VISTA Spotlight: Tara McKenzie

Meet Tara McKenzie.  Tara is an AmeriCorps*VISTA member completing a year of service at Success Academy, an middle/high school for Baltimore City students on long-term suspension or expulsion.  After completing her undergraduate degree in at Pikeville College in Pikeville, Kentucky, Tara completed graduate studies at University of Bristol in England and University of Sydney in Australia.  Following her return from Australia, she decided to come to Baltimore and serve with GHCC!  Greater Homewood Voices caught up with her recently to ask her about her experience.

1. Where do you come from?  (educational background, home state/town, etc.)

I grew up in Webbville, Kentucky -- a very small, very poor rural farming community in the mountains of northeastern Kentucky.  Following my graduation from high school, I attended Pikeville College.  I started out as an English major with a minor in Anthropology.  Initially, my goal was to become an archaeologist or paleoanthropologist.  At the end of my sophomore year I received a scholarship to attend the Arizona State University/University of the Witwatersrand Paleoanthropology Field School in the Makapansgat Valley of South Africa. During our trip from our bushveldt field camp back to the city of Johannesburg, we passed sprawling shanty towns.  I was astounded!  We certainly know poverty in Eastern Kentucky, but this was different.  That was a turning point in my life.  I couldn't imagine being so disconnected from the social troubles of the world in my excavation unit.  I wanted to be on the ground doing something!  I returned the following semester to Pikeville College and changed my major to Sociology. 

I was awarded a Berger Scholarship for a place in the London Semester Program facilitated through the Imperial College of London my senior year of college.  I spent my last semester as an undergraduate studying courses on British life and culture, living in the Royal Borough of Kensington.  I hadn't had enough of London my the end of my semester abroad, so I applied to graduate school there before returning home.  I was ultimately accepted into the Master of Science program in Social & Cultural Theory at the University of Bristol, England.

While I was finishing my Master's thesis in Bristol, I was asked to serve as the sponsored applicant for the Kentucky Rotary District 6740 Ambassadorial Scholarship. I was granted admission to my first choice of foreign institution: The University of Sydney, Australia, where I was a Master of Arts candidate in Social Policy (with emphasis on education policy).  I was active in Rotary community service projects, and I worked in collaboration with my best Aussie "mate" to design our own arts-based program for inner city youth. 

2.  What made you decide to be a VISTA?

My family was, in many ways, a very typical blue-collar Appalachian family.  While we were family of limited means, the generosity my mom and stepfather demonstrated to others was always a shining example of doing "the right thing."  My mother was a construction laborer and union member.  She used to always tell my sister and me that "you do what you have to do" and that "any job worth doing is worth doing well."  I merged these mottoes in the development of my own personal philosophy: "If you have the means, and you see the need, do it!  Do whatever needs to be done."  While I may not have the ability to bring about change through financial contributions, I do have my education and I have the desire to make a difference.  Those are the means I use in fulfilling my VISTA position.

3. Why did you choose Baltimore/GHCC?

I have always loved the idea of leaving behind the familiar, pushing my comfort zone, and developing a new social network in an otherwise "foreign" place.  That is what drove me to look outside of the tri-state Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia area. While searching through the position descriptions, I hit upon my current position.  I was ecstatic!  It was exactly what I wanted to do with my life! 

4.  What do you generally do every day?

I am a School-Community Partnership Coordinator, so I do a lot of emailing and meeting with companies/associations/agencies to pitch the idea of engaging in a partnership with the Success Academy.  When I'm not meeting with potential partners, I am generally researching resources available within the neighborhoods our students come from.  I maintain a newly developed "resource center" and lead student workshops on career development.  My day can vary from focusing upon one particular project, to being a day of meetings, to being very student interaction focused.  I love that variety, and I am so appreciative of the flexibility and ability to be creative in my approach to the workday and the workload.

5.  How did it feel to actually get here and start working at the beginning of your service year?

I will admit that I did have a number of preconceptions prior to arriving in Baltimore and to my placement site.  A lot of it dealt with the behaviors I thought I would be confronted with at the school where I work.  It was nothing like that!  The kids were, and continue to be, very respectful, keen to learn, and excited to explore the work and study opportunities that lie before them.  When working with the Success Academy students, I think back to my own experience as  high school student.  I was from the poor, country elementary school, and many of my high school teachers allowed that stigma to affect our interactions.  In a lot of ways, I wasn't expected to succeed, and I certainly wasn't  expected to go on to college!  It took the encouragement of three particular teachers for me to realize that I did, in fact, have the potential to succeed.  I encourage the students of the Success Academy.  Each of those students have such potential, and I wouldn't be able to face each day knowing I had not attempted in some way to empower or encourage them in their aspirations. 

6.  What is your favorite thing about your VISTA work?

My favorite thing about my VISTA work is definitely feeling like I have a positive impact on the lives of our students.

7.  What is your least favorite?

My least favorite thing about my VISTA work is that it will only last a year, and I won't be able to ultimately see any potential impacts my work has had.

8. What's one thing you really hope to accomplish before the year is over?

Ideally, I would love to see all of our students participating in an internship or mentorship program.  As cliche as it sounds, I would be happy just knowing that one student benefited from one of the internships/mentorships or resources I provided access to.

9.  Anything else?

It really has been wonderful working with such a dynamic association of caring, enthusiastic community developers/organizers/visionaries!  While I appreciate the work that all of GHCC's branches contribute to the organization's overall function, I am biased toward the Neighborhood Programs branch.  I am honored to work with such a dynamic group of people!