City Year Boston Alumni Spotlights will now be featured on the last Friday of the month.
Written by Katie Brush, City Year Boston Development Project Leader serving on the Bain Capital Team.

City Year Boston alumna Kareen Wilkinson (’03-’04/’04-’05) remains an active member of the City Year community and notes the important impact the organization had on her life: “I could view my life as having two very distinct phases, the first being my life before City Year, and the second being my life after City Year – it was that significant.”

How did you become interested in City Year?

Kareen grew up in Seattle where she developed an interest in youth development in high school, during which time she tutored other students and helped run summer parks programs for the city. Kareen went on to study biology at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, and it was during her sophomore year that she became interested in City Year when she saw a group of AmeriCorps corps members and at first wondered if she had fallen behind on a new trend: “I saw some folks in the red jacket and they were young – my age – and to be honest, I thought it was a new fashion. I thought, ‘What is this jacket that I don’t have? What is this brand, ‘City Year,’ that people are wearing around?’”

[Rewind: Last month's Spotlight on Jody Wilhelm of Calling all Crows]

But as soon as she looked City Year up, she immediately recognized it as a community of like-minded idealists as a part of which she could one day see herself serving. So with City Year at the back of her mind, Kareen finished her degree and joined the 2003-2004 Boston corps. She remembers describing her decision to serve in an email to her mother in which she wrote: “I really can’t explain why – I just have a feeling.”

How did you grow while at City Year?

Kareen served her corps year on the Milipore Young Heroes team where she enjoyed working with youth who had a desire to change the world for the better as she led them in social justice workshops, community service, and reflection. During the year, Kareen learned an incredible amount about youth, community, and herself; however, it was really her senior corps member, Jana Rosenbaum, who made the biggest impact on Kareen. As an important mentor, Jana supported Kareen and helped her to develop confidence her own abilities. Consequently, while reaching out to other organizations, asking for in-kind donations, and putting together service events, Kareen was surprised to discover that she was capable of community organizing.

As her first corps year came to a close, Kareen thought to herself, “I just don’t feel like I’m done. These [Young Heroes] are coming back next year, so I guess I’d better come back too!” In the end, it was an easy decision to stay on for a senior corps year. Not only did Kareen feel that she could take what she had learned during her corps year and use it to make the next year even better, but she was also inspired by Jana to play a similar influential role in another corps member’s life.

How has your City Year experience helped you in your current career?

After her senior corps year, Kareen worked as a Young Heroes program manager for another two years before she felt that the program was in such a place that she could leave it in the hands of a group of equally invested individuals who would then be able to take the program and run with it. Kareen then went on to earn her master’s in teaching from Harvard and recently began teaching 7th and 8th grade science in Boston Public Schools. As a teacher, she has the opportunity to share her love of science with students who have not had much exposure to the subject.

When asked how her City Year experience has helped her as a teacher, Kareen simply responded, “It’s in my blood now.” She uses City Year culture in her classroom every day – from readiness checks to call and responses – but most importantly, her time at City Year taught her how to connect with others, particularly middle school youth: “There’s so much that I do that’s rooted in how I thought at City Year…It was at City Year that I got exposed to the idea that [you should] let this person tell you their stories, and then understand what it’s like to walk in their shoes.”

We wish Kareen the best as she embarks upon her career as a teacher and continues to positively impact the lives of Boston’s students!