It’s AmeriCorps Week! This is a special time in the year in which we join thousands of partners throughout the country in recognizing the commitment of the more than 250,000 Americans who choose to serve their country through AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors each year. In communities large and small, AmeriCorps members are supporting education initiatives, fighting climate change, promoting public health, enhancing neighborhoods, combatting hunger and homelessness, supporting veterans and military families, and responding to natural disasters.
We salute all of these members and thank them for their service!
Two incredible AmeriCorps members serve right here at MCAN, helping our organization build capacity and expand our Sixty by 30 work. We are grateful for the service that Kate Grove and Ho Chak Law provide every day, and we’re honored to get to know them this year as professionals and as people.
Ho Chak Law
Michigan Community Service Commission AmeriCorps VISTA serving at MCAN
As MCAN’s data and technology AmeriCorps VISTA, Ho Chak supports a variety of data-driven initiatives with MCAN and our friends at the Michigan Promise Zone Association. Prior to joining MCAN, Ho Chak taught humanities courses at the University of Hong Kong, the University of Michigan, and Hong Kong Baptist University. He’s a proud first-generation college-going student and graduate of the University of Michigan (Ph.D.) and University of Hong Kong (bachelor’s and master’s degrees).
Ho Chak’s favorite AmeriCorps memory thus far involves getting to know Michigan’s Promise Zones through a series of calls with each of the zones and MPZA director Chuck Wilbur. Ho Chak is using these conversations to help prepare for a new data collection project.
Even though he has only been serving with MCAN a short time, there are two ways that AmeriCorps has already helped him grow professionally: gaining exposure to the non-academic side of the higher education sector and having opportunities to organize and analyze quantitative data for problem-solving in the workplace.
Thanks for your service Ho Chak!
Kate Grove
Michigan Community Service Commission AmeriCorps VISTA serving at MCAN
As an AmeriCorps VISTA who supports MCAN’s resource and engagement efforts, Kate helps build partnerships with various organizations and create college-going resources for students across the state.
Kate is a Central Michigan University graduate who started her postsecondary education at Mid Michigan College. Her two majors, integrative public relations and women and gender studies, have helped her pursue a career in advocacy and nonprofit work. In the summer of 2021, Kate worked as an intern with MCAN and assisted with a variety of communication and outreach projects.
To date, Kate’s favorite AmeriCorps memory has been getting sworn in as an official AmeriCorps member on a national call with hundreds of other new members. This experience really helped her appreciate the scope of what it means to serve with AmeriCorps.
Having begun her service year just a few weeks before she finished her bachelor's degree, Kate says she is “really grateful that my AmeriCorps position gave me a sense of purpose and direction not all recent grads have. My service year is giving me the opportunity to not only do work I am passionate about, but it is also providing me with professional development as I figure out the next steps in my education and career.”
Thanks for your service Kate!
Two incredible AmeriCorps members serve right here at MCAN, helping our organization build capacity and expand our Sixty by 30 work. We are grateful for the service that Kate Grove and Ho Chak Law provide every day.