Friday, December 23, 2011

Baking to Build Community

This holiday season the Campus Corps team at Fort Peck Community College, located in Poplar, MT on the Fort Peck Reservation, came together to brighten the holiday season for a local family in need. With the knowledge that many of their fellow FPCC students are burdened by the constant struggle to make ends meet, and are especially financially strained during the holiday season, they decided to participate in a Family Sponsorship for one such family. This was certainly no easy task for the group of already busy college students, as it entailed raising enough money to buy gifts for each of the family members and additionally providing them with a Christmas dinner.

In order to make this happen, Corps members directed their efforts to the kitchen and organized a campus bake sale to raise the funds needed for their sponsorship.  They strategically set up a table in a centrally located area during finals, in hopes that they could entice students by offering them a much needed study break during this busy time in the semester.  Their clever business plan worked and the bake sale ended up lasting for two entire weeks with a constant flow of baked goods arriving each day! The bake sale impressively raised a grand total of $277 and combined with donations from number of generous community members whom they reached out to, the Campus Corps team in total raised over $350 dollars! Furthermore, they contacted the local grocery store who agreed to provide a Christmas dinner for the family free of charge.

FPCC Campus Corps leader Katie Wise directed her team in this holiday initiative and was very impressed by the efforts of her team members as well as by the overwhelming generosity of the local community.  She says that she attributes the success to "a lot of different baking recipes, a lot of fun, and A LOT of sugar"! With two weeks of non-stop baking I am sure Katie is right, but what better way to sweeten one's holiday season than with treats for a good cause?

Monday, December 12, 2011

Welcome Krissy!


On behalf of the Campus Corps Community, I would like to give a warm welcome to Krissy Ferriter, the newest addition to the MTCC Network Office!  Just last week Krissy stepped into the position of Campus Corps Program Manager and has been quickly learning the ropes of what her new role will entail. It has been a pleasure getting to know Krissy this past week and I look forward to working with her for the remainder of my service year!!





Kristine Mazur Ferriter grew up in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, and received her B.S., summa cum laude, in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. In June 2011, Krissy completed her M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington, with a specialization in human dimensions of wildlife management. Krissy brings to the Montana Campus Corps experience as an AmeriCorps Field Educator with the Southeast Alaska Guidance Association, as well as two years of coordinating the International Conservation Volunteer Exchange program at the Great Basin Institute in Reno, Nevada. She enjoys reading, knitting, and yoga, as well as traveling, cooking, and taking advantage of local recreational opportunities with her husband. In her new role as Campus Corps Program Manager, Krissy looks forward to promoting civic responsibility within higher education, networking with diverse people throughout Montana, and helping to expand regional opportunities with Campus Corps.

Friday, December 9, 2011

SKC Students Step Up to Meet the Needs of their Community


The Campus Corps program at Salish Kootenai College has had a busy semester engaging in a wide variety of service initiatives to benefit their local community of Pablo, MT. As the campus does not have a Corps leader this year to serve as a resource for setting up projects and directing member efforts, students have impressively taken it upon themselves to step up as leaders working with their dedicated team of volunteers to best be of service to their community. The level of success that they have attained serves as a testament to the capable student members of SKC, as well as to the leadership provided by their devoted coordinator, Debbie Bell. 

Affiliated with the college's Nursing Department, the Campus Corps program at SKC primarily focuses on meeting the local community's need for improved health services, and with a team of members currently pursuing degrees in the nursing profession they have been able to utilize their specialized knowledge and skills in their service work.  Student volunteers have been a part of a number of valuable projects thus far this year, such as the YMCA Senior health fair during which volunteers met with local seniors and high school students to educate them about health issues as well as to share with them the mission of the Campus Corps program. Additionally, members served at the Pablo Thanksgiving Harvest Dinner where they helped carve a grand total of thirty turkeys to feed the local community members that attended the event! One member, Mark, shared that he especially enjoyed this project in that it succeeded in bringing together the local community and provided him an opportunity to interact with the local Native Kootenai population who maintain a strong cultural presence in the region.  Furthermore, the SKC Campus Corps team honored World AIDS Day on December 1st by arranging to have all members attend the basic training for becoming certified as an HIV/AIDS counselor.  Their team also participated in the campus wide event which aimed to raise community awareness about this epidemic as well as to promote HIV testing. 

With things wrapping up for the fall semester, the Campus Corps team is already looking ahead to spring and have set some pretty ambitious goals for the remainder of their service year.  Barrett Campbell, one of the students that has admirably stepped up as a leader amongst her peers, shared with me some of these initiatives which include helping organize a children's health fair, hosting a 5-K run to raise money and awareness for health promotion initiatives going on in Pablo, and advocating for healthier options in their campus cafeteria. Barrett shares that she has "been so proud to see the initiative that members have taken to go out into the community and use the skills that have been learned in the classroom for the ultimate purpose of working for the betterment of their local communities". 

The Campus Corps program is lucky to have such a self-motivated and dedicated group of members present on the SKC campus and we have been so impressed by the strides that they have made thus far in providing meaningful service to their local community.  I have personally been inspired by this passionate group of individuals and eagerly looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the following months!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tis the Season to Serve

With the Holiday Season upon us, we all know that this is the time of the year when we should be thankful for all that we have as well as when we should go out of our way to be generous to those who may not be as fortunate. Campuses throughout the state are embodying this holiday spirit and student volunteers are taking part in a variety of service projects with the hope that all members of their community can have the opportunity to enjoy a happy holiday season this year. Check out what some the projects that our campuses will be taking part in over the next few weeks: 

Flathead Valley Community College - FVCC student volunteers have organized a Giving Tree program  for which they have set up two Christmas Tree  on campus that are decorated with ornaments, each contains the age, gender, and wish list for a local child in need. Members of the FVCC community are encouraged to take an ornament and purchase gifts for the child whose information is on the selected ornament. The project is in partnership with the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) organization whose mission is to advocate for the best interests of children that have been victims of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

UM - The Campus Corps program in Missoula has taken the lead in organizing a campus wide Adopt a Family & Adopt A Veteran initiative in which members of the UM community who choose to participate are assigned a family and/or veteran in need to purchase gifts for as well as a corresponding Holiday wish list for each.  This project is in partnership with the local Salvation Army as well as with the Valor House, which serves Veterans and is run by the Poverello Center.

