What if your service year already set you up to run for office?

Laura Perez served in the founding year of City Year Milwaukee and stayed for a second year because she loved it so much. That’s when she learned she wasn’t only a great follower. She was a leader. Her path took her into the classroom, nonprofit work, and community organizing, and then onto a fellow AmeriCorps member’s school board campaign. They won. Today Laura is on staff at New Politics Academy, helping servant leaders find their path to political leadership.

Dev Myers grew up in a family of service. His dad served in the military, his mom was a nurse, and his grandmother fought for clean, affordable housing in her small South Carolina town. After watching January 6th unfold a few blocks from his Capitol Hill home, Dev committed to making politics his full-time work. He now leads recruitment for the New Power Project, which has supported 74 Black and brown candidates running for everything from water commissioner to governor. He also ran for and serves as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in DC.

Together, they talk with Nicki about why a community garden is community organizing, why state and local office shapes national policy, and why fewer than 20% of elected leaders come from a servant leader background. Nicki is a 2020 New Politics Academy graduate herself.

🗳️ New Politics Academy programs (free for servant leaders!)

Answering the Call: Reflection-based. Write your leadership mission statement and your “shadow” mission statement, and decide whether running is right for you.
Bootcamps: For anyone who wants to support a campaign team, especially on the fundraising side.
Foundations: Tactical training for anyone planning to run in the next two to five years. Build your public narrative, your fundraising pitch, and your campaign team, with feedback from campaign advisors.

Not ready to commit? Try a 90-minute session or a lunch and learn, or add your name to the Join Us list.

👉 https://newpoliticsacademy.org

🎙️ AmeriCorps Connections tells the stories of alumni who were changed by national service. Subscribe and share so these stories keep reaching people. (It actually matters!)

⚠️ New Politics Academy is a nonpartisan nonprofit. Featuring an organization or its candidates is not an endorsement of any candidate or campaign. We are here for the service, always!

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🎙️ AmeriCorps Connections tells the stories of alumni who were changed by national service. Subscribe and share so these stories keep reaching people.

What if your leftover Segal Education Award could make you a better teacher in six weeks?

Destiny Schlinker served as a FoodCorps AmeriCorps member in Springdale, Arkansas, from 2013 to 2015. She led garden and cooking lessons in the state's largest school district, where her students raised 12 chickens in a purple coop they built together and bottle-fed two baby goats in the middle of the city. Today she's Senior Manager of Leadership Pipelines at FoodCorps and co-owns Blue Mountain Vegetable Farm in a town of about 80 people.

Destiny tells Nicki how garden lessons bring second-grade adjectives and fifth-grade haikus to life, and what it meant when a former student stopped her at a college career fair to say he still remembered those energy balls. She also talks about how FoodCorps rebuilt after losing its federal funding, going from 200 AmeriCorps positions in 19 states to 50 in nine, and the new ways it's investing in leaders.

Use this a code where folks can say they heard through AmeriCorps Connections Podcast!
Visit website at www.foodcorps.org
email at apply@foodcorps.org

🍎 FoodCorps programs featured in this episode
FoodE: Food Education in the Classroom Micro-Credential
With Teachers College, Columbia University
• Six weeks, online and asynchronous, with optional live office hours
• Built for educators teaching kids in a classroom, garden, or nonprofit setting (most useful for K-5)
• Earns a certificate, a badge, and continuing education credits in many states
• $295, and eligible for your Segal Education Award
• Upcoming cohorts: November 2, January 4, March 1, April 26

👉 FoodCorps Member Position
• Full-time, 11-month contract role (August 3 to July 11), renewable for a second or third year
• Two tracks: Food Education (classroom and garden) and School Nutrition (district child nutrition teams)
• About $40,000 for the term, plus PTO and health, dental, and vision insurance
• Open in Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, New Mexico, and California
• No teaching degree required. Summer camp or Boys & Girls Club experience counts!

👉 Kindred Fellowship for School Nutrition Leaders
• Free, nine-month fellowship (October to June) for 30 district school food leaders
• In-person kickoff in Philadelphia, about 10 virtual sessions, and a closing Hill Day in DC
• Applications open in May and close in August

👉 FoodCorps Leadership Network
Everyone from all three programs joins the alumni network on Slack, with mentors, job boards, training, and policy opportunities.
📬 Connect with Destiny: apply@foodcorps.org
She's happy to send details on using your Segal Award.

Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are.
Link 👉 USE THIS LINK Look for our my guest blog for the Idealist Career Advice blog! 👩‍💻

🍿 Snack smart while you listen — Pops Up Popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% off at https://popzup.com./

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Saylor Ogle has done four AmeriCorps terms and counting, and somewhere along the way she became "the Lorax." She speaks for the trees, plants them, mulches them, prunes them, and waters them across Knoxville, Tennessee.

In this episode of our Tennessee alumni series, Saylor walks through every stop on that path: an after-school program at a Baptist center, college prep tours with Emerald Youth Foundation, a solo term as a Greenway Ranger cutting brand-new mountain bike trails with a trail-building mentor named Duane Miley, an unexpected career in geophysical engineering, and now urban forestry with the City of Knoxville.

She talks about the AmeriCorps connection that turned an internship interview into a full-time job before she'd even walked out the door, the friendships that carried into her wedding party, and why she still drives past the trees she planted years ago just to see how big they've gotten.
If you're weighing a service year, or wondering what comes after one, this conversation is for you.

About AmeriCorps Connections
AmeriCorps Connections lifts up stories of AmeriCorps alums — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started.
If this episode moves you — don't let that feeling sit there! 💛

Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are.
Link 👉 IDEALIST Social Impact Jobs

Check out our Nicki Fiocco's guest blog for the Idealist Career Advice 👩‍💻

🍿 Snack smart while you listen — PopzUp Popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH.
Use code NICKI10 for 10%

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