Michaela Koller毕业后 Macalester College 2018年拿到学位 在物理学上，她发现自己处在一个十字路口.
Although she loved science, she was not ready to apply to a graduate program. Although she had not studied education, she found herself drawn to working with students. 原产于纽约, 她一生中大部分时间都和家人住在英国, 但她还没准备好搬回英国.
她决定暂时留在明尼苏达州，于是提出了申请 对于一所兼职高中来说 热心的老师 在白熊湖学区的位置.
然而, 面试结束后, she found herself weighing a different full-time possibility in a program she had never heard of before: An 美国志愿队明尼苏达青年联盟承诺研究员.
“The 热心的老师 supervisor was also the Promise Fellows supervisor, 告诉我, “我们很高兴你每周做两次家庭教师。, 但我们也希望你能申请成为承诺研究员,’”米凯拉说. “导师的角色令人兴奋, but I wanted to be able to support students more than just twice a week, and I felt like the Promise Fellow role was exactly what I was looking for – I just didn’t know it existed.”
了解美国服务队承诺研究员
The Minnesota Alliance With Youth works in partnership with youth to ensure 那 ALL young people have equitable educational opportunities 那 foster their individual assets, 尊重他们的声音，让他们做好实现目标的准备 . To further 那 mission, the Alliance hosts 美国服务队承诺研究员 across the state. 美国服务队承诺研究员 focus their service on working with youth who could benefit from extra support and relationships to keep them on track in school and community-based settings. Fellows provide researched-based interventions 那 focus on promoting and improving attendance, 行为与学业成绩.
Michaela started her service as a Promise Fellow at White Bear Lake Area High School South Campus, 与11人会面th 和12th 年级学生, often serving students who had already turned 18 and were not excited about staying in school in order to graduate. It was the first year South Campus’ AmeriCorps Promise Fellow program, 米凯拉说这很刺激.
“我真的很喜欢它，觉得它很适合我.”,她 说. “我喜欢控制程序的外观. 当我遇见 my students, I could tweak the program to meet their needs, and 那 might not 如果该项目之前存在，情况会怎样. 我真的很感激 那.”
她是如何吸引学生的
Promise Fellows are united by their desire to serve youth and be a supportive person, 她说.
“这是关于想要建立关系，如果这是 你想做的事，你就能做到。. 她学会了使用 different strategies to reach different students, and she knew she was making an impact when her students began to just show up at her office without her 必须用通行证召唤他们.
“他们会过来说，‘嘿，米凯拉，我有 trouble with this assignment,’ or ’Something’s going on and I need to talk,’” 她说. “但我们所寻求的这种改进有时是公正的 showing up, so we track attendance and tardiness, and 那’s a clear way to 跟踪其他数据是否在改善.”
米凯拉说 using data to better understand students – from student engagement instruments, attendance data and other performance measures – was interesting, but often, “there are things you can’t see in the data – outside reasons for why they are 例如，迟到.“这就是为什么建立关系是如此重要的一部分 of the service being done by 美国服务队承诺研究员, whose goal is to serve a focus list of up to 30 students for 30 minutes a week for at least 12 weeks.
新学期，新角色
9月, Michaela switched from her position at White Bear Lake to the Minnesota Alliance With Youth main office in St. 保罗，她现在担任承诺同胞领袖. 在她的新角色中, Michaela supports 100+ 美国服务队承诺研究员 by organizing and facilitating professional development trainings, managing student data tracking and being there for members when they need 那 little extra support from someone who has previously been in their shoes. She 说 she has enjoyed helping members who might be falling behind by offering them a planning tool and extra support.
“它扩展了我的 了解我能完成的事情. 我确实管理了很多 projects and it can be a little overwhelming, but I figure it out and figure 如何平衡事物，”她说.
她所感激的 the chance to pick up new skills – data analysis and creating spreadsheets, specifically, which has sparked interest in returning to the sciences and 潜在的数据科学研究.
她在怀特工作的时候 Bear Lake, Michaela was the lone AmeriCorps Promise Fellow, which she described 有时是孤立的. 她决定，作为承诺伙伴领袖，她 would assure 那 members who were serving alone at sites could have more opportunities to earn service hours, especially when schools were not in 会议，在这个会议上，他们可以与其他承诺研究员互动.
她说得很感人 from a school to a nonprofit organization office has been a good transition for 她的整体.
“最大的一个 shifts this year is being part of the team now, there’s a huge collaboration piece of being a part of the Minnesota Alliance WIth Youth,” Michaela 说. “It 被支持和能够支持别人的感觉很棒.”
培养领导能力，给予 回来
She has also been able to develop her leadership skills as Promise Fellow Leader.
“我真的很享受 成为领导者，”她说. “我通常是一个安静的人，当我在一个 group, so being in a leadership position pushes me to not be the quiet person and find ways of making those connections even in a setting where I otherwise wouldn’t 真的试.”
米凯拉建议 service as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow to any person who wants to “build relationships with youth, model good behavior and show you are a caring adult.”
“这是你的11个月 life 那 can shift your understanding of and it’s such a short period to do 真的很棒的东西. 回馈社会是一种体验 那 is sometimes hard to find, and people have a lot of questions about how to do it, and this is such a clear way of doing it — and serving a group 那 is 这就是未来.”
了解更多我是美国服务队承诺奖学金获得者 明尼苏达青年联盟.
