In her time as an early educator, Mackenzie Vuotto began to see the pivotal impact that service and volunteerism can have on young people and families. “An important part of educating young children is informing them about who is in their community, and how their ‘community heroes’ (like firefighters, doctors, or mail deliverers) help them every day,” says Mackenzie. “I realized it was also important to educate children, from a young age, about ways they can help others so we had multiple food and supplies drives in my preschool classroom throughout the year!”

Mackenzie is now serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Serve Virginia, where she supports the implementation of the Virginia Community Engagement Index. She enjoys the opportunity to share insights from the study with people across the Commonwealth and is excited to see the data being used to improve the civic engagement ecosystem. She says, “I’m really proud of the work I’ve done to support this project so far, and excited to continue supporting it through the rest of my VISTA year.”

As a VISTA, Mackenzie recently had the opportunity to give a presentation at William and Mary’s Active Citizens Conference. “I was amazed by the ideas and conversations being shared in every session and incredibly impressed by the college students in attendance: their passion for volunteering, voting, policy change, and all those good things was really uplifting,” says Mackenzie. “Young people are the future, and it was a truly memorable experience to be in conversation about civic engagement with such a passionate group.”

When considering her own future, Mackenzie is interested in continuing to build a career that’s focused on service. “I’ve always been very passionate about teaching and creating healthy environments for children,” she reflects. “My VISTA term has opened my eyes to the many ways there are to advocate and serve tiny people (and their families) without being in a classroom!”