Author Archives: Katrina Mathis

04.06.09
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Webchats to Help Prepare for AmeriCorps Week 2009

AmeriCorps Week LogoAmeriCorps Week organizers invite the AmeriCorps community to participate in a series of webinars to answer your questions and give you the tools to make AmeriCorps Week 2009 successful.

Participation is free, but you must register separately for each conversation and download the WebEx application (for free) in order to participate.

Each with its own theme, five “web chats” — conference calls that also involve following an online presentation —  will take place at the following dates and times.

Continue reading →

04.03.09
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Your Service Networks Really Can Help with Your Career Transition

A story about how networking during Peace Corps reaped rewards after my service term ended.

I’d been back in Atlanta for six months, living off of my $5,075 Peace Corps readjustment allowance—at my parent’s house, of course—and also the pocket change I made working at an amphitheatre during the 1996 Olympics, and a very unpleasant week as a temp (who knew you needed office skills to work in an office?), before I scored my first job interview. It was for a Program Assistant position at an education non-profit in Atlanta.

I had never worked for a non-profit before and I would never have looked in that direction had it not been for connections I’d made while in Guinea.

I’d met Charles soon after arriving in Guinea two years earlier. He worked for USAID and lived in Conakry, Guinea’s capital city. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), he understood the travails of volunteer life, so he let PCVs house sit whenever his work took him elsewhere.

For two years, I’d lived in a small village roughly seven hours north of Conakry. Although my house was only 15 kilometers off the main road, it took an hour — via bush taxi or on my Trek mountain bike (that road was so bad, the mode of transportation Continue reading →

03.28.09
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AmeriCorps NCCC: Give A Lot & Gain Even More!

A conversation about AmeriCorps NCCC — from people who know the program well. NCCC is currently accepting applications.

Sunday Kofax's Flickr photostream

Sunday Kofax's Flickr photostream

Last evening, I had dinner with two AmeriCorps NCCC alumnae, at a quaint French bistro with absolutely the best roasted chicken. Needless to say the conversation went where it naturally flows when national service folks are gathered:

“Which NCCC campus did you serve at?” “You did Peace Corps…what country did you serve in?” “So, two years…that’s a long time.” “What was your favorite project?” “Why did you choose NCCC?” “Did you like your assignment?” “Did you get along with anyone on your team?”

Satiated from her roasted chicken dinner and awaiting her crème brulee, Tiffany admitted she was attracted to NCCC because of the broad range of service opportunities it offered. She said the various project assignments (members complete four to five different projects in ten months) was a natural fit to her goal-oriented nature.

While Shawna, who’d just polished off a truly appetizing duck confit (she gave me a piece), was now savoring her profiteroles Continue reading →

03.20.09
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My Thoughts on National Service

Katrina MathisThe New Service welcomes new blogger Katrina Mathis. This is her introduction.

I decided to join the Peace Corps in the 10th grade during a brief Civics class discussion about volunteers in Africa.

Years later, during my senior year in college, I threw caution to the wind and finally dropped that “no postage necessary if mailed in the U.S.” tear card in the mail box, requesting an application from Peace Corps. A month or two or three later—I honestly can’t remember—I received my Peace Corps application and began a life changing journey.

At 22, when I touched down in Guinea, West Africa—to live abroad, immersed in another culture and language — my primary Continue reading →