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>> My name's AJ Ortiz, I'm a volunteer
coordinator for Millersville's Office

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of Experiential Learning and Career Management.

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It's a program through AmeriCorps,
which is a government program.

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AmeriCorps has a bunch of
different aspects to it.

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The program that I'm a part of is called, Vista,

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which stands for Volunteer
in Service to America.

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It's a really great program, focused on
reducing poverty in areas around the country.

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So, I got this job after graduating from
Millersville this past spring and I work

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for ELCM, basically recruiting student
volunteers here at Millersville to serve

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as after school mentors and
tutors in the Lancaster city area.

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A busy day, towards the beginning of
the semester, I had a lot of busy days.

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I was establishing relationships with my
community partners and in Lancaster city.

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Whether it be the program directors of different
after school programs I send volunteers to, so,

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I wanted to establish connections with
them to establish the expectations

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for what our work would look
like throu9ghout the semester.

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I spend a lot of time emailing different faculty
around the campus, and different student groups

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to try to engage them, instead
of classroom presentations

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with the different faculty here on campus.

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So, you know, a lot of time spent answering
emails, which is pretty typical these days.

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And, a lot of time going to different classrooms
and making presentations to groups of students,

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and basically engaging them and telling them
about what it would look like to be a student,

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a student tutor, or a mentor, and
what it's like working with kids.

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So, there's a lot of that and
then, I spend a lot of time meeting

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with students who responded to my engagement.

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I would initially make contact
with them through email or phone,

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then they would come to my office.

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And, that was probably my
favorite part of the job,

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is just meeting with the
students, getting to know them.

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Really establishing expectations for, like I
said, what it's like to be a volunteer and then,

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kind of coordinating their
schedules and figuring

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out what was going to be the best fit for them.

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So, right now, as the semester's winding
down, things aren't quite as busy,

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but I'm really just trying
to plan for next semester

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and how I can increase member recruitment.

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How I can make it a better experience
for volunteers, and things like that.