Sonoma State University

Welcome, Alexandria!

Alex Anderson, AmeriCorps VISTA at the City of Santa Rosa

We are thrilled to welcome Alex Anderson to the Center for Community Engagement as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the City of Santa Rosa! Alex graduated in spring 2019 from SSU with a degree in Human Development and a minor in Sociology. Alex became aware of the AmeriCorps VISTA program through her work on campus at TRIO and JUMP. The role of a VISTA just sounded to her like something that really resonated with what she wants to do in her career. 

Related: Goodbye, VISTAs! II

Alex spent some time at the City of Santa Rosa in June. During that time she got a very strong sense of how important indirect services are to an organization. Alex wanted to take a year off from school but she wanted to do something impactful. She also wanted to be challenged professionally. Like many new college graduates, Alex was looking for ways to grow personally.  

“I wanted to understand other communities in different spaces and how they work together to accomplish their goals,” Alex explains. After she completes her year at the City, Alex hopes to take her education and experience into an area like public health or public policy. Alex is from Sacramento and most of her family is there but she is thinking about taking her desire to learn more about other communities, out of state; perhaps Georgia, in the future. 

Related: How Can Students Get Involved With the City of Santa Rosa? 

The role of the VISTA includes the following:

  • First, to be the point of contact and organizer between the off-campus site and SSU students, faculty, and staff who have projects at the site, such as community service, service-learning, community-based research, and internships.

  • Second, to strengthen the infrastructure at each site for volunteer management (training, orientation, record-keeping, etc.).

  • Third, a capacity-building project identified at each site

The City of Santa Rosa with a population of 170,236, strives to be a place where people feel safe to live, work and play. The City offers a full range of services including police, and fire; public works; water; housing; economic development; recreation and parks, and a bus system.
You can reach Alex via email: aa10@srcity.org.