BY MADDIE FERRELL, AMERICORPS VISTA, FRIENDS OF DECKERS CREEK

After I graduated college, I was excited to begin a career in environmental work, but starting a career path can be difficult. I began to realize that most entry level positions only helped me learn one or two aspects of the field. I felt as though I was not expanding my knowledge of environmental work in the way I had hoped. I began searching for opportunities in my field, but many of the positions I wanted required years of experience. Once I realized this, I started to brainstorm effective ways to expand my resume and experience.

A few people in my graduating class had decided to commit to a VISTA year and had good experiences. Knowing this, I researched the VISTA program and realized all the amazing benefits and lessons I would encounter in just one year. I was specific in my search for VISTA positions and was determined to find one related to environmental work.

I am so happy that now I am a VISTA with Friends of Deckers Creek in Morgantown, West Virginia. I’m an alumnus of West Virginia University, so Morgantown holds a special place in my heart and it feels good to give back to a community that I love. I am learning new aspects of environmental work, but I’m also learning how to connect with the community I’m serving, how to keep a nonprofit sustainable, and how to effectively engage the community in environmental efforts. In this position, not only am I taking steps to advance my career, but I’m also helping the community have a healthier watershed.

Interested in contributing to this work happening across West Virginia? Donate to The Hub’s VISTA program so we can support West Virginians volunteering every single day to give back to the communities they love.

BY SATHIYAN SIVAKUMARAN, FORMER HUBCAP VISTA, THE HUB

As an Economics graduate from a California university, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew what I didn’t want to do: work in a role I had no passion for. I have no qualms with working hard for long hours, but it had to be doing something I wanted to do. I knew this meant coming back to WV.

I missed my home state. WV was the place I complained about when I grew up there, left for college, and inevitably missed to my core for 4 years before finding out about VISTA and joining the WV Community Development Hub. This was the kind of start I needed. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but the missions of The Hub, VISTA program, and its strong impact in WV were what I wanted to put my efforts into performing.

Being a VISTA at The Hub was where I found my sense of place. I rediscovered the love I have for WV through the innovative work that The Hub and its huge network of partners and community members are performing. I developed professional skills: project management, effective communication, and perhaps most importantly, how to not zone out in meetings. Not a single day felt like work or service to be honest, because while I may not have enjoyed literally every task I performed, the opportunity to work with engaged community members across the state was endlessly exciting and rewarding.

After completing my VISTA term and staying a few months longer at The Hub (they just couldn’t get rid of me!), I made the move to Washington D.C. to serve as the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s “Youth Program Analyst,” where I help oversee OSMRE’s AmeriCorps, VISTA, and Semester Internship programs. It’s sad to leave WV and I am sure the gravitational pull of WV will bring me back, but it was a great opportunity to stay connected to Appalachia while experiencing a new place.

My time as a VISTA has already impacted my work in my new position. I more readily ask for help, something I spent years believing was a sign of weakness. It’s not. I also am constantly seeking input from others. As a VISTA at The Hub, it was always crucial to listen and understand community members’ input. Community meetings were regular, and who knows a community better than the people living and working there? I’ve realized that I will never understand everything or everyone, but that shouldn’t stop me from trying. Now, at OSMRE, I’m expanding my listening to voices of people working and living in mining regions across the country.

Being a VISTA at The Hub helped prepare me for a full-time role at OSMRE, but more importantly, it made me appreciate all the amazing things people are doing. Serving as a VISTA in an office with people who were constantly working on ways to best serve WV communities was a privilege. I’m forever grateful.

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Interested in contributing to this work happening across West Virginia? Donate to The Hub’s VISTA program so we can support West Virginians volunteering every single day to give back to the communities they love.

BY KATHRYN RYAN, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, THE HUB

We asked VISTAs: in your experience, what does VISTA service bring to West Virginia?

Being a VISTA Intermediary, The Hub doesn’t only host VISTAs; we also sponsor VISTAs for other organizations who have programs in need of capacity building. In sponsoring VISTA projects that contribute to community engagement, improvement, and revitalization, we have the opportunity to see a diverse spectrum of what community development looks like across the state.

(Interested in learning more about our VISTA program? Visit our VISTA page).

