Jack Looking Back: Coming to City Year

By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

The Burke Team's last picture (photo by Jack Korpob)

In the last 10 months, I have gained so much more than I ever thought I would have gained from this City Year Boston experience. Stepping into a corps member role – one that is dependent on being part of team rather than simply leading a team – was different from the last few years of my life. In my selection interview for City Year, I remember my interviewer both praising and warning me of the level of leadership experience I would bring to the corps if accepted. When I confirmed my position, I knew that I would be on a road to using my existing skills in a new experience, but I did not know how this year would play out in reality. Looking back at the last 10 months, I can see the path I already traveled toward becoming an idealist, and I see the path extending out toward becoming an active citizen. I can say that this year was one that was challenging, physically and emotionally exhausting and completely new. It was full of great memories, heartfelt moments, and days with high school students who I have gained the respect of and have developed true “friend-tor” relationships with.

The Burke Team at the canoe races during BTR (photo by Yaa Acheampong)

When I step back and attempt a reflection on my City Year experience, I first think of the identity formation of my team. I think of the excitement and anxiety of being the first high school team in City Year Boston. I remember the end of Basic Training Retreat (BTR), when Charlie Rose led the closing and asked us to hold onto our memories from the retreat and use them to take us through the year. I still remember the moment my team stepped into our canoe for the canoe races, and I remember us – not for beating the Orchard Gardens Team – but for being so in tune with each other and for trusting one another’s leadership. It was the first time we had to listen to each other and work as a team to accomplish a goal. Every major success of our team after that moment can be linked to that early team success of communication and leadership experience.

Throughout this year, our team has been at the forefront of innovation. We had to create a lot of things from scratch, build a relationship with the Jeremiah E. Burke High School administration and staff, and cultivate real tutor and mentor relationships with a new group of students who had never seen City Year before. It goes without saying that the beginning of the service year for our team was rough.

The turnaround status of the Burke was announced late in the game and our school did not necessarily know how our City Year team could integrate into the school community. Through the resilience and perseverance of our team, we were able to do everything we needed to do to ensure our service was high quality and that we exceeded expectations. Now, the teachers are glad to have us in their classrooms, the students see us as resources, and administrators have said that they do not know how they would have done all that they have done without our support in the school this year.