Giving Back to the School that Shaped Me

Grecia and STEM Students working together.

My name is Grecia Barboza, and I am a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) tutor at Shearer Elementary School. As a Shearer alumnus, it gives me great pride to give back to the school that helped shape me into who I am today. At Shearer, it was the passionate teachers who were the most memorable. Looking back now, it is evident how big of an impact they had on my education and drive to succeed academically.

 Being an AmeriCorps Service Scholar is more than what the job description might lead you to believe. When I replied to the advertisement, I knew I would be tutoring kids and assisting the after school staff. I saw this as a way to build valuable experience for the future and was immediately intrigued by the prospect. However, AmeriCorps has turned out to be much more than that. I see around 25 kids a day in small group tutoring sessions. Yet, I am not just a tutor. I am also a counselor, a mentor, an older sister, a confidant, a friend. Throughout the year, I have shown them that I am not only here to teach them a math lesson, but also here to listen to what they have to say. Although most of what they say is random kid talk, they know that in tutoring groups there exists an environment where their questions, ideas, and opinions are respected and valued.

There is nothing more satisfying than a kid’s “a-ha” moment and knowing that it is you who made their understanding possible. Serving with AmeriCorps in Napa has given me and all Service Scholars the opportunity to foster the minds of the future of America and give them the extra attention and support they do not receive in class. The value of this experience is one that I will cherish and hope to expand in the future.

Finding Myself through Service

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
-Mahatma Gandhi 

I graduated from Indiana University in 2004 with degrees in Political Science and Anthropology, a new boyfriend whom I believed I just might marry someday, and nary a clue as to what I wanted to do with my life. So essentially I was a lot like everyone else.

I guess I had a general sense of wanting to do something creative; maybe work in a museum, maybe not. I liked kids a whole lot, but I’d spent some time student teaching in elementary schools and knew that wasn’t for me. Maybe I’d become a museum educator, but what if I disliked that, too? I couldn’t tell you what I wanted to do with my life, but I’d gotten pretty good at sorting out the things I could never do. Banking. Lawyering. Accounting. No no and no.

I have no recollection of making the decision to join AmeriCorps, but once the idea came I held it tightly. Summoning a fearlessness that wasn’t like me at all, I applied for programs far away from my home – Habitat for Humanity in Colorado, trail-building in Louisiana, and after-school literacy in California. I could visualize myself pounding nails, meeting new friends, and being on my own, really and truly, for the first time in my life. I thought the time away would give me some clarity and point me toward a career doing…something.

I interviewed with all three AmeriCorps programs but ultimately chose one in Santa Rosa, California, where I’d serve as Team Leader for an after-school program, called CalSERVES, in an at-risk school. I didn’t have an apartment or a car, nor did I know anyone. Assured by the team there that it would all work itself out, I said goodbye to my dad, my sister, my boyfriend, and my home, and flew into San Francisco. I’d never been to San Francisco.

I boarded the bus to Santa Rosa and, once there, was picked up by a fellow volunteer. I spent the next three weeks training by day and couch-surfing by night. The worst was when I woke up in the middle of the night one time to find my co-worker’s weird roommate staring at me in the dark. The best was when I got to house-sit for an out-of-town teacher and had the place to myself. I subsisted on hummus and phone calls from friends and family. I was homesick and wondering why I hadn’t just taken a job at the mall until I figured the rest of it out.

Eventually the training ended, I found a place to stay, and I bought a little red Ford Aspire without power steering. I wound up loving my classroom and the students in it. I have amazing memories of playing Paul Simon for the kids while they did art projects, being thanked with hand-picked flowers by the parents of a challenging student, and labeling and creating a database of books in the classroom’s library.

I also participated in five National Days of Service, doing things like cleaning the school’s garden in the rain, picking up trash along a road in town, walking in the Human Race, and pulling out an old fence in a new city park. The work was hard and by the end of the day I was bone-tired, but those memories make me smile.

More than that, I learned to be resourceful and independent. I learned how to connect with people who had little in common with me, and how to work around difficult personalities. I also learned to live on what barely passes as an income. Bars and restaurants and other outings were out of the question, so I made do with nights in playing board games. It was during this time that I learned to cook.

By the time my year in AmeriCorps was over, I’d applied to and earned acceptance into a Museum Studies program in England. I figured that if I could move across the country sight unseen I could move across the pond. I sometimes think that California was a bigger adjustment for this small-town girl than Europe was.

I now hold a position in Development at UCLA, which I love. It’s often struck me that during every interview I’ve ever had I’m asked to talk about something I’m most proud of. Of all the things I’ve done, of all the things I could talk about, I inevitably go back to my time with CalSERVES.

Oh, and I did marry that boy.

by Loni Rocchio, CalSERVES AmeriCorps Alumnus