Everybody Wins! Iowa Staff

My name is Andrew Brice and I’m currently a senior at Drake University. You may be asking yourself how I got myself involved with Everybody Wins! Iowa. Well, ponder no more as that is exactly what I am here to share. It all started when I was born on a beautiful spring day in 1989 in Arlington Heights, Illinois…a day just like any other… ok well for the sake of time I’ll skip ahead a few years.

 This past semester I was looking to get more involved in the community and look outside the friendly confines of Drake University. It was then that I came upon an opportunity to work for AmeriCorps. The program was called ICAP and it was for college students to complete 300 community service hours with a local non-profit organization. At the completion of the 300 hours the students receive an education award to help pay off student loans.  I felt it would be a great opportunity to challenge myself and possibly make a difference in the community.

I’ve been a part of Everybody Wins! Iowa for 4 months and I’m already looking forward to the next 6 months. The experience thus far has been very rewarding. I have especially enjoyed seeing the positive influence Everybody Wins! has on volunteers and students. It put a smile on my face when I was reading through the student surveys. The final question was “Do you like your mentor?”. They were asked to answer 1-5 with 1 being no and 5 being yes. One of the students didn’t believe that 5 gave enough credit to his mentor so he went ahead and crossed out all the numbers and wrote the number 10 and circled it. Those survey responses prove that Everybody Wins! Iowa is making a difference in the children’s lives. 

 My service thus far has primarily been behind the scenes working with Tyler on different projects and brainstorming improvements. Currently we are working on new programs to help more children and to show everyone how easy it is to make a difference in someone’s life. If you or anyone you know is interested in making a difference with Everybody Wins! Iowa, just let us know!