Essay Guideline Update

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for all the e-mails, we really appreciate your support and participation!

We literally could not do this without you. As Sky brightly said, "we would just be filling a book with our own thoughts..." and that is not what we want to do. Oh Sky, she's so funny and wonderful. 

We have an important addition to add to the our guidelines.

While we have referred to your written submission as an essay, we want to emphasize the importance of first person narration. This is not a formal paper, we would love to hear you voice come through. Here is an example of a comedic first person narrative written about awkward middle school years.

Enjoy!

-Sky, Brittany, Christina

Guidelines for Submitting an Entry

We would love to hear from you! To send AmeriStories your reflections on AmeriCorps service via e-mail (AmeriStories@gmail.com), please keep the following guidelines in mind:

Length: One page, single spaced.  Your reflection can be a list of answers to our questions, an essay, or a series of philosophical reflections or anecdotes.  You could even write a poem!  

Please answer, in some way, the following questions:

• Name
• Location before AmeriCorps.
• Where are you serving right now? Tell us about your site.
• What do your family and friends think of your service? What was their initial reaction?

Here are some more questions to provide direction to your reflection (you may answer all, some or none of these, they are jumping off points):

• How have you changed since joining AmeriCorps?
• What did you think service was going to be like? Was it what you expected?
• What does national service mean to you?
• Describe an influential character in your year of service. Is there anyone you served with, or served, who you won't forget?
• Did you have any changes in your perspective of what service is? Can you describe a 'light bulb moment'?
• Describe a moment when you were overwhelmed. What happened? How did you get past it?
• How has this year with AmeriCorps changed your life goals/trajectory?  
• What were other job possibilities that you were considering before joining AmeriCorps?