09.02.09
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Career Tip: Paying Your Dues — Is it a Necessity?

From shawncampbell via Flickr's Creative Commons

Originally posted on the Idealist.org homepage blog by resident career transitions expert Meg Busse. Meg recently recorded a podcast answering common questions about nonprofit careers. To listen, click here.

I was on a panel a few weeks ago at a retreat for Executive Directors (EDs). The panel was focused on supporting emerging leaders in the nonprofit sector and featured four people to speak to our experiences as 30(ish)-year-olds in leadership roles. The other panelists were fantastic: Matthew Bennett and Michelle Cote of the Purpose Project and Fahd Vahidy, Executive Director of Public Allies Connecticut.

One of the most interesting moments of the session came at the very end when one Executive Director commented that young hires don’t want to pay their dues. This created a bit of a Continue reading →

09.01.09
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Inner City Teaching Corps Volunteer Teachers Gear Up for the New School Year in Chicago

Brittorf (left) and Tiffany Watson are teachers with the Inner City Teaching Corps of Chicago

Pat Bittorf (left) and Tiffany Watson are teachers with the Inner City Teaching Corps of Chicago

Jim Conti contributed this post — an interview with two teachers in the Inner City Teaching Corps (ICTC) of Chicago‘s Volunteer Teaching Corps (VTC). Jim is the program’s Recruiting Coordinator and Associate Director.

It’s that time of year again! Retailers have penny sales on notebooks, pencils, and scissors. School buses are being swept out and shined up. The collective groan of school-age children can be heard across the country as the 2009-2010 school year starts up. As students dread the end of summer, teachers are gearing up for what promises to be a new and exciting year.

Tiffany Watson and Pat Bittorf, members of the Inner-City Teaching Corps’s Volunteer Teaching Corps, are no exceptions. Having graduated from the University of Scranton and Boston College respectively, Tiffany and Pat arrived in Chicago in early June to move into their community on Chicago’s south side.

After completing an intensive summer institute, they both stepped foot in St. Malachy Elementary School to face their new classrooms for the first time. Tiffany is teaching a self-contained second grade class while Pat has a sixth grade homeroom, where he teaches Reading and Religion, as well as instructing sixth through eighth grade Language Arts.

In the midst of classroom setup and the first few days of school, we sat down with these two new teachers to talk about where they are coming from, what’s going on now, and what might be in their future.

Jim: Good morning! Let’s start with something broad. What brought you to the classroom? Continue reading →

08.28.09
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Australian Volunteers International Offers Opportunities for Australians at Home and Abroad

Thanks to intern Ceyhun Arslan for contributing this post. Ceyhun is researching service opportunities throughout the world open to non-U.S. citizens.

Australian Volunteers International recruits permanent residents of Australia who wish to volunteer overseas or in remote regions of Australia for a variety of projects.

Founded even before the U.S. Peace Corps and the British Volunteer Service Organisation, Australian Volunteers International (AVI) cooperates with local organizations overseas and within remote Australia, which request volunteers from AVI.

Short-listed applicants interview with an AVI representative. Participants can choose among 70 new programs in Asia, the Continue reading →

08.27.09
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Alan Khazei’s Tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy

A letter from Be The Change’s Alan Khazei in tribute to Senator Kennedy who passed away Tuesday. Sign the Condolence Book for the Kennedy family.

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Senator Kennedy at the Service America Act bill signing. Photo credits: Martin H. Simon-Pool/Getty ImagesOn behalf of ServiceNation, Be the Change and our extended community, I would like to express our profound sadness over the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, as well as our deep appreciation for his life’s contribution and our most heartfelt sympathy to his extraordinary family.

Senator Kennedy is the true godfather of the service movement. Without his tireless commitment, this movement as it thrives today never would have come about. He indelibly changed the fabric of America by not just inspiring, but personally enabling millions of citizens to give their time and skills to improve their communities and country. Through his visionary and bipartisan leadership in authoring the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the legislation that created AmeriCorps in 1993, and most recently with his good friend Senator Orrin Hatch, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009, he Continue reading →

08.25.09
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Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009

Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy

Tonight, Ted Kennedy died at home in Hyannis Port, MA.

The senator from Massachusetts, who’s been suffering from a cancerous brain tumor, was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

He fought hard for national service — most recently on the the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act which was signed into law in April and which had been spearheaded by himself and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). That Act represents the largest expansion of national service since the start of AmeriCorps in 1993.

Read the Change/Wire tribute to Senator Kennedy, and sign their Condolence Book.

According to CNN.com, the

“longtime Massachusetts senator was considered one of the most effective legislators of the past few decades. Kennedy, who became known as the ‘Lion of the Senate,’ played major roles in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, Continue reading →