AmeriCorps Connections

About AmeriCorps Connections

The AmeriCorps Connections Podcast is a space where alumni, members, and partners share how national service shapes careers, communities, and lives. Hosted by AmeriCorps alum Nicki Fiocco, each episode highlights stories of resilience, leadership, and purpose—showing that while service terms may end, the impact and connections continue. Tune in each week on your favorite podcast platform to listen, follow, subscribe, and share. Check it out and be part of the ongoing story of service. Watch the conversation on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@americorpsconnections Follow AmeriCorps Connections on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/americorpsconnections/

Publisher

Nicki Fiocco

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Mar 2023

Latest episode

4 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

118 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Oct 2026

   From Goats in the Classroom to Growing Leaders | Destiny Schlinker, FoodCorps

   🎙️ AmeriCorps Connections tells the stories of alumni who were changed by national service. Subscribe and share so these stories keep reaching people. What if your leftover Segal Education Award could make you a better teacher in six weeks? Destiny Schlinker served as a FoodCorps AmeriCorps member in Springdale, Arkansas, from 2013 to 2015. She led garden and cooking lessons in the state's largest school district, where her students raised 12 chickens in a purple coop they built together and bottle-fed two baby goats in the middle of the city. Today she's Senior Manager of Leadership Pipelines at FoodCorps and co-owns Blue Mountain Vegetable Farm in a town of about 80 people. Destiny tells Nicki how garden lessons bring second-grade adjectives and fifth-grade haikus to life, and what it meant when a former student stopped her at a college career fair to say he still remembered those energy balls. She also talks about how FoodCorps rebuilt after losing its federal funding, going from 200 AmeriCorps positions in 19 states to 50 in nine, and the new ways it's investing in leaders. Use this a code where folks can say they heard through AmeriCorps Connections Podcast! Visit website at www.foodcorps.org email at apply@foodcorps.org 🍎 FoodCorps programs featured in this episode FoodE: Food Education in the Classroom Micro-Credential With Teachers College, Columbia University • Six weeks, online and asynchronous, with optional live office hours • Built for educators teaching kids in a classroom, garden, or nonprofit setting (most useful for K-5) • Earns a certificate, a badge, and continuing education credits in many states • $295, and eligible for your Segal Education Award • Upcoming cohorts: November 2, January 4, March 1, April 26 👉 FoodCorps Member Position • Full-time, 11-month contract role (August 3 to July 11), renewable for a second or third year • Two tracks: Food Education (classroom and garden) and School Nutrition (district child nutrition teams) • About $40,000 for the term, plus PTO and health, dental, and vision insurance • Open in Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, New Mexico, and California • No teaching degree required. Summer camp or Boys & Girls Club experience counts! 👉 Kindred Fellowship for School Nutrition Leaders • Free, nine-month fellowship (October to June) for 30 district school food leaders • In-person kickoff in Philadelphia, about 10 virtual sessions, and a closing Hill Day in DC • Applications open in May and close in August 👉 FoodCorps Leadership Network Everyone from all three programs joins the alumni network on Slack, with mentors, job boards, training, and policy opportunities. 📬 Connect with Destiny: apply@foodcorps.org She's happy to send details on using your Segal Award. Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are. Link 👉 USE THIS LINK (https://www.idealist.org/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=americorpsconnections) Look for our my guest blog for the Idealist Career Advice blog! (https://www.idealist.org/en/careers/how-nicki-fiocco-pursues-a-social-impact-career) 👩💻 🍿 Snack smart while you listen — Pops Up Popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% off at https://popzup.com./ 🎧 Listen and rate the show on our streaming platform: https://americorpsconnect.transistor.fm/ 📲 Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/americorpsconnections/ 💼 Connect with Nicki on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-fiocco/ ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ (https://patreon.com/AmeriCorpsConnectionsPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink)

2. 

   29 Aug 2026

   Ep. 118 Saylor Ogla: I Made Myself Brave

   Saylor Ogla has done four AmeriCorps terms and counting, and somewhere along the way she became "the Lorax." She speaks for the trees, plants them, mulches them, prunes them, and waters them across Knoxville, Tennessee. In this episode of our Tennessee alumni series, Saylor walks through every stop on that path: an after-school program at a Baptist center, college prep tours with Emerald Youth Foundation, a solo term as a Greenway Ranger cutting brand-new mountain bike trails with a trail-building mentor named Duane Miley, an unexpected career in geophysical engineering, and now urban forestry with the City of Knoxville. She talks about the AmeriCorps connection that turned an internship interview into a full-time job before she'd even walked out the door, the friendships that carried into her wedding party, and why she still drives past the trees she planted years ago just to see how big they've gotten. If you're weighing a service year, or wondering what comes after one, this conversation is for you. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ (https://patreon.com/AmeriCorpsConnectionsPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink)

3. 

   15 Jul 2026

   Ep. 116 | IT'S NOT A GAP YEAR. IT'S A GROWTH YEAR | Tavon Johnson

   🏀 From Coaching Basketball to Building Careers — One Service Year at a Time Tavon Johnson didn't just do one AmeriCorps term. He did three — and each one built directly on the last. 🌟 Starting as a tutor and basketball coach with Great Oaks Charter School, moving into workforce development with the Choice Program at UMBC in his hometown of Baltimore, and then leading fellow VISTA members through the chaos of COVID with Transform Mid-Atlantic — Tavon's path shows exactly what it looks like when a service year becomes a career blueprint. Now a career counselor with Milwaukee Job Corps (and running a youth resource hub on the side 👏), Tavon opens up about the moment that changed how he saw systemic barriers up close, why "identity capital" might be the most underrated benefit of national service, and why he thinks we should stop calling it a "gap year" for good. About AmeriCorps Connections AmeriCorps Connections lifts up stories of AmeriCorps alums — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started. If this episode moves you — don't let that feeling sit there! 💛 Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are. Link 👉 IDEALIST Social Impact Jobs (https://www.idealist.org/en?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=americorpsconnections) Check out our first AC Connections Podcast guest blogger for the Idealist Career Advice blog (https://www.idealist.org/en/careers?pq=) Sarah Vagley Middleton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahvmiddleton/) 👩💻 🍿 Snack smart while you listen — PopzUp Popcorn (https://popzup.com./) is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% 📺 You Tube (https://youtu.be/AlCHmyNaVM8) 📲 Follow us on Instagram - AmeriCorps Connections (https://www.instagram.com/americorpsconnections/) 💼 Connect with Nicki on LinkedIn - Nicki Fiocco (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-fiocco/) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ (https://patreon.com/AmeriCorpsConnectionsPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

14,559

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 78 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

97

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

71

Contact AmeriCorps Connections

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.