Acadia Czeizinger became an AmeriCorps member in August 2023 through an opportunity to serve in the Virginia College Advising Corps. She recalls, “I had just graduated from Hollins University less than a year prior, and I was already feeling restless working part-time at a local bookstore. I wanted to do something different; something that would allow me both serve my community and allow me to gain experience as a young professional.”

At that point, the job market was recovering from the pandemic and Acadia was struggling to find a rewarding position that would allow her to remain within her rural community. She recalls, “I ended up stumbling across a LinkedIn post made by the hiring team at Virginia College Advising Corps stating that there was an open position at Prince Edward County High School, literally right down the street from where I resided at the time.”

Within a week or two of coming across that listing, she had interviewed for and gotten the position. “I remember meeting the people who would end up being my supervisors, and I got this impression that they had been waiting for me just as long as I’d been waiting for them,” recalls Acadia. Their semester had started weeks prior to her onboarding and she had to jump in and start meeting with students almost immediately. They were already almost to the point where applications needed to be turned in and FAFSAs needed to be filled out.

In reflecting on her AmeriCorps service, she says, “The Virginia College Advising Corps has been an invaluable part of my professional development. I know that starting the process of applying to different graduate programs would have been much more overwhelming without the countless skills and tidbits of knowledge that I have gained as an adviser. I continue to relish this opportunity to serve my community by helping this next generation of young people explore postsecondary opportunities they otherwise may not have known about. I value and appreciate deeply the trust that each of my students have shown me when discussing their experiences. If you are a young, freshly-graduated professional looking to gain invaluable service experience, I encourage you to consider the Virginia College Advising Corps.”