The Waynesville AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA teams have partnered together with assistance from the Learn and Serve AmeriCorps program to offer military and civilian students of the Waynesville R-VI School District a comprehensive afterschool program. Waynesville School District is located in rural Missouri and encompasses the Fort Leonard Wood Military Post. Over seventy percent of our students are military affiliated. Since Fort Leonard Wood is a training facility, most families are stationed here for no more than two years. Because of this, most of our schools experience a yearly turnover rate of more than fifty percent. The highly transient population of the district creates a unique setting where students have moved from across the globe due to their parents’ military service. In addition to the educational challenges that students face due to frequent relocations, students are also challenged with making new friends, fitting into social groups, and becoming a part of the community.

The AmeriCorps programs have allowed our district to meet the distinct educational needs of military families through direct tutoring during the school day and through three afterschool programs for elementary, middle and high school students. AmeriCorps members provide tutoring and academic support to 1696 students throughout the school day and lead over 400 students in afterschool programs daily, with the majority of students being military dependents. VISTA members serve behind the scenes to determine the current needs of each program, establish clubs, facilitate workshops for both students and parents, and secure funding from various grant sources including Learn and Serve America.

AmeriCorps members serve directly in the afterschool program by conducting clubs and providing specialized tutoring to help military and civilian students stay on course while changing schools multiple times throughout their education. Because of the support from our AmeriCorps volunteers, we have had an extremely successful first year at our newly established high school afterschool site. For the month of February there were 250 students who received afterschool tutoring at the high school alone, with fifty percent of those being military dependents. In addition to tutoring, high school students were also able to participate in activities including Math Honors, JROTC, FCCLA, Interact Service-Learning Club, Step Team, Anime Club, Guitar Club, Spanish Club, Tiger EPA, CrossFit, Woodworking, Ceramics, Gymnastics, and Glee Club. Long-term suspended students now have the option of attending Evening Tiger Campus afterschool alternative program for credit recovery to allow them to remain on track for graduation despite not being in school.

During the summer, students continue to receive individualized assistance through the summer school program. Forty VISTA Summer Associates partner with our yearlong AmeriCorps members to offer tutoring during school and to provide unique educational enrichment opportunities afterschool including camping, interactive science experiments, museum trips, and service-learning projects.

Without the dedication of our forty-six AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers this year, we would be unable to provide the military families of the Waynesville School District the added support and enrichment programs that allow students and families to easily transition into our schools and community.