For the first time ever, an AmeriCorps branch is in southern Indiana, and it’s at USI.

Iris Phillips, associate professor of social work, wrote the grant for the program that started in January.

Tutoring for GEDs and mentoring school-age children, 26 members, most of which are USI students, are spread throughout Vanderburgh County at organizations like Boy Scouts and United Methodist Youth Home, according to Marcey Head-Vanpell, the program’s coordinator.

And the program is accepting applications for next year right now.

“It’s open to Ivy Tech and USI students,” Vanpell said. “It’s really open to anyone.”

The applications, available online on the social work website under the social justice tab, ask for references, an explanation as to why the person wants to join the program and some relevant experience.

Vanpell will be gathering applications until June 1.

Zachary Watson, a senior double majoring in history and secondary education, heard about the program through an education class and was interested, because he already had tutoring experience.

“But once I started it, it was actually a bit more than that,” he said.

It wasn’t just sitting down with someone and tutoring them in one subject; it was a whole list of subjects, an important test.

He does GED tutoring at Counseling for Change, and he quickly began to learn from his experience.

Watson said some dropped out of school early and are trying to get a GED to get a better job, some are court ordered, some just want to read to their grandchildren and some don’t really have the drive to succeed.

It’s a pretty broad spectrum, but Watson said it will help him as a professional.

“Sometimes you may think it’s difficult to reach somebody, to get connected with them because, when you first sit down it’s not like the first thing you say to them is ‘get out your pencil and do this pretest so you can get your GED,’” Watson said. “No, you don’t want to do that, because that’s going to make them think, ‘oh, I remember why I didn’t like school when I was in ninth grade’ or whatever the case might’ve been: why they didn’t get their high school diploma. You don’t’ want to do that. You have to build rapport with them.”

Watson suggested asking the person about him or herself to get a sense of who they are from the beginning. He wanted to find a special motivating force and “maybe coax them into enjoying it a little bit.”

He said that some people have a bias towards those who don’t have a GED, thinking the person is dumb or lazy.

“The fact of the matter is, you have to really understand (their situation)… People have different lives than we do. Maybe something happened when they were young,” Watson said. “Maybe they got pregnant too early or maybe their family wasn’t there for them. Maybe they had to leave to support their family at an early age and that’s why they had to drop out.”

As an example, Watson talked about tutoring an intelligent girl who did not even go to high school.

“It’s really majestic to see her drive, and her motivation and her want to succeed, and she’s doing a great job,” he said. “It’s good to take away that bias: that negative bias. You don’t want to blame the person; you’ve got to blame the situation.”

The program runs Sept. 1 to Aug. 31 and while only seven agencies are involved right now, Vanpell said they want to expand the program to include case study and maybe a healthy initiative.

“We’re hoping that, if we expand it out, it’ll be a lot more interesting to a lot more people, a lot more agencies, maybe students will be more like, ‘oh, this isn’t just this one route,’” Vanpell said. “Case management is very open.”

Many of the students are social work and education majors, but Vanpell said they want more majors to get involved.

Students do get a stipend of $5,326 for 900 hours of work and are paid biweekly, said Vanpell.

As long as they compete hours, they also receive $2,675 as education award, she said.

“It’s really like a job,” Vanpell said. “(The agencies) expect you to be there.”

The group also went on a two-day retreat where they got to meet other members.

“I think they do that just to kind of help you feel like you’re a part of something bigger than your little program,” Vanpell said.

Watson wants to be a motivational speaker and said the retreat helped him network and get a broader understanding of what AmeriCorps is.

He also recommends AmeriCorps for the experience, the flexible hours and as a resume builder.