Member Spotlight: Payton Thomas, AmeriCorps Instructional Support Team Member

Meet Payton Thomas, currently serving at Bright Beginnings Pre-School, in the AmeriCorps Instructional Support Team.

1. What motivated you to join AmeriCorps? I was motivated to join the AmeriCorps Instructional Support Team by my mom and brother. Both did this program before me; both now have good jobs. I think that this program has a lot to do with that.

2. What would you like to get out of this service opportunity? What I would like to get out of this program is being a mentor or someone the kids would want to be like one day.

3. What will your service focus on for the 2019-2020 program year? I will be providing direct support to economically disadvantaged children in a Pre-K program to develop school readiness skills in terms of social and/or emotional development, literacy skills in one or more domains: phonological awareness, book knowledge. Also, to demonstrate gains in school readiness in terms of numeracy (math) skills. Each domain of math (numeracy) skills development has a set of specific, measurable indicators.

4. What are your plans after AmeriCorps? My original plan was to finish college with my degree in criminal justice. I am now leaning more so towards pursuing a degree in education to become a teacher.

Thank you for your service, Payton!