Et cetera : AmeriCorps NCCC Member Spotlight - Kim Vegilante

  By: Nastassia Donoho   Name: Kim Vegilante Team: Oak 7 Hometown: Wayne, NJ   Kim joined NCCC because she was thinking that there had to be more to life than just going to school, something other than going with the grain of life, something different. “I am a completely different person than I was last year. Things I thought I couldn’t do nor wasn’t comfortable doing, I now have confidence in doing” says Kim.    Kim has worked on four projects so far this year: flood relief in Gary, Indiana; preparing a summer camp for at risk youth in Almond, Wisconsin; summer of service leading an academic camp to help rising 10th graders a chance to get a head to help prepare for secondary education in Flint, Michigan; and working on flood relief in Minot, North Dakota. Kim’s favorite service project was in Gary, Indiana. She says “Our first project with LARRI started everything. I learned skills for the future, like drywall. It showed what the NCCC experience was all about.”                 Kim along with Oak 7 is currently serving in Bottineau, North Dakota building trails for Lake Metigoshe State park. Oak 7 is heading to Davenport Iowa later in October to work with Nahant Marsh which is their final project in NCCC before graduating on November 17, 2011.                 After NCCC Kim plans on getting her masters in secondary education with emphasize in social studies from the college of William and Mary.