AmeriCorps Week 2021 was celebrated March 7-13 and was an opportunity to recognize the service of the 270,000 Americans engaged annually in AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors programs. Despite the unprecedented challenges posed in 2020, dedicated citizens continued helping communities, serving those impacted by COVID-19, ensuring students stayed on track to graduate, combating hunger and homelessness, responding to natural disasters, fighting the opioid epidemic, helping seniors live independently, supporting veterans and military families, and much more.

Jonathan Lee Lee of Glendale is currently serving with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), a 10-month, full-time AmeriCorps program. As a corps member, Lee is completing a series of different six- to 12-week-long service projects in different places across his assigned region as part of a five-to-12-person team. Projects support disaster relief, the environment, infrastructure improvement, energy conservation, and urban and rural development.

AmeriCorps NCCC operates out of four campuses –Sacramento, Aurora, Colorado, Vinton, Iowa, and Vicksburg, Mississippi – that serve as regional administrative hubs and training facilities. These campuses train and deploy new classes of members several times each year. Lee began his term of service on July 21, 2020 at the North Central Region campus in Vinton, Iowa and will graduate from the program on May 8, 2021.

Before joining the NCCC, Lee attended Crescenta Valley High School and Syracuse University, which he graduated from in May 2019 with a degree in economics.

“I want to broaden my horizons through traveling, and develop life skills while providing help to those in need,” Lee said.

AmeriCorps NCCC members complete at least 1,700 hours of service during the 10-month program. Corps Members are all 18 to 26 years old; there is no upper age limit for team leaders. In exchange for their service, all program participants receive $6,345 to help pay for college. Other benefits include a small living stipend, room and board, leadership development, team building skills and the knowledge that, through active citizenship, they can indeed make a difference. AmeriCorps NCCC is one of hundreds of programs administered by the larger AmeriCorps agency.

Founded in 1994, a tenet of AmeriCorps NCCC is to strengthen communities and develop its young adult members into leaders. For more information about AmeriCorps NCCC, visit the website at www.americorps.gov/nccc.