Former CEO Serving With AmeriCorps Down South — GVSU PRSSA – Grand Valley State University Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America

Jaclyn Ermoyan graduated from Grand Valley in the Spring of 2017 after being the CEO of GrandPR for the year. Hopping into the professional world, she interned at Quicken Loans where she assisted them in their social media efforts.

After gaining more professional experience, Jaclyn went against the grain and sought opportunities that did not play into the average post-college journey. Instead of continuing her career in a nine-to-five workday, she applied for AmeriCorps, a government supported nonprofit, which focuses on the importance of civic duty to aid communities throughout the United States.

“It was just a really good time in the world for joining. It was a good time in my life, not wanting to sit down at a full time job yet. Working with organizations, learning about what’s out there… People like to help people and I definitely do,” Jaclyn told us. So she signed up for a 10 month service project to channel her desire to help people into a purposeful, rewarding experience.

Her first assignment focused her on the recovery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The area had suffered from a flood the year prior, so Jaclyn and her team began to assist locals and other volunteers in the ongoing effort to rebuild the charming college city. Before she could get a feel for the project, however, disaster struck in Houston, Texas when Hurricane Harvey hit, and her and her team needed to move on.

After the devastating force had blown itself out, Jaclyn was repositioned to help those in immediate need while recovering from the disaster. While in Houston, the AmeriCorps team managed all the incoming non-affiliated volunteers that came to the shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center, as well as the distribution center, where they spent hours sorting incoming donations and distributing them to residents.

Throughout her disaster relief efforts, Jaclyn encountered people with diverse backgrounds and from areas outside of Houston. In her efforts to build relationships, she would hear things like “I am from California and I heard about Harvey and the shelter on the news, filled my truck with water bottles, and drove down here” and “well I can’t go to work and I can’t go home to Florida, so I figured I’d put my time to good use.”

Reflecting on this, Jaclyn said “one thing I’ve learned in our training is that when a survivor wants to talk and they want to open up, listen, because you don’t know who else has listened to them or how many people they’ve tried to open up to.”

Jaclyn was able to use both hard and soft skills she learned while at GVSU. She remarked that the long days and heavy workload were made more manageable because of the soft skills she gained from PRSSA and GrandPR.

One project that was presented to the volunteers was a need for someone to takeover the social media accounts of Volunteer Houston, a sponsor for AmeriCorps’ Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, to interview those impacted by the hurricanes and share their stories. Jaclyn immediately thought “do you know who I am? I am Humans of Grand Valley and I am social media, those are what I do.” Even while volunteering, there was a need for the hard skills she had acquired.

For those in Texas, recovery will continue to happen for years, but Jaclyn and the team she works with, as well as countless more volunteers, have been able to make an invaluably positive impact.

Because of her experience, Jaclyn urges people to take a gap year. Whether before college or a career, a gap year is a great way to serve and to do good. She pointed out that even if that means giving back to your community on weekends, there is always a need for service.

Authors

Sabrina Antcliff
Sarah Pontbriand
Trevor Bryan
Adrienne Cooley