AmeriCorps – The Second Time Around

 

Post written by CHC member Maggie Sugrue

Maggie serves at the ErRespiratory Health Association as a Lung Educator

 

In honor of National AmeriCorps week, I spent some time reflecting on what service has meant to me. Chicago Health Corps is not my first experience with service- last year I served with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest in Juneau, Alaska. Both of these experiences were transformative for me in many different ways.

Maggie with her 6 housemates in Juneau, Alaska. (April, 2012)

Last year, I was able to impact a community much different than one I had ever experienced before. I learned a lot not only professionally, but personally as well. Living in Alaska thousands of miles from home, adapting to a new culture, and living in a house with other volunteers made me much stronger in my convictions and cultivated my sense of self. JVC NW is based on living out four core values. Two of these values, community and simple living, I found both the most challenging and most rewarding.  When living in an intentional community with 6 other volunteers, each person’s opinion is taken into account for every decision made, ranging from something as small as which type of milk to buy to as large as where to live. This shared living experience combined with the lack of modern conveniences, such as TV and internet, provided me with many opportunities for growth. I learned the art of compromise, when to stick up for my beliefs, when to step up and take a leadership role, and what truly matters in life.



Joining Chicago Health Corps brought me back home, where I am able to apply what I learned during my service in Alaska, and continue to build on it here in my own community. Serving in the city I grew up in is an honor, and making a difference in a place I call home is something I have always wanted to do. I serve as a Lung Health Educator at Respiratory Health Association, a non-profit that promotes healthy lungs and fights lung disease through research, advocacy and education. This experience, has given me the opportunity to refine my leadership skills, build connections, and most importantly, learn more from those I serve than they may even learn from me. Service has been a once, ok twice, in a lifetime opportunity that will shape the path my life will take. It has solidified my passion for both public health and public service, and I cannot imagine where I would be without it.



Respiratory Health Associations COPD Team at the

 2012 Living Better Together COPD Conference

(Photo Courtesy of Sooz Main)