Kiernan Patenaude, 2010
Plattsburgh, New York
City Year Seattle

“City Year has been an incredible learning experience.  The connections I have made with the students I work with and the other corps members have already taught me so much about myself.  I have found that the best part of my day is giving out high-fives to students who are demonstrating respectful behavior or who are working hard on their classroom exercises.  The pride in their eyes when receiving that high-five brings me joy everyday and reminds me of why I am here and how I am making an impact.”   

Why did you join City Year?

I joined City Year because of my passion toinstill confidence and self-esteem in youth at a young age to give them themotivation to set goals and succeed in the future.  I was inspired to participate in City Year through my involvement in the Bentley University Service-Learning Center.  While attending Bentley, I project managed a variety of children programs through the Service-Learning Center and was greatly impacted by the difference I was able to make in many children’s lives. Giving a child a little extra attention can boost their self-esteem to a degree that will instill in them an “I can succeed” mentality.  This type of encouragement in their academics and extracurricular activities is so crucial to their success in the future because it helps them build confidence in their abilities.  When I discovered City Year, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to be a positive mentor and tutor that can continue making this lasting impact in children’s lives.  While participating in Service-Learning I always wished that I could be in the schools more consistently because consistency helps to make a lasting difference.  City Year provides the consistent mentoring and tutoring that children need in the classroom to motivate them to work hard and stay dedicated to success.

What do you hope to achieve with your service? Any personal goals?

I want to instill higher self-esteem in the students I work with so they can be confident individuals upon entering middle school, high school, and higher education.

I hope to see a positive change in the attitudes of the students I work with.  I want them to feel like they can accomplish anything because that is how a child should feel; there should be no limits to their dreams and imaginations.

I would like to further develop myself as a leader, tutor, and mentor throughout my City Year experience.  I hope to improve my professionalism and management skills through trainings, interactions with administrators, teachers, and staff at my school, and through attending professional City Year events.

Experience in your City Year School:

I have greatly enjoyed my experience serving at Roxhill Elementary.  It is a very loving and welcoming school that is deeply concerned with respect, responsibility, and focusing on the individual learner.  It is the Seattle Corps’s first year serving at Roxhill and the school has welcomed us with gracious arms. They have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome and supported.  Roxhill’s principal is a passionate supporter of City Year; she was ecstatic when she found out that we would be joining her school community this year. We are so grateful to have the pleasure of working with her and her staff.  The students have been so open to us from learning in the classroom to playing with them at recess.  I have only been working with these students for about a week and I already know it is going to be very difficult leaving at the end of this year. 

Exploration or travel experience in Seattle.

I absolutely love Seattle and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city on the weekends; there is still so much to see.  So far I have kayaked on Lake Union right in front of the skyline, visited different markets around the city, explored Pike’s Place and some of the downtown area, explored the University District, visited Lake Washington, and attended a music festival called Bumbershoot that was right under the famous needle in Seattle Center.  The city has breath-taking views on a clear day of Mount Rainier and the surrounding mountains and waterways. I look forward to exploring more of what the city has to offer especially in outdoor recreation.

Experience with other City Year Corps Members.

I have found it very easy to connect with the other corps members.  We all became close fast and seem to have a similar mentality that we want to make the most of this experience together.  I live in a house with 13 other corps members and it has been great getting to know them.  It is so interesting getting to know other students from different backgrounds.  None of us knew each other 6 weeks ago and after the first week it already felt like a lifetime.  The corps members are motivated and excited civically engaged leaders that I know will continue on after City Year leading successful careers and advocating for positive social change.

Experience with Leadership Development Days.

On Leadership Development Days it is great to connect with the whole corps again because we all have different experiences throughout the week.  Sharing and reflecting on these experiences through these meetings allows us to create a well-rounded perspective of our work and our community impact.  Our staff has asked for our feedback on topics we would like further development in which I think is an effective way of planning the leadership development days.  I greatly appreciate that the staff asks what our leadership development needs are because it truly helps make these development days applicable to what we truly want to work on as leaders.

Experience/process in securing housing for the year.

My experience securing housing for the year was pretty positive because I was lucky enough to be contacted by a few other corps members early on throughout the year and we worked together to find housing that would work best for us.  We used different websites and were proactive about talking to last year’s corps members to get their advice and feedback about housing.  It was through these connections that we were able to secure affordable housing together in a safe neighborhood. So far I have been satisfied with my housing.  I get along well with my roommates, I live in a great neighborhood, and I have all the furnishings I need.  The only negative side to my housing experience is that my house is very far from my school because we were placed in our schools after we had already secured housing.  It would have been convenient to know where we would be working ahead of time in order to look for housing nearby. However, I realize that it is difficult to place corps members in their schools that early in the process because it would have had to have been while the previous corps year and school year were still in progress.  Overall, it is not that much of an inconvenience because I love the area that I live in and feel that it is worth the long commute in the mornings.