Volume 13, Number 1, 2004
When Nina Bonano graduated from college two years ago in Maryland, she says, she already had decided a couple of things about her future: She knew she wanted to attend graduate school eventually, but first, she wanted to spend some time serving the community.
It was trying to combine those two goals, she says, that brought her to Delaware, to the University and to the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (CHEP). A unique partnership between CHEP and the AmeriCorps national service program is allowing Bonano to receive a full-tuition graduate assistantship as she begins work this fall on her master's degree in urban affairs and public policy.
"I knew I wanted to take part in an AmeriCorps program of some kind, and I was looking into what my options were when someone told me about this opportunity for free graduate school at the University of Delaware," Bonano says. "I hadn't even thought about Delaware before, but that's the reason I chose AmeriCorps here."
As it turned out, Bonano has completed back-to-back public service tours with two participating AmeriCorps programs, AmeriCorps*VISTA and Public Allies. During the 2002-03 school year, she worked as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member overseeing a mentoring program at a Newark, Del., elementary school. Then, during the most recent academic year, she worked with the Public Allies Delaware leadership-development program, where she was in charge of special events and outreach activities at the Brandywine Zoo in Wilmington.
"I really like working with kids, especially those who are middle-school age because they seem to need the most guidance," Bonano says. "While I was working with VISTA, I learned about Public Allies, and it sounded like a great opportunity to continue my public service for an additional year and develop some more leadership skills before starting graduate school."
An undergraduate political science and public policy major, she says she wants to focus her graduate studies on the management of international nonprofits and hopes later to work overseas.
Bonano's decision to come to Delaware, first as a national service member and then as a student, is exactly what CHEP and Delaware's AmeriCorps programs had hoped for when they began the partnership five years ago, according to Theresa Clower, director of the Delaware Mentoring Council. The council places about 35 AmeriCorps*VISTA members each year with mentoring programs in schools and community agencies, where they recruit and organize volunteers to work with at-risk children.
"To our knowledge, no other university in the country is offering this kind of opportunity for graduate school," Clower says. "As a result, we've been able to recruit the cream of the crop. We've become a national model in terms of the design of the program and the quality of the VISTA members we're able to attract and retain."
The partnership not only benefits the volunteer service programs and their participants, but it also is good for the College, Clower says, attracting top students from around the nation who otherwise might not have considered UD for graduate school. A new group of VISTA volunteers, who began work in July, includes members from places as far-flung as Florida, California and Poland. Seventy prospective volunteers applied for the program's 35 slots, Clower says.
To benefit from the full-tuition graduate assistantship and living stipend, VISTA or Public Allies members must complete their year of service, during which they earn a stipend and health insurance, and meet all the academic requirements to be accepted into graduate school in CHEP. A recent expansion of the program provides the same graduate opportunities to members who enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences' master's degree Political Science Global Governance Program.
Public Allies Delaware, an AmeriCorps program of CHEP's Center for Community Research and Service, is marking its 10th anniversary this year. It links young adults who are interested in public service and community building with nonprofit agencies that serve local communities. Volunteers and agency representatives meet, discuss their interests and opportunities and then are matched by the program for a 10-month apprenticeship. Allies also attend weekly leadership development training sessions and plan and implement team service projects.
Since it began in 1994, the program has graduated 160 participants, served more than 150,000 Delawareans and partnered with more than 100 nonprofit and government agencies. Public Allies Delaware became the first such program in the nation to affiliate with a university, when it partnered with UD in 2000.
The affiliation has been "a win-win for both partners," according to Patrick Carroll, executive director of Public Allies Delaware, who says the University's resources have given the organization greater capacity and stability.
"As Public Allies focuses on advancing the leadership of young people from local communities, the affiliation has also strengthened the connection between UD and potential students from diverse communities here in Delaware," Carroll says.
In addition to the tuition benefits that former AmeriCorps members receive once they begin their graduate studies, those who qualify as CHEP Service Scholars can enjoy some of the benefits of graduate school during their year of service.
The CHEP Service Scholars program offers early acceptance to graduate programs, so VISTA and Public Allies members will know they have been accepted and can interact with graduate school faculty.
For more information about the UD VISTA program, visit the web site [www.udel.edu/udvista/]. For more information about Public Allies Delaware, visit [www.udel.edu/publicallies].