Et cetera : NCCC Corps Class 21 Team Leader Spotlight: Jake Taylor

Jacob "Jake" Taylor from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania is serving on team Oak 7 in AmeriCorps NCCC Corps Class 21. He arrived in Vinton in January of 2015 to start his 11-month service term with the program. Oak 7 is made up of nine people from across the country who serve together around the Midwest.

Before his term of service, he graduated from Hamilton College in 2014 with a bachelor of arts and a double major in Mathematics and Music. Jake brings a range of experience in leadership positions, plays piano and clarinet, and sings. He also plays a handful of sports such as soccer, tennis, and squash. Jakes is an adventurous spirit and has studied abroad for a semester in Hungary and has even gone skydiving in his spare time!

Jake talks about his motivation for joining NCCC, “I'm interested in exploring a career with non-profits and this seems like a helpful and challenging introduction into that world.”

Oak 7 served on their first project in Bellefontaine, Ohio with the Zane Shawnee Caverns and Southwind Park doing trail building such as: clearing brush, building water bars, and laying border logs. Members also assisted with cabin insulation, building a walkway through the Shawnee Village, constructing wikons (traditional Shawnee shelters), routing and painting signs for the campground, building duck and turkey boxes, and tilling a vegetable garden to prepare for planting.

They are currently on their second project in Madison, Wisconsin serving with the University of Wisconsin Arboretum assisting with maintenance by trimming branches on low hanging trees, removing weeds and brush, and clearing invasive species such as garlic mustard and yellow rockets. They are also trimming, edging and spreading mulch in native plant garden. The team is also doing cultivating projects by planting new specimens, cleaning seeds and sowing them, propagating plants from seed divisions or cuttings, and transplanting nursery plants into the savanna and wet land restorations. Finally, the team is helping with improvements to cold frames adjacent to greenhouse, assisting researchers to tend to project sites and assisting with volunteer recruiting.

After completing the program in November, he plans on possibly joining NCCC for a second service term or exploring a career in teaching.

Some fun facts about Jake:

Q: What is your favorite TV show and why? True Detective, the characters and ideas are great and I love the structure of the story.

Q: What song best describes you? Sing by Ed Sheeran, it’s a super groovy song

Q: If you could have a superpower what would it be and why?To fly! Simply because I can’t fly and I’m obsessed with it.

Q: What is the most challenging and/or exciting thing you have done? I was the lead in a school musical. I had a million lines to memorize, sing, dance and perform in front of an audience, which was exhilarating and terrifying.

Q: What is one thing you can’t live without? My phone because it keeps me connected to friends, friendly and news. It also has a lot of great tools on it!

Q: What is one thing you would like to try but have not had the chance?Speed flying – it’s when you ski down a mountain with a parachute and fly over cliffs.