Meet Yvonne Nieves, Campus Compact’s Senior Program Manager for the College Renaissance Corps (CRCorps) program. Yvonne has a background in nonprofit and volunteer services management, national service, and communications, and has worked at nonprofits in Chicago, as well as at an international charitable organization focused on supporting low-income communities throughout rural India. She also spent four and a half years as an AmeriCorps Program Director for Instituto del Progreso Latino in Chicago, Illinois. Yvonne was named the AmeriCorps Program Director of the Year in 2015 by UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza) for her work in recruiting, training, and engaging hundreds of volunteers. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, reading, and meditating.
In her role as the Senior Program Manager for CRCorps, she is responsible for capacity building, developing recruitment, training, and retainment strategies, and working closely with the CRCorps AmeriCorps members, coordinators, and supervisors to build out the program. Yvonne will be using her experience as an AmeriCorps Program Director, and the network she built in that position to build relationships with community stakeholders and community colleges throughout the country.
When asked what she was most excited about her work with CRCorps, Yvonne said it was “giving back to the economy and putting community colleges on the map.”
“The community college student population may be different from your typical four-year university student,” Yvonne continued. “The individuals that we’ll be engaging with at the community college level might include single moms, returning adult students, and may vary in age; all individuals who can bring a unique set of skills and interests to the job market. The thing that I’m most excited and passionate about is providing people with the opportunity to enter high demand industries and having the same opportunities as their peers in four-year universities.”
In particular, she aims to use social media and digital media marketing to feature the voices of AmeriCorps members throughout their service year. She wants people to see CRCorps as a “model for national service and civic engagement” and an example for how to engage community college students in the workforce.
Yvonne is enthusiastic about working in civic and community engagement, and looks forward to bringing diverse voices and experiences to the field. “Serving the College Renaissance Corps at Campus Compact is an opportunity for me to exercise my own personal civic duty. I love national service and believe in helping others, and I look forward to watching the field of national service grow. I am excited to not just be an observer of this positive change but be an active participant in it.”
Learn more about CRCorps and Yvonne’s work here.