Meet the VISTA Team!

Becca Colvin is a VISTA serving with the Cooperative Extension in Pinal County. Having grown up in an Air Force family, she has had the chance to live in many different parts of the U.S., from Oklahoma and New Jersey, to Nevada and Washington. Becca attended Washington State University and graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2012. She hopes to go back to school to get a Masters degree in counseling to work as a school counselor.
Having always enjoyed working with kids of any age, Becca spent time in high school and college volunteering with various youth development programs. She has worked as a sports coach, camp counselor, and with different school and community programs including Parks and Recreation.
Becca will be spending her service year working with Pinal County 4-H youth development programs. Of the many programs and projects that Pinal County 4-H runs, she will be working with Adobe Youth Voices, Launch into Life, and School Gardening projects.
In Adobe Youth Voices high school-aged youth are taught how to take and edit photos and videos as a way to promote a cause that they feel is important.
Launch into Life is a work force preparation program for 9th graders. where all 9th graders get a chance to learn what life may be like beyond school.
The School Gardening projects use a curriculum that meets academic standards for Arizona, providing students a chance to learn and experience first-hand how to grow fruits and vegetables.

Chris Dixon is an Arizona native, born in Tempe and raised in Scottsdale when its population was under 5,000 residents.
He worked for over twenty (20) years in Arizona’s Child Protective Services (CPS) starting as a child care eligibility worker, a contract administrator and then spent 9 years as the Program Manager overseeing 8 offices and over 100 employees. Over the past 10 years, he has served in various capacities with nonprofit organizations and schools in the state. Though his background is primarily in the fields of social work and public administration, he maintains that one of the most rewarding experiences in his life was the year he home-schooled (6th grade) his daughter while the family resided for a year in American Samoa. The experience provided him with the opportunity to nurture his relationship with his daughter and to rediscover himself while immersed in a unique culture on a small isolated island in the middle of the South Pacific. His daughter, Ashley (age 26), is currently enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Arizona and her year of service in AmeriCorps NCCC following graduation from college inspired him to become a VISTA. Chris as been married for 32 years and his interests in history and travel have taken he and his family on many adventures. Through the years, he has been involved in numerous community projects in Central and Southern Arizona and has helped to establish and expand programs in rural communities to assist low-income families, victims of domestic violence and child abuse, and medically under-served populations. He believes that cooperation and collaboration are essential to effective program development and implementation. Chris is excited about his volunteer assignment with UACE-Santa Cruz and is looking forward to his year of service as a VISTA.

  
Phillip Dukes is a new VISTA member serving Cochise County in the 4-H Youth Development Pro-gram. His primary goals for the year center on strengthening youth development programs in youth leadership and community gardening. Specifically, Bisbee High School is slated to partner with Extension to create a sustainable garden, which will incorporate student leadership, entrepreneur-ship, and sustainability education into an integrated youth development program.
Phillip began his service with AmeriCorps in 2011 with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). NCCC is a team based residential service program. Members are assigned to one of five regions across the country for ten months of service, where teams partner with governmental and non-profit organizations for eight week projects to serve the community. After each project is completed the team transitions into a new community in the region to begin their next project.
Prior to joining AmeriCorps Phillip studied anthropology at the University
of Arizona. He integrated his interests in culture and natural systems with minors in range management and sustainability. During his studies and after graduation he worked as a research assistant with Dr. Richard Stoffle in the Bureau of Applied Re-search in Anthropology.
Outside of school Phillip pursues his interest in sustainability with Permaculture, through the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, and enjoys spending time abroad with Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF).


