As I sat in the audience watching my younger brother graduate from his year of service with City Year, I thought back to my own City Year graduation last year. As a proud, weird Austinite and Texan, I never imagined my year of service would bring me to the Golden State of California, let alone the Bay Area. I never imagined that spending a year in a middle school in east San Jose would land me in an office at Microsoft Silicon Valley or that what I learned as a corps member would push me towards continued service as a citizen leader, in this case as Philanthropy and Civic Engagement Coordinator at Microsoft.
Ainsley Meyer, a recent City Year graduate, articulated the transformative power of City Year incredibly well. It’s impossible to simply finish a year of service at City Year, pat yourself on the back, and then add another bullet to your resume. Service transformed me, deeply. It helped me to pull out the good in people, realize that expectations can be broken (for better or worse), and how important it is to love and care for yourself as much as you work to love and care for others.
Graduation night with Jessica Weare of Microsoft and Toni Burke of City Year
I couldn’t be more proud of my brother for choosing to dedicate a year to serve east San Jose, and I hope that he’ll continue to be a citizen leader in some capacity. I now work to embody all of the values City Year instilled in me during my two years of service: empathy, social justice for all, Ubuntu (the concept that your humanity is tied to my humanity), and service to a cause greater than self. I feel so much honor and pride to be a part of my current Microsoft team, and to support Microsoft’s mission of supporting non-profit organizations who do so much for others.
Humbly onwards,
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To learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to youth and education, visit our YouthSpark Hub or follow us on twitter at @msftcitizenship.
