MAHONING VALLEY Taking a timeout to help humanity

The Mooney graduate is serving a 10-month stay in the AmeriCorps program.
By ROB MEYER
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Pencils and classrooms were not cutting it for Laura Bullis.
So she moved on -- to garages and sledgehammers.
Bullis, a resident of Canfield and a 2001 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, interrupted her college career at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to join the National Civilian Community Corps, a branch of the AmeriCorps program.
"When I was at college, I thought I knew what I wanted to do," Bullis said. "But I didn't. I wanted to do more. You join this to serve other people. It's never the same routine, and it's fun."
She is stationed in San Antonio and is living in a one-room house along with her team of nine others.
The small personal space and lack of privacy is one of the hardest things about the program, Bullis said.
"[The house] is more like a glorified garage then anything," Bullis said. "You eat, sleep, work and breathe with these people. The only time you get to yourself is when you take a shower, but you don't want to be in there too long because you don't want the water cold for the next person."
As far as the sledgehammer goes, Bullis was required to use one that weighed 90 pounds to break up blocks of concrete while stationed in Itasaca, Texas, last month.
"Physically, that was the hardest thing I have had to do," she said. "That thing was so heavy."
The NCCC is a national service program created to improve the environment, enhance education, increase public safety, address unmet human needs and assist with disaster relief.
How this began
Bullis is in the middle of her 10-month stay in the program, as she enrolled in January and will finish in November.
"I was on spring break during my freshman year of college, and me and about 45 other friends went down to Georgia to participate in the Habitat for Humanity," Bullis said. "Some of the people there worked in AmeriCorps, so I talked to them. I applied and got in."
Bullis is assigned to the Central Region campus in Denver, which is one of five NCCC campuses. While in San Antonio, she will be working with the Habitat for Humanity for the next two weeks.
Her mother, Terry Bullis, is pleased with her daughter's decision to join AmeriCorps. She believes it has broadened Laura's perspective on all aspects of life.
"Her acceptance of people has greatly improved," Terry said. "She has become a much more compassionate person. I knew this is something she truly wanted to do."
After arriving in Denver on Jan. 8, Laura Bullis began a five-week training session called CTI (Core Member Training Institution).
Bullis and her fellow trainees were trained with the help of the Red Cross in various disaster relief and help/assistance exercises.
After the training, Bullis and the nine other members of her team were transferred to San Antonio, where they worked at a Presbyterian Children's home.
Bullis' team was thenmoved to Indianapolis, where they assisted at Title I schools in the area.
Schools designated as Title I are ones that are low funded and populated by students who live below poverty levels.
She was assigned to a fourth-grade class in one of these schools.
"When I had to leave, the students in her class made me a card and thanked me," Bullis said. "It was great, but it made me realize that I could never be a teacher."
Being away from friends and family is also not easy for Bullis. Though she has moved throughout her life, she does have many friends in the Youngstown area that she misses.
"I went away to school for a year and a half and only came home during Christmas," Bullis said. "But now, during the summer, my friends are home and it's hard not being around them."
Having her daughter so far away from home is also not easy for Terry Bullis. But she knows the experience will benefit Laura in many ways.
"This will be a growing up experience for her," Terry said. "We are very excited for her, but we miss her dearly."
Eligibility
To become a member of AmeriCorps, an applicant must be age 18-24 and able to complete 1,700 hours of community service during the 10 months. In exchange for their service, members receive $4,725 to help pay for college or to pay back student loans.
There are more than 50,000 members serving in the NCCC, says the AmeriCorps' official Web site at www.americorps.org.