After Michaela Koller graduated from Macalester College in 2018 with a degree in physics, she found herself at a crossroads.
虽然她热爱科学，但她还没有准备好申请研究生课程. 虽然她没有学过澳门皇冠国际官方APP客户端，但她发现自己被与学生一起工作所吸引. Originally from New York, she had lived most of her life with her family in England, but she was not ready to move back to the United Kingdom.
Deciding to stay in Minnesota for the time being, she applied for a part-time high school AVID tutor position in the White Bear Lake School district.
However, after the interview, 她发现自己在权衡一个不同的全职项目的可能性，这是她以前从未听说过的 AmeriCorps Promise Fellow with Minnesota Alliance With Youth.
AVID的导师也是承诺奖学金的导师, and told me, ‘We’d be happy to have you as a tutor twice a week, but we’d also love to have you apply to be a Promise Fellow,’” Michaela said. “The tutor role was exciting, 但我希望能够一周不止两次地支持学生, 我觉得Promise Fellow这个角色正是我一直在寻找的——我只是不知道它的存在.”
Learning About AmeriCorps Promise Fellows
明尼苏达青年联盟与青年合作，确保所有年轻人都有公平的澳门皇冠国际官方APP客户端机会，培养他们的个人资产, honor their voices and prepare them to reach their goals . 为了推进这一使命，该联盟在全州举办了美国服务队承诺研究员活动. AmeriCorps Promise Fellows 他们的服务重点是与青年合作，他们可以从额外的支持和关系中受益，使他们在学校和社区环境中走上正轨. 奖学金获得者提供以研究为基础的干预措施，重点是促进和改善出勤率, behavior and school success.
Michaela作为白熊湖区高中南校区的承诺研究员开始了她的服务, meeting with 11th and 12th graders, 通常为已经年满18岁的学生服务，他们对留在学校毕业不感兴趣. 这是南校区美国服务队承诺研究员项目的第一年, which Michaela said was exciting.
“I really enjoyed it and felt like it fit well for me.,” she said. “I liked having control over what the program would look like. As I met 我的学生，我可以调整程序以满足他们的需求，但这可能不会 have been the case if the program had existed previously. I really appreciated that.”
How She Engaged Students
她说，“承诺奖学金获得者”都希望为年轻人服务，并成为一个支持年轻人的人.
“It’s about wanting to build relationships, and if that’s something you want to do, then you can do it,” she said. She learned to use 不同的策略来接触不同的学生，她知道她在做 当她的学生开始不带她就出现在她的办公室时，她受到了影响 having to summon them with a pass.
“They would come and be like, ‘Hey, Michaela, I’m having ’或者‘出了什么事，我需要谈谈。’” she said. “But the kind of improvement we are looking for sometimes is just 出勤，这样我们就能记录出勤和迟到的情况，这显然是 track whether other numbers are improving.”
Michaela said that 利用数据更好地了解学生——从学生参与工具， 出勤数据和其他绩效指标——很有趣，但通常， “有些东西是你无法从数据中看到的——它们存在的外部原因 late, for example.” That’s why relationship building is such an important part 美国服务队承诺研究员所做的服务，他们的目标是服务 一份针对30名学生的重点列表，每周30分钟，持续至少12周.
New Term, New Role
In September, 米凯拉从她在白熊湖的职位转到明尼苏达州青年联盟在圣. Paul, where she now serves as the Promise Fellow Leader. In her new role, Michaela通过组织和促进专业发展培训，为100多名美国服务队承诺研究员提供支持, 管理学生数据跟踪，并在成员需要以前与他们一样的人的一点额外支持时为他们提供帮助. 她说，她很喜欢帮助那些可能落后的会员，为他们提供规划工具和额外的支持.
“It’s extended my understanding of the things that I can get done. I definitely manage a lot of 项目，这可能有点让人不知所措，但我想了又想 out how to balance things,” she said.
She’s been grateful for 学习新技能的机会——数据分析和制作电子表格， 具体来说，这激发了人们对回归科学和 potentially studying data science.
In her service at White 在贝尔湖，米凯拉是唯一的美国服务队承诺成员，她描述了这一点 as sometimes being isolating. She decided that as Promise Fellow Leader, she 能保证单独在工地服务的成员有更多的钱吗 赚取服务时间的机会，尤其是在学校不上课的时候 session, in which they could interact with other Promise Fellows.
She said that moving 从学校到非营利组织办公室是一个很好的过渡 her overall.
“One of the biggest 今年的轮班是团队的一部分，有一个巨大的合作 成为明尼苏达青年联盟的一部分，”米凯拉说. “It feels awesome to be supported and be able to support others.”
Developing Leadership Skills, Giving Back
她也能够发展她的领导能力作为承诺同胞领袖.
“I have really enjoyed getting to lead,” she said. “I’m usually a person who is quiet when I’m in a 因此，处于领导地位促使我不再是一个安静的人 并找到建立这些联系的方法，即使是在一个我不会的环境中 really try.”
Michaela recommends 作为美国服务队的承诺研究员，我将向任何想要“建设”的人提供服务 与青少年建立良好的关系，树立良好的行为榜样，表现出你是一个有爱心的成年人.”
“It’s 11 months of your 生活可以改变你对事物的理解，而且时间很短 something that is really great. Giving back to the community is an experience 这有时很难找到，人们对如何做到这一点有很多疑问 去做吧，这是一种非常明确的方式——服务于一个群体，是吗 going to be the future.”
Learn more about serving as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow with Minnesota Alliance With Youth.
