How AmeriCorps Changed My Life — And Could Change Thousands More

When I finished college, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people and give back to society and my community. I pursued further education in social work, where I gained the knowledge I needed to better improve people’s lives, especially those in low-income or underserved communities.

But going to school wasn’t cheap — and it wasn’t easy. Like so many of my peers, I took out loans to get my education and prepare for my future. When the time came to graduate, despite my debt, I wanted to find a job that allowed me to serve my community. Unfortunately, some barriers still remained to launching into a career in public service.

That’s when I found AmeriCorps. The program allowed me to spend time serving my home community, in Roanoke, Virginia, gaining valuable work experience while anticipating the prospect of an AmeriCorps education award to help me pay off my student loans.

I went to work through AmeriCorps for Rebuilding Together, whose mission is to bring volunteers and communities together to improve the lives of low-income homeowners. It conducts home repairs for low-income residents throughout Southwest Virginia. For example, the average home roof repair costs $8,000, but by using volunteers and donated or reduced-cost materials, Rebuilding Together can do a roof replacement for $2,000. The local organization engages 1,300 local volunteers in the Roanoke Valley to act on its mission.

I completed a year of service as a program administrator. In my job, I recruited volunteers and did home reviews and community development. I’ll never forget the faces of the families we served after completing a much-needed but financially impossible home repair.

After my AmeriCorps service, I was hired as a full-time program administrator by Rebuilding Together, and after another year, I was promoted to be its executive director.

I owe my career to AmeriCorps.

We can’t afford to make AmeriCorps inaccessible for young Americans. It changed my life and set me on my career path.

That’s why I’m excited to see Hillary Clinton put forward a strong new commitment to AmeriCorps in her presidential campaign.

Too many students graduate college with crushing debt. AmeriCorps provides a unique opportunity for both the prospect of education awards to help pay off loans and the ability to put your loans in forbearance while completing service.

Clinton’s plan would go further. Under her New College Compact, any student who serves their country can graduate from an in-state public college without any debt.

She will achieve this by doubling the education award — from $11,550 to more than $23,000 — for any service member who completes two years of full-time AmeriCorps service and works for a year in public service. This move could help encourage more young people to dedicate their careers to public service, while easing the burden of college costs.

She also will make AmeriCorps education awards tax-free — reforming the tax code to treat these critical education awards like Pell Grants.

This plan also has the capacity to benefit an entire generation of young Americans. Clinton is pledging to expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 service members — a steep increase from around 75,000 today.

AmeriCorps changes lives. It changed mine. It changes the lives of those in the communities it serves.

We need leaders who understand that young people have a spirit for service and that, too often, financial hardships like student debt prevent them from committing to a career in service.

Hillary Clinton gets it. And with her plan, more young people like me could graduate from school with AmeriCorps as an accessible path toward making an impact in their community — and doing it without debt holding them back.