Meet Lindsay
My name is Lindsay Caldwell and I am the La Crosse area YES AmeriCorps member serving at the resource center for the 2007-08 service term. I am a December 2005 graduate of Viterbo University where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Individualized Learning with concentrations in sociology and education. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I spent a lot of time working in supported living environments where I helped people with disabilities gain skills to live more independently. I really enjoyed the experience but this past spring I found that such work no longer brought me joy. I was working full time in food service over the summer when the idea of applying to join AmeriCorps crossed my mind for about the millionth time. I think the planets were aligned just right at this point or something because this time I actually completed the application process and was offered a full time position.
Going into it I was nervous and not quite sure just what I had gotten myself into. I have enjoyed my first month of service and honestly think the decision was so easy this time because this is what I am supposed to be doing and when I am supposed to be doing it. Once I met my team mates and got to know more about them and this thing they call AmeriCorps, the hardest part of the first week was making the decision of where I would like to be placed. After going through what felt like 5,000 interviews in one afternoon we had to narrow our choices down to three we would most like to serve. It’s not as easy as you would think!
I knew from the first time I looked at the available site placements that I was very interested in the 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center. After meeting with Leslie and Ann, I knew that was my first choice. I was drawn to the center because going into this service term I knew I wanted to try something different. During my lengthy post secondary education, I had been very active in campus organizations centering on issues of orientation, gender identity, expression and other related issues. Since I graduated, however, finding opportunities to stay involved in this arena had been very difficult. So here I am, at your service, for the next ten months or so. I bring with me a lot of ideas for improving the center, a variety of experiences; a goofy, sarcastic sense of humor, curiosity about everything as well as a desire to learn and make a difference.
I will be at the center pretty much anytime its open so come see me and if I’m not there, leave a message and I will get back to you. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to work with and learn from you.