Video By: Kenzley Defler, VISTA Leader 2020-2021

It is amazing what Ashton can accomplish in just 18 months! Before Ashton started, I had serious concerns about the VISTA program. The City had just taken over the sponsorship and at the same time AmeriCorps was going through a significant restructuring.  Because the sponsorship had changed, we had to recruit for all 11 full year VISTA positions and the 18 Summer Associate positions. The Summer Associate recruitment began about a week after Ashton started as the VISTA Leader and our recruitment period was only two weeks long. To make matters even more challenging, our local program didn’t have a website or dedicated social media presence yet. Within a few weeks of accepting the VISTA Leader position, Ashton created the AmeriCorps VISTA of Fairbanks website and social media pages, established our local VISTA office, and recruited for 14 of the 18 Summer Associate positions. After those first couple weeks, I no longer worried about our VISTA program.
 
Ashton continued to be impressive throughout her term and has many accomplishments, but to me the biggest impact I saw was from her leadership skills. Ashton led 35 VISTA Members during her time as the VISTA Leader. She was fiercely protective of the VISTAs and the VISTA program. She genuinely cared for the VISTAs and they respected her more for it. She served as a mentor and guided the VISTAs in their projects. She pushed them to achieve more than they thought possible for both their projects and themselves. Sometimes her influence was subtle, like passing along a resource or making a suggestion, but if the VISTA needed more direct guidance Ashton didn’t shy away from it. She taught every VISTA to advocate for themselves and their projects. Ashton helped many VISTAs conquer their fear of public speaking. I can’t even begin to count the number of times Ashton and the VISTAs were on the radio, TV or front page of the paper promoting VISTA projects.
 
Ashton is equally awesome away from work. She told me early in her term she wanted to continue to work with Non Profits, but that she wanted to live in Hawaii. This wasn’t just some dream to Ashton. She started making solid plans to accomplish her personal goal several months ago. She explored every avenue she thought that she might be interested in. At one point she was looking into forest ranger jobs as a next step. For one of the particular forest ranger jobs she looked into she had to be able to operate a four wheeler and be proficient with a handgun. At the time Ashton hadn’t had much experience with either, but she picked up both quickly. Within one afternoon she was comfortably riding four wheelers and a dirt bike on some hilly trails in the woods. Ashton quickly discovered she was a natural with a pistol. She is a safe and skilled shooter that truly enjoys the sport. It’s not important that she is a quick learner, although she is. What is important about Ashton is she is fearless, fair, motivated, and open minded. It has been a real privilege to get to know Ashton and I’m excited to see what her future holds.” 

- Mike Sanders, VISTA Program Director 

Zak wrapped up her service year on September 1, 2020. She ​served at Fairbanks North Star Borough Library as their Library Program Specialist. In her role, she created programs and resources for the community like the GED Scholarship and Library-Con for teenagers. In addition, she creatively reminded the community of the many programs already offered at the library and by other organizations they partnered with. You may remember her from her funny and literacy centered videos she created and launched on Facebook for your laughs and information. Zak will continue to live in Fairbanks for the next two years attending UAF and working as an amateur videographer. Her long term goal is to attend medical school and eventually live and work abroad.

From the moment Zak arrived, I could tell we were very lucky to have her here. Rarely do you meet someone with such imagination and creativity combined with skill. Using her talents to encourage literacy and library use she began a very successful run of highlighting library resources to members of our community. I have no doubt she made a difference in the lives of very many people. Zak fit right into our crew and became a member of the library family and will be missed. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors!"
​
- Melissa Harter, director of FNSB libraries

It has been my privilege to work with Brynn for the last year. She had obstacles to overcome and did overcome them. In telling her story, she told us that she would no longer let anyone write her story for her, she would write her own story. In many ways working with us in setting up a new program, she has not only charted her own way but helped us write the story of the Reentry Coalition in Fairbanks. Her authenticity and ability to share her life with us has made us more trauma-informed and sensitive to the re-entrants that we serve.

In October last year, we had the first Reentry Simulation with the US Department of Justice United States Attorney’s Office with the help of the Anchorage Reentry Coalition. Brynn was a participant in the first simulation. When we planned our second one with a UAF Social Work student, we found we would need our own materials. Brynn worked tirelessly to make the participant materials, phony money and help station materials used in creating the Reentry Simulation. In March, we held our second simulation at UAF with Justice and Social Work students. These materials are something that will be used over and over again in the days to come.
 
Our offices closed temporarily in March and life as we know it ended as a co-worker was exposed and possibly had COVID19. All groups, events and face-to-face halted due to COVID19 precautions. Our Reentry Coalition was presented with an emergency situation as the Warming Center was not able to serve all the homeless individuals coming for services. Brynn helped open a second Warming Center at the JP Jones Center with our Encampment Outreach program and staff from various IACNLV programs and volunteers from the community. Brynn was the friendly face at the door as we served over 126 different homeless individuals for two months. 
 
These are two unexpected highlights of the past year that Brynn was an integral part of making happen. She has been flexible, moved work stations at least 5 times, been challenged in ways that show her determined heart. All of us are better for the many ways she served and interacted with our staff and program participants. We are grateful for her year of service and look forward to her continuing to work with our agency."

- Linda Setterberg: Fairbanks Reentry Coalition Coordinator ​