Photo courtesy of City Year DC
Isabel Huston graduated from Wesleyan University in 2010. She spent her first two years out of college serving with City Year Washington, DC, as a tutor and mentor in DC Public Schools. She will start her graduate study in Public Policy at George Washington University this fall.
Serving as a City Year Corps Member
“Even the worst of what men can do to each other didn’t dampen Corrigan’s beliefs. He might have been naïve, but he didn’t care; he said he’d rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end up another cynic.” —Collum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (21)
My favorite book is a novel called Let the Great World Spin, due in large part to a character named Corrigan. Corrigan is an Irish “missionary” who moves into the projects in New York City to serve its residents and live with a band of drug-addicted prostitutes. Despite the pervading darkness of the neighborhood and the fallibility of its residents, Corrigan is a constant purveyor of love, patience, and hope for a better world. He withholds judgment of the people around him and opens his heart and mind to all of life’s experiences.
The people surrounding Corrigan don’t understand him, or why he does what he does. Most call him naïve in a negative way; thinking he cannot see the complexity of the problems he faces head on. I choose to look at Corrigan’s commitment differently. He is a stubborn idealist who refuses to let negativity defeat him. I choose to read Corrigan’s character this way because I, too, believe without reservation in the possibility of a better world—and not everyone I know understands or supports that belief.
For the past two years I have worked for an organization that capitalizes on the optimism and energy that young idealists bring to the table. City Year is a national education-focused nonprofit that places 17 to 24-year-olds in inner city schools to act as tutors and mentors to struggling students.
My two terms of service have been about balancing the rewards with the frustrations, about keeping positive in the face of challenges that will not be rectified overnight.
Working with students who are behind and not receiving the support they need is hard. And so you learn to hold onto little moments: seeing a student who couldn’t identify letter sounds weeks ago reading on her own, listening to a student describe what it means to him to be a leader, seeing a student’s behavior change over time, or even a simple hug and a smile. These moments fortify your efforts and make it feel like what you are doing makes a difference.
But in the grand scheme of things this difference can be hard to spot. When you hear gunshots from the steps of school at night or learn that a student of yours has been homeless for weeks, the energy you spend at school can lose its importance.
At City Year, corps members buy into a Culture of Idealism to battle against cynicism and the seriousness of the problems we confront. Corps members pledge to “serve with an open heart and an open mind” and learn the value of Ubuntu, an African proverb meaning “I am a person through all people; my humanity is tied to yours.” Over and over, it was through this culture—and the idealism of my fellow corps members—that I found my inspiration to continue serving.
It is by this collective faith in our humanity and stubborn insistence on giving love and light in the face of darkness that City Year succeeds best at its mission. In two years the organization has given me so much, most importantly the perspective to realize that it takes a bit of naiveté to succeed in making the world a better place.
So, to those who feel like me, I offer this advice: be a Corrigan. Follow your heart. Imagine anything. Believe in everything. Use your innocence, hope, wonder, and faith to its best advantage. And seek out others like you. With a collective effort we can make the world a better place.