SCI Welcomes New AmeriCorps Members

On Monday, September 14th, the SCI team welcomed nineteen new AmeriCorps Members for the first time.  These men and women, many of which had just completed college, arrived anxious but ready for ten months of challenges.

We had a full week of orientation activities ahead of us.  It was a week filled to the brim both with valuable skills we would need to accomplish their mission, and hokey icebreakers to calm their nerves and introduce them to colleagues.  

We arrived at the Dotwell house in Dorchester with the desire to help people through getting them involved in their communities, but only a faint idea of how to go about the task.  Jocelyn Abelha said that “Last week I learned the scope of the project that I am getting involved with by becoming an SCI AmeriCorps member.  Since I will be serving in my own community I was not aware of how big this program is in terms of its reach for volunteers across the country.”

One of the first lessons that the SCI team had to teach was effective networking.  For many of the AmeriCorps members, this was their first foray into the business world.  We knew what business cards were, but had only known ‘networking’ as a funny word that Dilbert occasionally says.  Lauren Anderson later reflected on the skills she learned there: “Through the SCI Orientation I learned that I want to be more intentional about the way I network. In the past I formed most of my connections fairly informally. This year I am entering a new environment where I will need to pursue contacts with a new level of diligence and organization in order to reach my goals.”

Through this week-long orientation process we also learned about the process of planning large events, how to manage website content, send out eBlast newsletters, and use social networking sites to achieve our goals.  The skills we learned should serve them well in the exciting challenges that will arise.

 If you want to read more about our new members click here.