"This has been an amazing experience."

AmeriCorps Member Suzanne

The United Way of Porter County-AmeriCorps partnership helps us further our mission of improving the financial stability, education and health of every member of our community by placing remarkable AmeriCorps members where they are needed most.

Suzanne is a first-year AmeriCorps member who serves at a local elementary school. She shared the following story:

"During my first year of serving with Americorps, I’ve had the pleasure of working with elementary school students in the special education classroom. The students' grade levels range from second through fifth grade. Our class project for this year was a student-created book. First, the students collaborated with the teacher to write their first story. I was asked frequently how to spell different words by the students as they were working. Once they had this experience and an understanding of how writing a story works, the students were offered different stories that they could use to make their own stories. The teacher had an outline of questions to be answered by the students in their writing. I worked with five students helping them to create their stories by asking them questions while they were writing. Once this part of the process was completed, the students created pictures to go with their stories. The book contains the class story as well as fourteen stories written by individual students. As an English major, it was exciting for me to be a part of this project. How awesome, for children to be published writers before entering junior high school! I was just as excited when the books arrived as the kids! This has been an amazing experience for me, one that I’ll never forget!"

Read more on our AmeriCorps page.

For more information about the United Way of Porter County-AmeriCorps partnership and how you can get involved, contact Maddie Grimm, AmeriCorps director, at maddie@unitedwaypc.org or 219-464-3585, ext. 105.