MSU - Campus Corps program in Bozeman is recruiting students to lend a hand at the Big Brothers Big Sisters gift wrapping booth at the Gallatin Valley mall to partake in wrapping 

MSU-Billings - On Saturday December 10th student volunteers from MSU-Billings will be spending the afternoon at the Garfield Community Resource Center to help out with their Holiday Party to provide some Christmas Cheer to the local children of the South Side neighborhood. Volunteers will be lending a hand in arts and crafts, games, cookie decorating and more.

Fort Peck Community College - FPCC Campus Corps is sponsoring a family, providing them with gifts, a dinner, and an Alco gift card to cover various holiday expenses. In order to make this happen, the team of volunteers have been working hard to reach out to local businesses for donations, to host bake sales to raise funds, and to arrange for a Christmas dinner to be provided for the family. 

UM- Western :  Student volunteers at UM-W are participating in two different projects taking place in the Dillon community.  First, they will be serving at the local Armory's "Christmas At Our House" event for which they will help prepare dinner and then help with crafts and greeting during the actual event. Additionally, students will be working as ushers for the Southwest Montana Arts Council's performance of "The Nutcracker".


MSU-Northern - Student volunteers in Havre, MT will be offering their service to the Salvation Army, taking part in their annual Christmas Charity fundraiser. Volunteers will be working shifts as bell ringers outside local stores where they will collect money from shoppers as they enter and exit the venue.


Aaniiih Nakoda College - The campus community up in Harlem, MT will be participating in a Giving Tree activity that has been organized by members of the college's basketball team.  They have a tree set up with ornaments, each containing the information of a child enrolled in the Immersion school located on campus for whom they are expected to purchase gifts for.  Additionally, student volunteers will be contributing to the coat drive which has been organized by Phi Theta Kappa this holiday season. 



Alex Black - Leader of the Bobcats



This week's featured Campus Corps leader is Montana State's very own Alex Black.  Alex decided that four years at MSU was just not enough and after graduating in May of 2011made the decision to stick around Bozeman's beautiful university and spend her fifth year on campus rallying students to server their community as the Campus Corps leader. If you are a resident of Bozeman or the surrounding area, there is a good chance that you have heard a lot about Alex lately or at least about the wildly successful "Can the Griz" food drive that she spearheaded. In this year's competition the Cats crushed UM's Grizzlies raising a record 58,000 lbs. of food for their local food bank!  Much of this success can be attributed to Alex's efforts, as she worked diligently all fall to prepare for the big event and successfully implemented many new innovative ways to expand the drive.

Alex is originally from Idaho Falls, ID and if you ask her about how she feels about living in Montana, she will answer you with a long list of things that she loves about the state that she now calls home. Most of all she is thrilled to live in a town that offers an overwhelming number of outdoor recreation activities nearby, providing her plenty of opportunities to ski, bike, camp, and hike whenever she's not busy with her duties as a leader.

Having studied graphic design at MSU, Alex hopes to pursue a career in this field while also incorporating her love of working with the youth population.  Alex envisions these two passions coming together in her career aspirations to one day be a freelance graphic designer primarily focusing on children's books and youth illustrated magazines. Alex is indeed a Bobcat through and through and the impressive amount of service she has done for the Bozeman area attests to how much she truly cares about her local community, which is so lucky to have her!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Service Saturdays are a Hit on Montana Campuses!

This semester Service Saturday programs seem to be popping up at more and more of our campuses throughout the state and with very good reason. What better way for college student to spend their weekend  than by taking advantage of an opportunity to get off campus and into their local communities with the goal of making a positive difference and helping meet some of the most pressing needs in their areas?  Furthermore, these events provide an opportunity for participants to meet a variety of new people, both other students and community members, while promising that all will have a lot of fun in the process!

Service Saturdays welcome all students, faculty, and staff to partake in various one-time service projects throughout the year, with the frequency at which they occur varying by campus. For instance, MSU & MSU-Billings both host one Service Saturday a month at which they offer a few different projects to choose from, while at UM's the program collaborates with just one site at a time and events occur on a  weekly basis.  This year projects have ranged from Habitat builds to spending time with seniors at an assisted living home to re-painting Bozeman's iconic "M" after it had been defaced by graffiti.

Shanna Ungate, Campus Corps leader at UM, has expressed how pleased she is with the success of Service Saturdays and how well they have really caught on amongst the campus community. She is happy to report that so far this year, every Service Saturday has been well attended and that the weekly email containing upcoming events now has a distribution list of over 400 students who have expressed interest in the program! She shares; "I think that Service Saturdays are a great in that they are a simple way for any student to get involved in service. And for those who are interested in the Campus Corps program, it allows them to get a taste of the various Missoula nonprofits which can then have an influence on which they decide to choose as their placement site." It certainly serves as a testament to the character of Montana students of higher education that they are increasingly choosing to spend their day off of class engaging in service work, and communities across the state are so grateful that they do!