Americorps Speech

A version of the speech I gave at my "graduation" this August:

Congratulations! How y'all doing this morning?

It's funny to be back in this same room, 11 months later, having finished our
year of service. To be honest, I thought that our last "graduation" - the
swearing in and pin ceremony - was a little premature. It didn't seem that
there was too much to celebrate, aside from us surviving orientation, which
had consisted mostly of awkward ice breakers and justifying where we were
standing with respect to post-it notes on the walls. That being said, I was
very grateful for all the free lunches.

This graduation feels more deserved. Sometimes, it seems like only
yesterday we were drawing pigs that revealed how good our sex lives were.
But when I remember all the things we’ve done since August – the retreat,
the conference in Pittsburgh, the service projects and, most importantly, the
work we’ve done at our sites, I’m filled with a tremendous sense of
accomplishment. We’ve spent almost an entire year in service of others, and
that is worth being proud of.

Y’all will have to excuse me, I'm about to do something obnoxious. Before
I do it, I ask you to please remember that this is literally the only thing that
my high school Latin is good for.

Graduation comes from gradus, the Latin word for step. When you consider
that graduations can also be called commencements - that is, the start of
something - it is hard not to imagine yourself clambering up a sort of endless
staircase - definitely a depressing image. The interesting thing about the
etymologies of those two words is the focus that they imply. Graduations
and commencements, in the context of school, are all about the graduating
individuals. They’re obsessively concerned with two things, what the
people receiving degrees have done at school - the skills they’ve learned, the
grades they’ve earned, the extracurricular achievements they’ve racked up –
and what the graduates will do once they’ve been released into the world.

As we’re all well aware of by now, Americorps is very different from any
college or high school. We’ve had some member development, but the
organization’s focus is on serving. And so, I, too, would like to focus on the
idea of service – specifically, what we’ve done for others over the course of
these 11 months.

I’d also like to emphasize the best of this year. There are many unpleasant
things that I could speak about: adjusting to two different supervisors,
weathering an audit, switching sites, and the difficulty of holding down two
jobs.

I could speak about those things, but I won’t. The good we’ve done this
year far outweighs the difficulties we’ve encountered and surmounted.

As a secular Jew – a concept that, as I learned the hard way, you should not
try to explain to a proselytizing student – I’m not normally one to quote
religious texts, but I thought it was appropriate here. One of the Talmud’s
most famous passages reads: "Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he
saved an entire world."

I won’t go so far as to say that we’ve saved lives through our work, but I do
think it’s possible, and maybe even probable, that we’ve changed them.

Brandon, Britni, Catherine, Adrienne and Abby have all provided students
with the knowledge and skills they need to pass the GED test. While
mastering fractions may not help people in their day to day lives, having a
GED can make all the difference when it comes to employment or a
promotion.

Toiling at New Orleans’ public libraries, Gail, Heather and Amy have taught
students how to use computers and the Internet. It’s hard to imagine a more
essential and empowering tool in this age of information.

Meanwhile, at YES in Orleans Parish and Even Start on the Westbank,
Rebekah, Julia, Kimberly, Michelle and Annie have worked to give their
students basic literacy and math skills - abilities that are indispensable in day
to day life.

Finally, there is Anthony, who, while stationed at Urban League College
Track helped to develop the character of the students in his care by
coordinating service projects and teaching a workshop entitled
“Brotherhood.”

Beyond these concrete accomplishments there is something else, which is
just as important. There is value in the act of serving itself, outside of any
quantifiable results. All of our students, even those who haven’t passed the

GED yet, or mastered a Google search, or learned how to sound out two-
syllable words, gained something from our service.

To explain exactly what I mean, I’ll need to tell a short story. During the
summer of 2003, I went on a four-week backpacking trip in Wyoming. One
day, about half-way through the trip, a boy named Chandler started having
difficulty breathing, and our instructors decided that he needed to be
evacuated. Stacy, the lead instructor, took him, along with two other
students (Braden and me) down a dry riverbed to the nearest campsite. Even
with our lightened packs, it was a long 8 mile hike through falling snow.
We reached the campsite by nightfall, and Stacy left to find a phone.
Braden, Chandler and I were sitting miserably by our tent, contemplating our
empty stomachs, when a man approached us. He was the leader of a group
of older teenagers who were camped a few hundred yards away, and he
invited us to come eat dinner with them.

It was such a small thing – black bean soup, twizzlers and companionship –
but it meant the world that night. We were complete strangers without
anything to offer, and yet this man freely gave what hospitality he could. I
cannot remember his name or anything about him, yet I doubt that I’ll ever
forget what he did. On that evening I felt valued simply because I was
another human being, and I also caught a glimpse of the incredible altruistic
kindness that men and women are capable of.

Clearly, feeding a few hungry teenagers one dinner and spending a whole 11
months teaching adults are two very different things, but I think that both
actions carry the same message. Through the act of serving we
communicate to our students that they are worthy of our efforts, and we also
demonstrate the best in human nature.

There is one more thing that I’d like to point out about service. Though
Americorps may have decided to call us ‘volunteers’ in order to justify our
meager living stipend, there is some wisdom in separating what we do from
normal employment. Service can certainly be a career, but at its base it is
action inspired by kindness and empathy. As corny as it may sound, I think
that service is more a way of life than type of work.

So, for those of you who have decided to spend another year with
Americorps, I commend you, and hope that you find it as rewarding as this

one. For those of us who are moving on, I hope that we retain our desire to
serve, and find fruitful outlets for it in the future.

Once again, congratulations.