August 26th, 2011

Thanks for a Great Year!


Through its partnership with Minnesota Alliance with Youth, ACES utilizes AmeriCorps Promise Fellows each year. For the 2010-11 school year, Emily Vogel and Sunni Monson served in that role for ACES. Emily is returning for 2011-12, while Sunni wrapped-up her tenure in August 2011. Here is her reflection on her year of service.


While it sounds like such a cliché, it is truly hard to believe that my year of service with ACES has come to a close. I feel bittersweet – thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of something much bigger than I had anticipated, sad to not be returning for 2011-12, and hopeful about the continued expansion of ACES over the upcoming years.

I learned a lot over the course of the year, from how to communicate my needs more effectively, to just how important education truly is. I think that most of us probably admire and respect our teachers, but witnessing their tireless work in the schools every day last year floored me. I don’t think that admiration and respect cuts it; what teachers do, and what my ACES colleagues do every day, is the real work founding the future equity of our country – the front-line fight for a future for every child.

The fact that the opportunity to flourish in supportive school environments is a fight at all – rather than an unimpeded right – will follow me far beyond ACES, illuminated by the faces of all the amazing students I got to know this year. In closing, I thank you, readers and education advocates, for your support and wish you well in our mutual journeys for the continued success of our ACES students. Thank you for everything you do.