In AmeriCorps, more than Peace Corps, it is extremely important to be working at something that gives you fulfillment outside of your position.

This is a brief guest post from Morgan Sully, former VISTA Leader for the CTC VISTA Project, that ponders trading public service for debt relief.

Support–There’s no over-emphasizing its importance. Without it, no project can fully take flight. In theory, AmeriCorps Vistas should already have support for their directive. Their role is to expand upon or build up an organization’s resources, to leave sustainable programs in place. On the other hand, Peace Corps volunteers don’t always have guaranteed support. Although PCVs are [...]

One thing I have encountered in both Peace Corps and CTC Vista services is a lack of structure that can affect how time is spent. As I have mentioned before, lack of structure is not necessarily a bad thing. During interviewing, Peace Corps recruiters are scouring your responses for signs of a self-starter. Within the time [...]

Also crossposted on the CTC Vista Project website. From July onward, I’ve spent much of my time at Portland Community Media working on a proposal for a project that would allow immigrants and Millennials to create media at low-cost anywhere and at anytime. The goal was to create a project that addresses target groups for PCM, [...]

Friendship can be one of the most important supports anyone can have at their disposal. In both corps, you could be moving away from friends and familiarity. In Peace Corps, it’s one of those crucial factors for sanity. Depending on the size of your Peace Corps country, you could eventually meet all the PCVs currently serving [...]

First, I want to apologize for not keeping up with posts as of late; preluding a travel-intensive trip to America’s Heartland (*ahem* Oxford, Ohio) for a college reunion, I was pulling funky hours at work for two weeks. I brought back more than my Western mug for a souvenir, too; I brought back a cold. [...]

The work environments between AmeriCorps and Peace Corps can be extremely different depending on what type of assignment you have. I was assigned to the Community Health & Economic Development sector in Lesotho, which basically equates to absence of structure. As for AmeriCorps, it is a real job: 40 hours per week with the same holidays [...]

There are certain benefits you receive in each Corps. Both offer educational incentives for joining and certain health benefits as well. For a full year of service with AmeriCorps, volunteers can elect to receive either an education award of $4,725 (taxable the year you use it and only available to use for five years following [...]

Following acceptance, the first stage of both corps is training. For Peace Corps, this means a three-day “staging” in a major city (Washington, D.C., in my case) before flying off with your fellow PCVs-to-be for more training in-country. In the case of the CTC Vista Project, it meant flying to Boston for what was also [...]

I have to confess: I didn’t actually apply to AmeriCorps, or at least not through conventional means. I’m not certain how competitive it is. When I accepted the New Media Vista position with Portland Community Media, they asked me to apply online so that I’d be in the Corporation for National and Community Service’s database. [...]

A word, because it probably seems odd that I wouldn’t have an opinion on which corps is better. Peace Corps and AmeriCorps are extremely different. AmeriCorps is dubbed as the domestic Peace Corps, and having been oriented to the setup of the CTC Vista Project, I’d say they’re similar in a thousand programmatic ways. Both are [...]

While many types of people go into both corps, the most common question for the do-gooder, soon-to-be college grad is which corps? It’s a hard question to answer: the two-year versus one year commitment, service abroad or service on the home front, weighing the prestige of each program–which would be the better-fit? Unfortunately, there are no [...]