tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32351863981069618822009-05-20T00:13:18.899-04:00Back by popular demand - through this all-new weekly blog, experience life in AmeriCorps NCCC as we wonder where the Oneders will wander next! AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is a full-time, team-based residential program for men and women age 18–24. The mission of AmeriCorps NCCC is to strengthen communities and develop leaders through direct, team-based national and community service as members complete service projects throughout the region they are assigned.Denver NCCC Campushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06947640412753509533noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-75799352732428666952008-11-18T22:43:00.003-05:002008-12-08T22:57:50.627-05:00

CNCS Webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06540855409525640919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-61768486176602233742008-11-17T19:41:00.000-05:002008-11-24T18:19:19.349-05:00

When I came to AmeriCorps NCCC I was unsure as to what I wanted to do with my life. Now, with a mere week left in AmreriCorps I am still plagued with this same uncertainty. My mind is constantly buzzing with the same questions – What do I want to go to grad school for? Where do I want to go? Do I even want to go to grad school?However, I accept this uncertainty because the last ten months in

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-69176376308610407202008-11-13T13:27:00.009-05:002008-11-18T20:02:37.784-05:00

We're back in Denver now. It's been cool, crisp and sunny. The mountains are beautiful. I missed fall. It never really felt like autumn in Louisiana. It was always too warm. But here the leaves are off the trees, there's cider and pumpkin pie in the grocerie store and the weather is perfect! We went hiking up into the foothills of the Rockies yesterday. It was gorgous.As great as it is to be back

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-54368797157377379042008-11-12T10:30:00.004-05:002008-11-18T20:01:17.371-05:00

Here at The St. Bernard Project everyday is exciting. Everyday I have no idea who will be showing up to volunteer at the house I am supervising. On Monday it was a group from Brooklyn, Tuesday it was a group of genetic researchers from Tulane University, on Wednesday it was a senior class from a private girls high school near by, on Thursday it was a group from Boston, and Friday it was a bus

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-89123942448119128892008-10-31T20:04:00.005-04:002008-11-18T20:00:03.517-05:00

The team is currently getting ready to go out together for Halloween. Kate is dressing as a yellow footed rock walby, Stacy is going as a dinosaur, Katie as Zorro, Sam as Indiana Jones, Paige as a princess, Andy as an old man, Mallory as a zebra, and I am going as a tomb raider.Camp Hope is a buzz with everyone getting dressed. Our dinner crew here dressed up for dinner and got a few laughs. This

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-53968913780413751802008-10-31T20:00:00.007-04:002008-11-03T10:48:39.875-05:00

Last week I finished dry walling my house! Hooray! My volunteers finished in one week which is pretty stellar.This week I’ve been working with Amanda and Katie mudding their houses. I am becoming an excellent mudder.I’m really excited about going back to Denver to see everyone again and to say goodbye. We'll be graduating from the program on November 19. I’ve loved my AmeriCorps experience but I

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-65224604024756049512008-10-25T22:41:00.002-04:002008-12-08T22:49:44.909-05:00

CNCS Webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06540855409525640919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-20918365096803308452008-10-23T20:46:00.004-04:002008-12-08T22:40:43.920-05:00

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-37630726584074510622008-10-23T20:44:00.006-04:002008-12-08T22:40:56.636-05:00

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-44278746604027557892008-10-19T21:54:00.007-04:002008-10-20T15:50:26.734-04:00

The St. Bernard Project has been a really great experience so far and the whole team has been enjoying it. My role with this project is the Warehouse Assistant Manger position. I keep the warehouse looking clean and organized so I know where everything goes. I also stock the shelves when new supplies comes in, help volunteers along with site supervisors find the tools they are looking for, and

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-83007310904446654362008-10-12T21:56:00.007-04:002008-10-14T14:34:08.177-04:00

As my teammates have mentioned in previous entries, we are reaching the end of our service in AmeriCorps. I can't even begin to express the emotions that I am facing regarding this wrap up. We are currently about three weeks into our fourth (and final) project, the St. Bernard Project...and I am hooked. I can't seem to get enough of working with volunteers and contributing to the rebuilding of

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-11451443050647919292008-09-28T12:10:00.012-04:002008-10-03T11:08:25.671-04:00

Our days with AmeriCorps are almost over! It's about that time that nobody can call home anymore without parents asking "So when are you gonna get a real job?" Well, most nights we have got teammates browsing colleges, filling out job applications, and studying for the GREs. I'm sure that in our own ways of measuring success, we'll all be extremely successful after AmeriCorps.We are all just

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-16516304611113266942008-09-16T21:33:00.006-04:002008-10-14T16:11:32.440-04:00

Fourth Round. I continue to ask myself where the time has gone…. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were in the mountains of Tennessee building trails or hammering away at rotted wood in the upper Ninth Ward? First, second, third, and fourth round… that’s what this year has become; defined into quarters, breaks, and natural disasters. In just one month, we’ve had a week long break, witnessed two

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-8156437575103101952008-09-15T20:45:00.013-04:002008-09-28T13:52:21.287-04:00

We had our orientation today. We saw some of the houses we'll be working on, we met the people that we'll be working with and we learned the story behind the St. Bernard Project. We also met one of the homeowners. It's pretty amazing. The people here are full of love and hope. They work hard and they have done amazing things.St. Bernard Project was started by a couple from Boston, Zach and Liz.

