Living for Service
William at an NDMV retreat during his service year.
When William found NDMV, he was searching for a direction that felt meaningful. As an aspiring middle and high school teacher currently pursuing his master's degree at Southern New Hampshire University, he felt he needed more than coursework before stepping into his own classroom.
"I realized I was a bit stagnant in life," he said. "I felt like I wasn't making any progress. NDMV gave me a chance to develop life skills, independence, and gain relevant experience."
"I thought the whole path had fallen through," he remembered. "Then Lisa (NDMV’s Recruitment Coordinator) emailed me out of the blue. I interviewed [for a position with NDMV], and suddenly everything opened back up. It felt like a calling."
Despite the loss of AmeriCorps funding, NDMV decided to move forward with a service program that looked a little different. William served with NDMV at East Boston Central Catholic School, where he supervised lunch and the after-school program while helping fourth-grade students with math. On paper, his role seemed small. In reality, it became something much more meaningful.
"You're there [at the school] every day, and you become a role model," he said. "The kids wanted to tell me about their pets, their vacations, their lives. I don't think children share those things with just anyone."
Serving at the school also reshaped the way William viewed education. In his graduate classes, he'd often heard that working with parents could be one of the greatest challenges teachers face. Instead, he found himself serving alongside parents who volunteered during lunch, welcoming him into a close-knit community where teachers, families, and volunteers worked together to support students.
He also discovered that some of the most meaningful moments happened outside of his job description. He took steps outside his comfort zone and chaperoned a Halloween party in a T-Rex costume, attended the Christmas musical, and simply showed up each day for his students, becoming someone they could count on.
Today, William believes his service year taught him something that will stay with him long after graduation.
"It's easy to focus only on yourself, but community is worth more than the individual people who make it up," he reflected. "An individual thread can be broken, but woven together, it's strong. When you make someone else's community your own, you gain understanding, empathy, and purpose. That's what this year gave me."
For William, service wasn't simply preparation for a teaching career—it was an invitation into a community that changed the way he sees the world.
“From where I'm standing right now, it's hard to see five years from now, once I'm teaching, who knows what I'll be doing; maybe I'll be teaching somewhere in a different part of the country…[Serving with NDMV] opened up my mind to living for service.”
