Et Cetera
AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20 Corps Member Spotlight: Maureen Murphy
By: Sarah Williams
Maureen Murphy, from Lake Placid, New York is serving on team Oak 3 in AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20. She arrived in Vinton on February 11 to start her 10-month service term. Oak 3 is made up of nine people from across the country who will serve together around the Midwest.
Maureen says “After doing service trips to El Salvador while in high school I have always wanted to do something similar. AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20 Corps Member Spotlight: Marlene Flaherty
By: Sarah Williams
Marlene Flaherty, from Baileyville, Maine is serving on team Cedar 5 in AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20. She arrived in Vinton on February 11 to start her 10-month service term. Cedar 5 is made up of nine people from across the country who will serve together around the Midwest.
Marlene says, Gandhi stated that "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Retired 4 Star General Tommy Franks visits with local resident
Retired 4 star General Tommy Franks was on Hand to re-dedicated the
Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids recently. Greeting General
Franks is Roger Uthoff, of Vinton, and also the treasurer of Eastern Iowa Honor Flight.
Jordon Kearns of Van Horne, IA, Recognized at Upper Iowa University 2014 Honors
Upper Iowa University recently held its 29th annual Scholarships and Awards Recognition Banquet and awarded 122 scholarships to students across the University. Of those, 98 scholarships were bestowed on UIU students attending classes in Fayette and another 24 were awarded to students who take courses through other UIU locations. Recipients were selected by the UIU Honors and Awards Committee and the University academic divisions.
Cynthia Albertsen Inducted into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is pleased to announce that Cynthia Albertsen of Dysart, Iowa, was recently initiated into Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Albertsen was initiated at Western Illinois University.
Albertsen is among approximately 32,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year.
NCCC Oak 3 Serves at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum
By Alexis Pittman and Maureen Murphy
So far, Oak 3 has been serving alongside the staff at the UW-Madison Arboretum in Madison, Wisconsin. Since the team arrival, the staff have been very welcoming and made it an exciting learning experience.
The team learned to identify various types of trees as they cleared brush and logs from several wetlands and prairies. AmeriCorps NCCC Member Spotlight: Mark Smith
AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20 Corps Member Spotlight: Mark Smith
By: Sarah Williams
Mark Smith, from Derry, New Hampshire is serving on team Oak 3 in AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20. He arrived in Vinton on February 11 to start his 10-month service term. Oak 3 is made up of nine people from across the country who will serve together around the Midwest. NCCC Team Serves in South Dakota State Parks
By: Emily Wilmoth
NCCC team Cedar 3 has been serving in Canton, SD for the past 3 weeks, serving with the South Dakota Parks and Recreation Department. They have been removing an invasive tree called buckthorn, a non-native plant to South Dakota that grows at a rapid pace and can take over a forested area and kill all the native plants and trees surrounding it. AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20 Corps Member Spotlight: Koal Melville
By: Sarah Williams
Koal Melville, from Winter Park, Florida is serving on team Cedar 6 in AmeriCorps NCCC Class 20. She arrived in Vinton on February 11 to start her 10-month service term. Cedar 6 is made up of nine people from across the country who will serve together around the Midwest.
When asked why Koal joined AmeriCorps NCCC she says, “I thought it would be a great adventure. Maple 1 providing a helping hand to Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity
By Vincent Chavis
Maple 1 gets the chance to spend six weeks in the city that smells like crunch berries, and it’s every bit as amazing as you would think. The team is working with Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, and has the opportunity to help the city of Cedar Rapids recover from a terrible flood that happened in the summer of 2008.