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-74214732939526219592008-09-14T22:21:00.007-04:002008-09-15T12:01:56.397-04:00

Friday morning we were all expecting a pretty quiet day. We were all sitting around watching a movie when all of a sudden one of the other volunteers here at Camp Hope flew into the room and asked us who wanted to throw sand bags. We were like "Why? What's going on?" He told us the levees were getting over topped by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike and they needed help. We had 5 minutes to get

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-50525880405544962452008-09-11T23:02:00.006-04:002008-09-15T12:00:40.691-04:00

My shuffle team was Earth 2 - even though this project ended a few weeks ago, I wanted to share a little about my experiences. During my shuffle round I was sent on disaster to the town of Oakville, Iowa. Oakville is a little town that is known to make some of the best hog feed in the country. It was built on a flood plain right off of the Iowa River. The levee broke due to the increase of water

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-43187715938832570642008-09-05T18:46:00.004-04:002008-09-09T11:58:44.533-04:00

It's been an interesting week. We all got back from our week of vacation on Monday rested and eager to get back to work. Unfortunately, hurricanes have a way of messing up plans. Hurricane Gustav was hitting Louisiana the day I got back to Denver. We were all here holding our breath hopping that it wouldn't be another Katrina. Thankfully New Orleans was mostly spared. Still we couldn't go back

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-19904560594302059272008-08-23T17:42:00.001-04:002008-09-09T11:58:13.985-04:00

It was a pretty typical transition week. We had a debrief and brief. We had a tool check in and room inspections. Friday however was exciting. Instead of our usual transition week activities we went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We woke up at the crack of dawn and drove up into the foothills of the rockies. It's a beautiful sprawling campus dotted with pine trees. We spent the

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-54625035751994404132008-08-22T20:38:00.003-04:002008-09-05T08:20:43.242-04:00

Third round, which we just finished, was shuffle round. This means we went on spike with a new team and a new team leader. Amanda, Stacy, Maria and I were shuffled to Earth 3. It was really fun, so I wanted to share a little about our experiences.We had a great project. We worked with Habitat for Humanity in Lafayette, LA. Right away they had us doing construction. We spent the first few weeks

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-57955063944051591512008-08-15T17:07:00.001-04:002008-08-19T19:31:03.140-04:00

On Thursday morning the team left our lowernine.org house to head back to Denver. We stayed in Terrell, TX our first night and ate dinner at Applebees. It was great. We left the following morning at 8am for Salina, Kansas. Tonight we’re staying at a Days Inn. For dinner tonight we were going to treat ourselves to Red Lobster, because we thought we had enough money with our AmeriCorps budget (we

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-82715632269253340692008-08-13T21:49:00.003-04:002008-08-19T19:30:52.675-04:00

We are currently preparing to depart from New Orleans and head back to Denver. The shuffle round is over and we all are going to return to our original teams. I enjoyed working with this wonderful group of people. As we pack our things and clean our places we get to reflect on what we have done here and the people we have met. Though our team’s impact is only a small part of the overall effort

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-10425220261779221282008-08-07T11:54:00.007-04:002008-08-07T13:25:02.528-04:00

So we're just getting through our third week of work with lowernine and the team is split up between worksites. About 3-4 of us work with kids at a summer camp and the rest of us are at various houses fixing floors, replacing studs and whatnot. One of the projects that I've really enjoyed was building a shed. We finished one the first week, and the second week we started a brand new one. And with

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-21628673424596564852008-08-01T16:08:00.003-04:002008-08-05T10:10:02.655-04:00

Before I joined AmeriCorps NCCC, I never would have described two long days of caulking, painting and drywalling in 90 degree weather as the perfect weekend. But last weekend's visit to Cameron Parish, Louisiana proved that there is nothing I would have enjoyed more. I got the chance to see my friends from Earth 3 and visit some of the amazing people we met during our second round project.Last

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-9075397296281565102008-07-28T16:03:00.004-04:002008-08-05T09:03:23.271-04:00

Our second spike in New Orleans has proven to be a totally unique experience. I have been having a great time getting to know the new members of the team. I have found myself going out more than ever before - Café du Monde, exploring the French Quarter, and going to the movies. Our quick team bonding is a positive side effect of our cramped housing, as everyone on our team takes any opportunity

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235186398106961882.post-73313758743577247622008-07-23T15:51:00.001-04:002008-08-05T09:05:31.565-04:00

Ever since I was a child, I was constantly overwhelmed with anxiety over being around children who were much younger than me. This anxiety has only grown with me as I've gotten older. Because of this, I have done the best I can to deliberately avoid interaction with young children as much as possible, and I've done a pretty good job at doing so...that is until nearly three weeks ago.My AmeriCorps

Maria Christodoulouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14233758447598882136noreply@blogger.com0