.org/sanjose.
