By Ted Miller, Chief of External Affairs

Last Friday, I joined colleagues from my agency and other partner organizations at The Door, a nonprofit organization in New York.

We saw firsthand examples of how national service is creating opportunities for young people and individuals serving in AmeriCorps.

Take Christopher and Johannie, for example. They are student scholars in their junior year at the Broome Street Academy, a school operated by The Door.

Christopher is from Yonkers; Johannie is from Staten Island. These scholars wake up daily around 6 a.m. to make the 90-minute trek to Broome Street, where their passion for what they are learning and contributing to the program often keeps them at the school well past 6 or 7 p.m.

Neither complains about the distance or long hours; instead, they talk about their hopes for what they want to study in college and how they can help their community.

In the last two years, more than 200 scholars like Christopher and Johannie have been part of a new initiative that includes AmeriCorps VISTA members like Senju Rajan.

Senju, a native New Yorker (Staten Island!), was volunteering at the school last year when he learned of the AmeriCorps VISTA opportunity.

Seven months into his year of service, Senju has been part of a team that has incorporated Days of Service, such as MLK Day, into the Scholars program. His eyes light up when he talks about putting together a science project where the scholars would develop topographic maps to better learn how to preserve green space in their community.

Senju also is helping foster better relations with the surrounding community. He worked with the local precinct of the New York Police Department to arrange a meeting with police officers and students. Their aim was to create a better dialogue, especially since some of the students had never interacted with police officers.

In addition, Senju and his fellow AmeriCorps VISTA members have arranged for tutoring sessions and volunteer opportunities for professionals who work near The Door, including many employees from Citi. During MLK Day, these Citi employees and other volunteers worked alongside scholars like Christopher and Johannie to assemble hygiene kits for homeless individuals. The Citi employees also spent the day providing guidance to the scholars about their own experiences and what it takes to get through college and work for one of the world’s largest financial institutions.

The Citi employees’ participation is not a mere coincidence. It is part of ServiceWorks – powered by AmeriCorps, the Citi Foundation, and Points of Light –a groundbreaking, national program that uses volunteer service as a strategy to help 25,000 low-income youth and young adults in 10 cities develop the skills they need to prepare for college and careers. The young people – in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. – will receive training in critical 21st-century leadership and workplace skills. ServiceWorks, which will deploy 225 AmeriCorps VISTA members over three years, provides these low-income youth and young adults with an opportunity to use their new skills by participating in and leading volunteer service projects.

ServiceWorks is the nation’s largest corporate-sponsored AmeriCorps VISTA program and supports President Obama’s call to create new public-private partnerships that use national service to help solve our nation’s most pressing challenges.

Listening to Christopher, Johannie, and Senju, we saw the vision of this initiative come to life.

Christopher is preparing for a career in the performing arts, so look for him to star in a revival one day of a production of his favorite playwright, August Wilson. Johannie is considering career options, and she says that her experience of helping others will factor in to what she studies in college.

After completing his term with AmeriCorps VISTA, Senju plans to join the Peace Corps, taking his experience of building community connections to another country.

Wherever their paths may take them, they will each represent the goals of ServiceWorks—bringing people of different experiences and backgrounds together to create opportunities that tap into the talents and leadership skills young people have to offer.