Volunteer Stories

Authentic Community

At first, I wasn’t committed to the thought of doing a service year. Initially, I thought I was going to crush my senior year of college like a rockstar and get a stellar teaching job (I’m a English Education major). However, the pandemic, finishing college, and student teaching left me weary from education (even though…


Conversations About My Future

So this is it. The point in the year when it feels like a ticking clock is hanging in the air, just counting down to my last days in Syracuse, my last days as a FrancisCorps volunteer. How has it gone so quickly?  I feel so overwhelmed thinking back on the year, how much has…


The Path Forward

Where are you being called to go from here? Reflecting on this, I focus more and more on the ‘from here’ aspect. Long before I knew what FrancisCorps or even a year of service meant, I knew that I was being called to law school and that part of that calling was a gap year between college…


A Simple Pause

“So, what are your plans for next year?” This time last year, I had a speech prepared and memorized. Now, I panic a bit. Throughout this year, I’ve supplied plenty of different answers to Francis House staff and volunteers and even to my own parents. Coming into this year, I had a set plan that…


Growth Is Slow

“Where are you being called to go from here?”, the final prompt of our blog posts, an indication that my time in Syracuse is reaching its end. I see this question and wish I could write the response on a single line, as if filling out a registration form, selecting from a dropdown menu of…


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