Thanks to his lifelong commitment to service,
Virginia AmeriCorps member Chris Sandquist is a recipient of the
Harris Wofford Joint Service Award, honoring individuals who have successfully completed both a full-time service term or its equivalent in AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps.
Chris grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia, before moving to Maine for college and then spending two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, North Africa, where he taught English as a Foreign Language to businesspeople and college students at the Tunisian National Institute of Modern Languages. He recalls, “Joining the Peace Corps after college was a rite of passage: I needed to find some way to be of service after 16 years of being in school. The experience taught me that I could accomplish just about anything I set my mind to.”
Returning from the Peace Corps, Chris began a 39-year career in insurance, working in a variety of capacities and locations throughout his career. Now in retirement, Chris is an active community volunteer in Nelson County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife. Still, he found himself looking for more ways to give back.
“After so many years of having received so much from so many in my profession, I knew it was time to give back. Added to that, I’m just not someone who can sit still (or wander around a golf course) and count that as living. I tried retiring: it wasn’t for me. I still wanted to give back to society through service, and I still wanted to prove to myself that I could face new challenges and succeed,” he reflects. “AmeriCorps has given me the chance to do both.”
In 2022, Chris decided to join AmeriCorps, accepting an offer from the
International Rescue Committee (IRC) to serve as a Job Training AmeriCorps member, providing training and educational services to improve their refugee clients’ capacity to obtain and retain employment and maintain economic self-sufficiency. He is completing a second term at the IRC, saying, “I felt like I still had a lot to learn and to contribute to the lives and livelihoods of our clients.”
In considering which aspects of his service have had the most impact or been the most surprising, Chris said, “The deep gratitude in the eyes and voices of my clients gives notice that a bond of trust has been forged between them and me: we are strangers no more.” He also formed strong bonds with his colleagues at the IRC, many of whom were digital natives and generously offered their time and talents to help Chris learn unfamiliar software platforms.
As Chris considers what comes next in his life journey, he offers this advice for anyone considering AmeriCorps or other forms of service: “Whether it’s a gap year during college or between college and ‘something else;’ whether it’s a sabbatical pause from the rat race; whether it’s a transition from one career to another; or whether, like for me, it’s a way to find fulfillment, meaning and significance in life-after-business, childrearing and gaining: AmeriCorps is surprisingly adept at providing the platform for—and answers to—the questions life poses to us at each and any of these moments.”
