My name is Lauren and I am coming to Buffalo from a little city that is a far, far 20 miles away called Niagara Falls, NY. I have spent a lot of time in Buffalo over the past four years attending two different colleges here and becoming involved with various activities and organizations. I began to grow a soft spot for the city and couldn’t imagine leaving, no matter how much I wanted to.
I have known for a while that I wanted to do a year of volunteer service after graduation, but I wasn’t sure what kind of program I was looking for initially. So when I got the Catholic Network of Volunteer Services catalogue last fall, I really had my work cut out for me reading through all the programs. CCSC stood out to me immediately; I loved the community and social justice pillars of the program. The only problem was that I thought that it was finally time for me to leave Western New York since I have lived here my whole life. However, no matter what other programs I looked at, my mind kept coming back to CCSC. After applying and meeting with Amy I knew that this was the place I was supposed to be. Over the past few months here I have fallen more in love with Buffalo. I love living in the city and being so close to all the activities going on.
I am working as a paralegal at the Western New York Law Center. I have no background in law at all but everyone here has made it very easy to get accustomed to. Everyone in the program has such different placements; I love being able to come home and hear about everyone else’s experiences at work and all of the things they are learning.
I have already started seeing a different side of Buffalo than I am used to seeing. I am very excited to continue to see the social justice side of Buffalo and be able to be involved in making a change in the city.