Kara plays two roles with ServeMinnesota: As a student ambassador, she helps spread the word about AmeriCorps at the U of M Minneapolis campus. And as a Summer Impact Corps member, she helped a St. Paul nonprofit get food to those in need. Kara will graduate in 2027 from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management with a bachelor of science degree in business.
How did you get involved with AmeriCorps?
Late in the fall semester last year, I found a job posting on Handshake to become a ServeMinnesota student ambassador. I had no idea what ServeMinnesota was, but when I did more research, AmeriCorps sounded like something I would love to promote. I did a bunch of community organizing in high school in Connecticut before coming to Minnesota, and advocating for programs that benefit disadvantaged communities sounded right up my alley.
What do you do as a student Ambassador?
We’re all around campus raising awareness of AmeriCorps programs. My first semester of being an ambassador was full of learning all the programs — there are so many! Luckily, I was teamed up with people who had already been ambassadors for three years, so I learned a lot from them.
We do tabling at career fairs and at events like Pride and the Minnesota State Fair. And we do some fun things like cookie giveaways, where we stand in a high-traffic place and hand out Insomnia cookies with our QR code on the wrapper. The code leads them to sign up for the ServeMinnesota mailing list. We also contact student organizations to set up events for their members.
So then you took your own advice and became an AmeriCorps member!
I did! When I got the ambassador job and learned more about AmeriCorps, it was really appealing to me — especially the education award, fixed stipends, and community network. So I became a member and in June I started serving in Summer Impact Corps.
What’s your role been over the summer?
I’m a housing stability fellow at the Keystone Community Food Center. KCFC is a food shelf that serves many different people — unhoused people, veterans, seniors, and more. I’m part of the foodmobile team, working with two full-time Keystone employees to bring hundreds of pounds of food to those who can’t make it to the physical food shelf. We do lots of hard work and heavy lifting.
What’s a typical day on the foodmobile like for you?
My service starts in the morning, when I join my team to find the produce available that day. Depending on where we go, we try to bring what people need most. For example, there are some sites with more children, so we make sure to bring more snacks. We then have to carry everything onto the bus (it gets very heavy!) and we drive to the location.
We go to churches, schools, mental health programs, colleges, senior high rises — a lot of different places, about 28 locations every month. Sometimes we’ll go to multiple locations in a day. It’s like a grocery store that comes to people, because it’s a shopping experience — they get to choose which mangoes they want, which onions they like, which apples they want. You’ll hear people say, “Wow, they have blueberries, my daughter loves blueberries!” Or “They even have dog food!”
What have you learned during your service that you think will be valuable as you continue in school and on to your career?
At Keystone, one practical thing was that I learned how to use client management software. During office hours, I input data about who we served and when we served them. The data is then used to apply for government grants and give funders important information. This skill is really important in my career prospects, because I’m currently studying management information systems.
After graduating, I hope to land a job with a company that changes people’s lives for the better. I want a job that uses the skills I have (and skills I don’t have, too, so I can challenge myself). I really like experiencing a bunch of different community service roles, especially this Summer Impact Corps service with Keystone where I interact with people as a volunteer and see up close what the needs are. Who knows — maybe I’ll go on to a job where I’m advising people on food insecurity, for example. I love getting all of the experiences I can, so I can make the world a better place.
What have you learned during your service that you think will be valuable as you continue in school and on to your career?
I get the opportunity to work closely with those who are passionate about what they do. And I get to see with my own eyes the lives other people are living and do whatever it takes to make their futures a little brighter.
So I would say the key to successful AmeriCorps service is to be open-minded. You’re going to meet people who live very different lives than yours. You’re going to meet people who are forgotten by the system. You should be kind, and be open-minded, so you can be the difference.
Interested in serving with AmeriCorps? Check our AmeriCorps programs and our summer options. If you’ve got questions, reach out to our recruitment team!
