To be of service seems to come as naturally as breathing to Up2Us Sports VISTA alum Rebecca Sayers: when asked why she serves, her response is simply, “Why wouldn’t I?” Having completed two years with AmeriCorps, the second year as an Up2Us Sports VISTA (an AmeriCorps-supported service position), Rebecca was hired this past August by the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County, Florida, after finishing her VISTA term there. She has been working full-time for the organization as a Grants Manager, a role that is new to her.
“When asked why she serves, her response is simply, “Why wouldn’t I?””
Luckily, Rebecca’s commitment to serving her community is matched by her extraordinary growth mindset and courage in the face of challenges. Rebecca is not daunted by her new position, particularly since she got plenty of practice tackling diverse roles and tasks as an Up2Us Sports VISTA. She worked both with the Boys and Girls Club’s office-based finance team and with the program’s youth, focusing on mental-health related activities--which included hosting a week-long event raising mental health awareness among staff, club members, and the larger community. Staff noticed her impressive work ethic and asked her to get involved helping with other projects; Rebecca found herself doing “these daunting things I had never done before.” Yet it was in doing these new things that Rebecca discovered her capacity to learn and grow, which prepared her to jump into even more new tasks and challenges, including her current position as Grants Manager. “I don’t have a background in grants…I never thought something like this would open up for me, but it’s amazing.”
There’s no doubt this growth mindset has helped Rebecca remain resilient during difficult times. A car accident left her with post-concussion syndrome, a condition in which symptoms of a concussion persist for weeks, months, or even years after the injury has occurred. She was also grieving the loss of someone with whom she had been very close. Because of the accident and its aftermath, there was a gap on her resume before Rebecca started her service term as a VISTA. When it came to getting back in the game and stepping into a leadership role, she was scared. “[I thought] ‘Am I even capable of doing something like this now?’ [But] I really worked hard to be that ambassador for AmeriCorps and for the Boys and Girls Club, taking every task and looking at it as an opportunity and a challenge and something I can grow into.”
“I could see my mentors looking at me and smiling. [I thought] ‘I can do this, they believe in me.’”
In addition to her commitment and perseverance, Rebecca has had great mentors throughout her service years. Samantha Anderson, her first supervisor during her first AmeriCorps term, believed in Rebecca’s leadership potential and encouraged her to realize it. “She was always pushing me. There were some challenges that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to complete that year. But we sat down and we talked, and it helped get me through those obstacles.” When a speech Rebecca had written about why she chose to serve as a VISTA was selected to be read in front of Florida congressman Brian Mast and Keith Fletcher, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County, Rebecca was terrified by the prospect of public speaking. But when it came time for her to read the speech, “I could see my mentors looking at me and smiling. [I thought] ‘I can do this, they believe in me.’”
Rebecca also had the support of the Up2Us Sports Career Readiness team when she began looking for full-time work in the nonprofit world, particularly from Program Manager, Lee Wickham. “Lee was great. He sat with me on a Zoom call and we went over my resume. We talked about things I’ve done in the past and what I want to do. He helped me and gave me a lot of advice and tips on my resume. I kept him up-to-date about what was going on [with job applications]. He was my supportive person in the background from Up2Us [Sports] and it was really nice. I thought that was a great service.”
“I feel like a completely different person since then. I’ve grown so much from my two years of service.”
Rebecca credits much of her readiness to enter the workforce to her time as an AmeriCorps and Up2Us Sports VISTA: her service terms allowed her to come back from a serious injury and a personal loss, and gave her the opportunity to do work that she felt passionate about in her community. “I feel like a completely different person since then. I’ve grown so much from my two years of service.” Rebecca suggests that everyone interested in service should do a VISTA term, but particularly those coping with injuries or illnesses—whether physical, psychological, or emotional—and feel hesitant about entering the workforce. “If you can find an organization that really wants to help you grow as an individual and develop along with you in your struggles…I think that’s the best thing in the world for people like myself, or for people who might be struggling in a different way...Learn what it is to do a year of service. I think you will see that you will grow as an individual exponentially.”
Rebecca served as an Up2Us Sports VISTA from August 2020 through August 2021 at Boys and Girls Club of Martin County thanks to support from AmeriCorps VISTA.
