Volunteers - Kim Bryant
I was born in the city of Buffalo and raised in Angola, NY. I attended LakeShore Central high school graduating in 2003 with a diploma and Regents Diploma. I swam for USA swimming (STAR) from age 5 to 18. I competed in the Empire State games and Junior Nationals in 1999. I traveled and competed in Australia in 2001. In 2003 I began attending Michigan State University for undergraduate school. In 2007 I graduated from Michigan State University with a dual degree in Psychology and Sociology. Upon completion of graduation I traveled to Brazil for a month. As of August 2007 I began my adventure with the CCSC.
In college most of my college professors openly discussed taking time off between undergraduate and graduate school to participate in AmeriCorps. I was in need of a break from school, but also wanted to be highly active in building my resume/ graduate forms/ and deal with social justice issues. I wanted to contribute with social justice because of my work in college and my degrees. I looked at the AmeriCorps website and monster.com to look up options that had to do with social justice. That is when I stumbled upon the CCSC and started pursuing an involvement. I also had other AmeriCorps options, but I felt that the CCSC ideals (pillars) fit to make me get the best experience from all angles and not just social justice. The program also was in my hometown which I knew had many social justice issues, which I always wanted to help with or see first hand (the hometown, by the way, I left for four whole years planning on never returning). By choosing the CCSC I hoped to gain 1- more social justice awareness 2- work with underprivileged individuals 3- build on pillar ideals and 4- gain a new appreciation and give back to the hometown I left.