  

 An avid proponent of instilling passion, curiosity, and unwavering empowerment in today’s youth, Nathan Fenoglio has always sought out opportunities to do just that. A former German teacher and summertime LSA (Learn and Serve America) Field Supervisor with the Southwest Conservation Corps, Nathan has found that at his new home—Tucson Village Farm—he is not alone in this pursuit. In fact, “It’s almost like they’re farming these lil’ sprouts to be self-motivated, inquisitive, and courageous!”
Raised in Chatham, Illinois, Nathan spent his child-hood getting lost in cornfields, wading through creeks, sleeping in trees, and having mud wars with his older brothers. After high school, he studied at four different universi-ties in five years, including a year at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Germany, completing a BA in Languages, Literature, and Cultures with a K-12 education certification in German and Music.
For Nathan, it is this enthusiasm for knowledge and self-discovery he aims to make contagious both to youth and adults alike.
Should you ask him now where he would like to be in ten years, his answer might intrigue (or even annoy) you. “I just hope to be happy; and I like to think I’m off to a pretty good start. I find myself surrounded by good people doing good things, I learn something new each and every day, and I feel em-powered to pursue my passions and explore my curiosities until the insatiable be satiated.” Nathan will be pursuing his happiness for the next year at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension’s Tucson Village Farm. He’s pretty happy.

 VISTA Alexandra Haesler  serving with family and early childhood development programs at
the Pinal County Cooperative Extension. Throughout her year of service, Alexandra has been assisting
with the Strengthening Families Program and the Sensory Vision and Hearing program. Her role with the
Strengthening Families Program has been to assist with fundraising of the program, as well as helping
with the organizational aspects, and planning the graduation ceremony at the conclusion of the session
in mid November. After having worked with various programs at the Pinal County Cooperative Extension, Alexandra will be taking her new perspective with her to Phoenix, where she will be completing a second year of Americorps service with the Be a Leader Foundation. Eventually, she would like to go back to school to get her Master’s degree in Public Administration.

 

A pseudo-native to Tucson who has long been passionate about sustainability and helping people help themselves, Amelia Klawon couldn’t be more thrilled to work in her home community over the next year with the Pima County Master Gardeners Program.
Born in Los Angeles, Amelia moved to Tucson, AZ when she was ten years old. Though not relocated by choice, the Sonoran Desert’s beauty has slowly grown on her over the years. She has left the area a couple times to live other places, but has always returned with an in-creased appreciation of the area.
After graduating from the University of Arizona with a BA in Psychology, Amelia has worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations on a range of issues from care-giving to clean energy to sustainable business to building healthy communities.
She loves the out-doors, riding her bike as much as possible, learning as much as she can about gardening and sustainability, and being a reduce-reuse-recycle fanatic. Amelia is excited to work with the Master Gardeners program over the next year to help strengthen and expand the program’s capacity. Her vision for the year is to implement systems that will save the pro-gram’s staff time and collect powerful impact data that can be used to secure funding for a volunteer coordinator.

Christen Navarrete is very excited and passionate about working with her community and ensuring a brighter future for America’s youth. Christen relocated from Phoenix and is working with Operation: Military Kids (OMK). She wanted to work with OMK because she comes from a military family and can offer support to others. Christen is grateful to be given the opportunity to meet and connect with many other passionate people who are all fighting for children and improving military families.
Christen has already participated in a couple events, from High Ropes course, to Robotics, to Vermicomposting. At the High Ropes Course event youth learned about
fitness and team building. Another event she went to was a Vermicomposting Day where Military youth were joined by their parents learning how to grow sunflower seeds, where their food comes. Participants learned how to create their own compost and were given their own worms. Christen has been facilitating the youth in ice-breakers at these events.
Christen appreciates that OMK offers many different activities that help Military families connect and military youth learn life/resilience skills. She hopes to offer much help and care.
Living with her two dogs in a Tucson casita Christen is enjoying her time and transitioning well. Each day is a new experience and offers something different to learn.

