Yes, AmeriCorps is a great way to serve your community and to get professional experience – but it’s also a great way to meet people. Every year, AmeriCorps members make new friends while serving communities together. And some even find love, like some of the couples below!
Here are some couples who connected with each other through AmeriCorps.
Katie and Dustin
“We met on the very first day of our orientation. We both liked each other from the start, but we didn’t start dating until about six months in. We were both in an environmentally-themed book club with several other Minnesota GreenCorps members, so we would see each other occasionally even though we lived in two different cities. Then we sat across from each other at a happy hour and realized we had a lot to talk about! We started dating from there and got married in 2016.”
“Serving in AmeriCorps has influenced both of our careers. Katie works as the communications director of Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, and one of their focus areas is supporting a regional food system. Dustin was able to take the skills he learned growing native plants and turn it into a business – Blazing Star Gardens. We are also the proud parents of two little girls.”
Anna and Roderick
“We met in Perrypoint, MD in 2003 while volunteering with AmeriCorps NCCC-National Civilian Community Corps. Roderick and I did not travel on the same team of 10 people but met immediately because we were neighbors on the same block at the VA facility where we lived between traveling on our service projects. We would send mail to one another while we were traveling on different teams to fill one another in. We were strictly friends during the program and four years after. Eventually we began dating and have been married for 15 years this July. We have four kids, a dog, a cat and live in St. Paul.”
“I think starting a relationship as friends in a new setting for the purpose of participating in service projects is great. Our values, interests, and work ethic aligned in a way that continues to support what we think is important in a relationship. We are best friends.
Bill and Ruth Anne
“We’ve been serving with AmeriCorps in Northfield, MN for the past year and a half, Bill with Math Corps and Ruth Anne with Reading Corps. We both spent our careers working in education and were looking for a change. We wanted to do something as professionally and personally fulfilling as being classroom teachers, but not as demanding.”
“Our positions with AmeriCorps provide us with the excitement of teaching kids and helping them reach personal and academic goals. We see that the support we provide helps the children gain confidence and improve skills. Both of us appreciate the collegial relationships they have formed in their school communities, as well as the support they receive from others. Though we are in different schools, our many success stories working with our students are similar, and we know our service is important and valued.”
Interested in serving with the AmeriCorps? Reach out to our recruitment team through our interest form.
