On top of Red Mountain, near Butte, MT
What is Americorps? My second attempt at putting off that esteemed "real job" that we are supposed to have started looking for after graduation.. but really, Americorps is a national service program... much like the peacecorps but we serve domestically. I am, as of September 15th, a member of Americorps St. Louis Emergency Response Team. In a nut shell.. I am going to be responding to both national and local disasters, including a lot of wild land fires in MO and the surrounding states, as well as conservation projects that we are commissioned for. http://www.americorps-stl.org
The things I have experienced and learned in just the past two months of the program have opened my eyes immensely are and already know that this year is going to have a huge impact on my life.

Montana is definitely big sky country
After my week full of interviews, 3 job offers and numerous visits to the hospital to visit my sister and her new daughter I was taken back when I got offered a position that was starting the following day and a week later I would be sent to Montana for a month for training. I had to get my life in order in less than a week to spend a month of camping in a state I had never been to with 25 strangers doing things that I never could have imagined, like becoming chainsaw certified... Having the unknown never scare me from doing anything, I jumped at the chance to join ERT. I had been smiling like an idiot since the initial interview so it seemed like another opportunity that I couldn't pass up.

ERT Crew
Montana was crazy beautiful and can't wait until we get back there next summer. Actual stories and more pictures to come.