VISTA Grover Reitz is serving at Pima County Cooperative Extension's Tucson Village Farm. Grover has traveled the globe, teaching. Whether it was teaching English in a classroom in China, planting cassava with villagers in Gambia or dressing up as Ms. Milky to teach kids about calcium during farm camp. Grover has been teaching. Grover’s love for teaching youth how to grow food stems from his roots which were planted in a small Kansas town. When he was a kid he grew tomatoes on his family’s large garden. At age 8, he set up his own tomato stand selling the red beauties for $.05 a piece. After elementary and high school in Salina, KS, Grover continued his education at Kansas State University. He studied and has earned degrees in both Life Science and Sociology. It was during the summers that Grover travelled to China to teach English. He taught 2 summers in China one in Fuzhou and one in Hong Kong. After college, Grover worked for K-State as an ecological research assistant. After hanging up his neutron probe, Grover applied and was accepted into the Peace Corps. As a Peace Corps Volunteer his assignment took him to West Africa where he designed and developed community gardens. Once he returned Stateside, his love of growing food, hard work and willingness to do anything to get kids to learn landed him an AmeriCorps position at Tucson Village Farm. Since completion of his AmeriCorps position, Grover was rehired as a VISTA at the farm. Grover enjoys working on the farm, but in his spare time he plays ultimate Frisbee, watches K-State teams play and sleeps. On the farm, he works to keep the website up to date, increase marketing and teach volunteers to work with youth. He is hoping to soon find someone else to don the Ms. Milky costume.

Sarah Renkert is an AmeriCorps*VISTA member serving with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Gila County and the San Carlos Apache Reservation. She grew up in Indianapolis, Indianaand subsequently attended Indiana University where she studied Spanish, International Studies, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Upon graduating in May of 2010, Sarah moved to Huaycan, Peru where she spent a year managing a non-governmental organization focusing on education and women’s empowerment. In an effort to pursue her passion for agriculture and environmentalism, Sarah then moved to Bunche, Ecuador, where she worked on organic farms and a mangrove reforestation project. Upon completing her year of AmeriCorps service, Sarah will be returning to Latin America and then hopes to pursue a second AmeriCorps opportunity in the fall of 2013. Ultimately, she plans to complete a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional planning, with the goal of expanding sustainable food systems across underdeveloped urban areas.

Throughout her year of service, Sarah is working with the Gila County Master Gardener Association (MGA), the Globe-Miami Farmers’ Market, and the San Carlos Apache Tribe. While working with MGA, she coordinates volunteers and speakers for the various seasonal gardening workshops in Globe, Payson, and Young; is working with the Steering Committee to prepare for the upcoming 2013 Arizona
Highlands Garden Conference; and recruited new volunteers for the current MGA course. She also is working with local volunteers and community members to carry out the growing farmers’ market in Globe, Arizona; where she serves as the secretary for the Executive Board and is in charge of all promotional outreach. While working with San Carlos, Sarah has taught and built gardens in two high schools, the juvenile detention center, the Boys and Girls Club, the Diabetes Center, and the 4-H Gardening Club, teaching a gardening and nutrition course, from a curriculum she developed from the Junior Master Gardener Program. Furthermore, she conducted an extensive series of Needs Assessment interviews throughout the community, to improve University of Arizona Extension programs for youth on the reservation.

 Chase Stroud sits with a small fan to his right, a brown stain with residual coffee pooling around the base of his mug, and a laptop at either side of him. This is the second time he has ever worked in this type of office environment, and he has yet to have come across a single person that is not in a great mood. He is used to being out in the field for making a difference. He will admit, though, that this job has put a lot of things in perspective for him.
 Chase was born in a rural Texas town. He began working on ranches, hauling hay and cleaning stalls as a high school student. He gained a passion for reading at an early age and old westerns and Faulknerian prose have given him a romanticized view of different areas where he has lived. To him, Tucson is certainly one of the places that exhibit true natural beauty, and he thinks every arm of VISTA reaches out to unveil that.
After graduating from high school, he matriculated at the University of North Texas, pursuing History and English degrees. Chase took his summers off to work on a conservation ranch in Emmigrant, Montana, where he gained a profound appreciation for land and water management. After college, he moved to Albuquerque, NM to be with his aunt and nephews for a short time. There, he wrote a pastoral novel that was heavily weighted in the loss of culture and appreciation for the land and its inhabitants. He went on to work for the Southwest Conservation Corps for the next year before applying for his current VISTA position with Pima County.
His goals have seemed to shift in their manifestation. But they always come back to one thing; a hope to continue working for organizations that truly care and are dedicated to making a difference, be it youth development, fighting poverty, making healthy food accessible, or just showing someone that the smallest thing that they do can make a huge difference.