Next generation of VISTAs

My year with AmeriCorps at Oberlin's Bonner Center for Service and Learning will be up next month. But the Ohio Benefit Bank will still be thriving in Oberlin and Lorain County thanks to three national service members who will be continuing the great work. I want to take this opportunity to introduce them.

Two new AmeriCorps*VISTA members, both recent Oberlin College graduates, will take over the task of organizing the Oberlin tax clinics. Instead of being stationed at the Bonner Center for Service and Learning, these VISTAs will be working directly out of Oberlin Community Services and will have other duties in addition to their work with the Ohio Benefit Bank. They will both begin in mid-July.

• Corey Patrick Harkins, also known as 'Cuy,' graduated from Oberlin College in May 2012 with a passion for education and community service and a degree in Environmental Studies. Born and raised on an emu farm in the Sierra Nevadas, Cuy values hard work and collaboration. He is excited to work with OCS as the AmeriCorps*VISTA Math Tutoring Coordinator. In this position, Cuy will be coordinating the America Counts program in Prospect Elementary School, as well as overseeing the training of Ohio Benefit Bank counselors. Corey can be reached at americacounts@oberlin.net
• Alex Toutant will join OCS as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer Coordinator this summer, where he will work to increase the volunteer programming and assist with the Ohio Benefit Bank program. He graduated with a B.A. from Oberlin College, where he studied Politics and Comparative American Studies. Over the past two years, Alex has spent over 700 hours volunteering in nonprofit organizations that specifically seek to improve the lives of low- income and homeless populations in the United States. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and discussing politics. Alex can be reached at ocservices@oberlin.net

A third VISTA at the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio will be continuing the community organizing work of Megan Surniak, whose term ended in June. She covers Ohio Benefit Bank tax and benefits sites in Huron, Erie, Crawford, and Lorain counties, and she will now be supervising the benefits sites in Oberlin and Wellington (the territory formerly covered by the VISTA at the Bonner Center).

• Nancy Ann Smith is an AmeriCorps VISTA and she is currently serving as a Community Organizer, promoting greater access to the Ohio Benefit Bank, working through Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio. Nancy comes with a teaching and Community Action Agency background and chose to serve the area in this way because she is a success story of using public assistance to climb out of poverty, become the first of her family to be a college graduate, and find fulfillment teaching children, then adults, and now agencies. She could not be serving the community now if she had not received essential assistance throughout the years when her children were of school ages and she was earning her teaching degree. Nancy can be reached at nsmith@secondharvestfoodbanks.org