Et cetera : AmeriCorps NCCC Class 18 Team Leader Spotlight: Ellen King

Ellen King

Name: Ellen King

Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ellen King is serving as a Class 18 Team Leader at the Vinton campus and will lead a team of 10-12 Corps Members over a 10-month period. Her team will serve on four to seven service projects throughout the North Central Region.

This, however, is not her first experience serving with an AmeriCorps program. Prior to joining NCCC, Ellen served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Michigan Community Service Commission in Lansing, Michigan from November 2010 through November 2011. She was the Commission's Learn and Serve AmeriCorps VISTA and worked closely with the Learn and Serve- Michigan program.

Part of her responsibilities as an AmeriCorps VISTA member was to coordinate Learn and Serve- Michigan's Service Learning Youth Council, a statewide network of students that bring service-learning to their schools and communities throughout Michigan. Ellen helped high school students from one high poverty school district write and receive a service-learning mini-grant to provide books to three local elementary schools. It was inspiring for her to see the impact of this project on the high school students and how much they learned throughout the service-learning project.

Ellen brings a lot of experience to her NCCC Team Leader position. She comes from a background of team building. Ellen worked at Camp Jewell YMCA in Colebrook, Connecticut for three summers and one fall outdoor programming season where she really gained her leadership skills and teambuilding knowledge. Ellen really benefited from this experience because it taught her so much about working with other people, how to work with them and the value of teambuilding activities.

Ellen graduated from Huron High School in 2006 and The College of Wooster in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She originally heard of AmeriCorps NCCC from browsing the americorps.gov website. Her brother served as an AmeriCorps member in Cincinnati, Ohio and encouraged Ellen to do a year of service. Ellen chose to serve a term with NCCC because she really wants to see the direct impact on the communities in which she will serve.

Some fun facts about Ellen:

Q: What was your first job? A sales associate at Goody’s clothing in Bowling Green, Michigan

Q: What is your favorite movie? 27 Dresses

Q: What will be your first words of advice for your team members? “Be Flexible! Change is inevitable so expect the unexpected.”

Q: What is one place in the world that you really, really wish you could visit? New Zealand

Q: What is your favorite candy? Charleston Chew Vanilla

Q: Are there any sayings your parents repeated over and over that you can still remember clearly? “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today”

Q: What do you like to do in your free time? Run or row (crew) and hang out with family/friends

Q: Could you give us one reason to join AmeriCorps NCCC? To have the experience of your life.