A teacher of mine used to say that the why question is very important because it tells you a lot about yourself. June is a busy month at Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) as staff continue to recruit and prepare for the end of one cohort’s year and beginning of another cohort’s year in a few short months. It’s also a busy season for outgoing Volunteers as they think about finishing up their year and what comes next. Incoming Volunteers are busy with summer activities and for many, but not all, thinking about life after graduation. But, the question of why folks consider doing a serviceRead More →

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Often when folks think of a “year of service”, the train of thought tends to highlight direct service opportunities, or work that is seen as community service: after-school tutoring, serving in a soup kitchen, building a house, cleaning up a stream, etc. However, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll build a house during your year with LVC. Like many service year programs, LVC provides a mixture of both direct and indirect service positions – our direct service positions leaning towards relationship building &  case management, and indirect service positions typically following a capacity building role: communications work, development work, policy building & advocacy work, etc. Sometimes, a positionRead More →

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Perhaps one of the biggest themes of the last year and a half is that of women empowerment – from the Women’s March in January 2017 to the “Time’s Up” action at the Golden Globes – women across the U.S. are speaking up and acting out. One of the most popular sayings that has spread far and wide is “Empowered women empower women” – and there is no saying that would better fit Chicago Volunteer Callie Rodenbiker. Callie is a Volunteer this year serving at the Chicago nonprofit Girls in the Game. Girls in the Game is a nonprofit that provides sports, health, and leadershipRead More →

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Ryan with his Campus Minister and fellow Peer Minsters, at Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park Originally from a small town in central Wisconsin, Ryan Eisenman is an LVC17 Volunteer this year serving at Lutheran World Relief in Baltimore, MD. Lutheran World Relief is a nonprofit organization that helps families in the world’s poorest communities build the resilience they need to thrive, working across 32 different countries. Ryan is serving this year as a Program Assistant for Communication Strategies & Services, supporting the team responsible for LWR’s major external communications. As a program assistant, Ryan might be doing many different things, like editing reports and grantRead More →

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“One of the most important concepts… to be an engaged participant in any human process… is the capacity to stand and act in the tragic gap. By the tragic gap I mean the gap between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible — not because we wish it were so, but because we’ve seen it with our own eyes.” —Parker J. Palmer, Theologian Friends, As members of the LVC community, we have accepted Parker Palmer’s invitation to stand and act in the tragic gap: to seek justice even at times when your dreams seem out of reach. Whether we’re pursuing justice professionally,Read More →

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