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The mission of I Have a Dream--Overtown, Inc. is to help children from low-income areas become productive citizens by providing a long-term program of mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment, with an assured opportunity for higher education. This program is a collaboration between the Center for Community Involvement at Miami Dade College and the New York based nonprofit I Have a Dream Foundation. The agenda of this program is simple, yet hands-on: nurture inner-city youth so they can take advantage of a full tuition to any public state college. To this end, the Dreamer class of 2015 will receive a grant from the Foundation and access to a full-time project coordinator, afternoon tutoring, and a summer program that helps them prepare for the following school year. In exchange, the students and their parents will sign a contract in which the families vow to stay on a productive educational path. All of these students who successfully complete high school in 2015 will receive full tuition to a public state university from the I Have a Dream Foundation.

I Have a Dream--Overtown, Inc. is a holistic program. As such, the I Have a Dream--Overtown VISTA will have a large number of responsibilities related to helping to expand and sustain a multifacited non-profit entity. Some of these duties include: introduce the concept of service-learning to teachers at Phillis Wheatley Elementary School; ensure that the teachers and students in the program participate in high quality service-learning projects that enhance classroom learning, help the community, and foster civic responsibility; help design a system to evaluate the effectiveness of service-learning; develop partnerships with Miami-Dade College's service-learning program; help the program coordinator create a sustainability plan; assist with grant writing and maintaining the afterschool program.

The FASS AmeriCorps*VISTA Initiative is a service program that aims to empower students through volunteerism and service-learning to create positive change in our communities. VISTA members earn benefits, including a living allowance, health insurance, student loan forbearance, and a $4,725 education award to apply toward tuition, student loans, or future graduate studies. Applicants from out of state are eligible for a relocation allowance. If you are interested in applying for this position, please visit our website at www.fsu.edu/~vista or contact Tara Glynn at (850) 488-3143.

Contact Tara Glynn at (850) 488-3143 or tglynn@admin.fsu.edu. For more information on the FASS VISTA Initiative please visit www.fsu.edu/~vista.