Here are the responses we received from Hub VISTAs to the question: What does VISTA service bring to West Virginia?

Rachel Pell, Friends of Deckers Creek Environmental Education VISTA

Previous VISTAs before me at Friends of Deckers Creek (FODC) have made a lot of lasting impacts to our organization. This includes entire projects they planned and secured funding for, a beautiful new FODC website, thousands of local students that received hands-on environmental education, tons of trash cleaned up in our watershed, and a lot of other amazing tangible things.

But on top of that, the lasting impact of VISTAs to FODC includes a lot of things that aren’t as easy to see on the surface. This includes kids that, thanks to our educational programming, were given a positive way to look at the environment and ways to protect it – or even sparked an interest in a STEM field for them.

Thanks to the countless public outreach efforts of VISTAs, the FODC community has been able to grow in size, and the public’s perception and recognition of our organization is maintained. These things are important to a nonprofit’s success in countless ways. VISTAs not only allow nonprofits to thrive, but also touch the lives of the volunteers and beneficiaries they work with and bring communities together.

Cynthia McComas, The Hub’s Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities VISTA

While VISTA positions are crucial throughout the country, they are especially relevant to West Virginia, where much of the population lives in poverty, suffers with health problems, and lacks quality education. These are the stories we are so often told, but VISTAs can help change the narrative of West Virginia.

After decades of decline of the economy, population, and general good news, we can now see a resurgence of development in West Virginia, particularly in culture and tourism. There are many VISTA positions in West Virginia because things are happening. Small towns like Thomas, WV are growing and thriving, young people are coming back home, small businesses are opening up, and there are endless opportunities for outdoor recreation. There is much progress to be made, but we are making it right now. Being a VISTA in West Virginia means being a changemaker, an advocate, and a collaborator.

Kristian Stevenson, Regional Family Resource Network VISTA for Kanawha, Boone, and Putnam Counties

As an AmeriCorps VISTA, I see there is a way to provide better opportunities. As a member of the community, I see numerous obstacles that my community faces daily such as poverty, low education levels, and no community involvement.

However, as a VISTA, I can reach out to other organizations and partner with them on ideas to prevent poverty in our area, better the education opportunities, and help families, children, and the community reach their fullest potential on community-based activities.

These opportunities provide a more involved and stable environment and also provides more job opportunities in the community.

Maddie Ferrell, Friends of Deckers Creek Community Engagement VISTA

For me, being a VISTA with Friends of Deckers Creek means that I will be a piece of the puzzle in the efforts to improve the Deckers Creek watershed. There are so many beautiful bodies of water all across the mountain state, and to know I am helping to clean and advocate for one of those beautiful watersheds makes me feel like I’m giving back a valuable resource to our community.

A clean watershed not only displays the health of an ecosystem, but also an active community, as many of our water clean up activities involve community volunteers. The Deckers Creek watershed spans over both Monongalia and Preston County and actively creating a cleaner and healthier watershed gives back recreation opportunities for both communities.

Stephanie VanGilder, On Eagles’ Wings Therapeutic Horsemanship VISTA

Being an Americorps VISTA is rewarding because I am able to show my community how to help others. This means being a leader and a role model to others, which I hope sparks interest in their minds to volunteer and be a positive influence in our communities as well.

It is very important to me that Americorps VISTAs are put in different environments, faculties, or organizations to help our communities in need. I believe the VISTA program’s diversity of service areas creates an inclusive community that serves a wide variety of needs. As a VISTA, I have learned to refine skills related to dedication, persistence, and empathy. It is truly life-changing for both the VISTA and hosting organization to have the opportunity to be sponsored by Americorps. Often times sustainability and capacity building can fall short to day-to-day activities within an organization. I am elated to fill that need as a VISTA. Watching an organization and our community grow and succeed all because of what the Americorps VISTA program is able to provide, is very rewarding and personally gratifying.

Many may not know that VISTAs are on the ground all across West Virginia making impact. They’re laying the groundwork that gives West Virginians the access we need to live the lives we want to live and to create the communities we know possible.

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Interested in contributing to this work happening across West Virginia? Donate to The Hub’s VISTA program so we can support West Virginians volunteering every single day to give back to the communities they love »