Submit a Guest Blog!
I Want To Share! How Do I Write a Guest Blog?
AmeriCorps Alums wants to hear your story beyond AmeriCorps. How were you “Made in AmeriCorps,” how are you living out a “lifetime of service,” and what are you doing now?
Click here if you’re ready to submit a guest blog for publication consideration. If you have questions, check out our FAQs below, email us at info@americorpsalums.org, and read amazing stories alums shared in our Alum Spotlight blogs to brainstorm ideas.
What Can I Write About?
We want to hear your ideas for our blog! But, we do list the types of stories we tend to share below.
- Personal and Professional Transformation Stories (How were you “Made In AmeriCorps?” How did AmeriCorps help you land your first job or change how you viewed the world?)
- Advice to Young Alums About Your Professional Field (help alums learn from your career)
- Service Stories (either current or a reflection from your AmeriCorps service)
- Reflections on Days of Service – MLK Day, AmeriCorps Week, 9/11, etc.
- Chapter Updates – Alums has local chapters across the country. What’s your chapter up to?
- How-To Posts (How-To Finance Grad School, How-To Advocate for a Cause You Believe In, etc.)
Are There Posts You Won’t Accept?
- Posts Promoting Goods
- Advertising Posts
What Makes a Blog Successful?
Be true to your voice. Use a first-person viewpoint and write more like you talk with a friend as opposed to a colleague in a boardroom. Posts may be serious or humorous—as long as they are authentic, personal, and sincere, we’re interested. The best blogs feature pictures, are about 500-700 words long, and include a call to action. Think about what you want people to do after they read your blog, where they can get more information if they liked what you talked about, or what you want people to remember from your story.
Can I Have Pictures For My Blog?
Yes! Every post is published with a headshot of the author (usually about 150 X 150 pixels wide). The most popular posts usually include 2-3 pictures. Be sure to send captions with pictures and let us know if you need to credit a photographer.
I Like to Draw Comics, Write Poems, Take Pictures, or Make Videos. Can I Do a Multimedia Blog?
Yes! We want more of this on our blog. Send us your gifs, poems, videos, comics, etc. inspired by AmeriCorps or centered on another topic you think relates to AmeriCorps Alums and/or national service. Email Vanecia at vanecia@americorpsalums.org to work out the details.
I Finished Creating My Blog, But What Else Do You Need to Publish It?
You can submit the text of your blog either through this Google form or by emailing Vanecia at vanecia@americorpsalums.org with your blog, a brief 2-3 sentence bio (see example below), a headshot, and pictures with captions.
Sample Bio: Today’s guest post comes from Winston Fiore who served in the Marines and AmeriCorps (Marines 2004-2006; AmeriCorps NCCC, 2003) and was originally published as “Why Clefts?” on The Smile Trek website. Winston embarked on a 5,000 mile walk through Southeast Asia in an effort to raise funds for facial-reconstructive surgeries in the developing world.
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A Lifetime Of Service 
My letter to my local congressman:
Dear Mr. Grimm,
I first would like to introduce myself—my name is Jennifer Giangrande, I’m 25 years old and a lifelong Staten Islander. After seeing you at the debate against McMahon at Wagner last year, I had no doubt that you would enter office with anything less than a genuine effort to represent us. I was impressed by your forthcoming demeanor and commitment to fiscal responsibility. I’m writing this letter to you in hopes that what I say here can make some difference in how you vote for the President’s 2011 budget.
I was a member of the Class XIII AmeriCorps NCCC in 2007—I’m not sure if your familiar with this sector of the AmeriCorps, but it is an intensive, project-based service program that has 5 “bases” around the country. I overloaded my credits and graduated SUNY Binghamton a semester early just to enter the campus at Denver, because I had been inspired by the program by other members I’d met while building houses in Charleston a year earlier. I was an English major with a lifelong love for language, books and literacy, but my mother long instilled in me the necessity of volunteerism and service, and to the NCCC I think I was instinctually attracted.
After almost four years of studying about life, I actually got a chance to live it. In 10 months with the NCCC, I encountered hundreds of opportunities to engender the leadership qualities I’d been developing my entire life. I worked with FEMA in a flood disaster in Minnesota (a torrential hurricane had hit the Midwest in late ’07), and remember meeting a man whose basement was completely destroyed by the flood. He was an older war veteran and staunch republican named Bill, and was confused when we told him the mayor of his town sent us to clean up. He said, “This is where my tax dollars are going?” with an angry grimace before he allowed us to descend the stairs. We pulled up his soaked carpeting, washed and dried the cement floor, and removed hundreds of pounds of soaked insulation from his walls in under 2 hours. Before we left, this guy hugged all of us and said “Thanks. Without you guys, I’d never be able to walk down those stairs again.”
Throughout my service year, I had a number of complaints about the program, as many representatives criticize it now. All of my teammates did. We returned home from every project with an entire booklet on what was learned and how we would improve our relationship with the program manager, how more work could be done in less time and with more efficiency. This was something that was on everyone’s mind, as AmeriCorps NCCC has been faced with budget cuts before. I’d been awarded a lunch with the deputy director of my campus, and she asked me how I would change the program. I told her I would make the training more rigorous, but more importantly, cut costs to make the program more fiscally responsible.
I don’t mean to chastise your stance with left-wing rhetoric, nor jar your senses with flowery, emotional speech. If I knew I had more time, I would tell you about every time I looked up at a flood soaked ceiling, or put on an oxygen mask in a post-Katrina residence and said to myself “I can’t believe I’m here”. I think we can agree that absolute need for national service is not a partisan issue, and the AmeriCorps program has one of the best directives to address this, as do many other programs like it—CityYear, Teach for America to name a few.
The proof is in the pudding, Mr. Grimm. I work for a non-profit educational publisher now, and use my AmeriCorps skills at work every day. Friends of mine who are NCCC alums are getting undergraduate and master’s degrees in public policy, social work, international development and teaching; joining the FBI; heading volunteer organizations in response to the Gulf Oil Spill; working in post-katrina response and case management; and even running for office.
Our nation, our cities, our states, our communities NEED people like this. Team players. People who exhibit selflessness. People who think outside the box to form creative solutions to difficult problems. They are valuable in every sector of employment, because of the absolutely diverse array of skills learned in the real life application of intellect and innovation. Have you ever met an female English major who’s started a community recycling program, effectively led over 900 volunteers, and who can build a house from the ground up?
Please take into consideration that a budget cut for the AmeriCorps NCCC will mean a gaping hole in the community service fabric that this program has created for almost two decades. Thank you for your consideration.
Best regards,
Jennifer Giangrande
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
I’d love to write a guest posting, but I’m not sure where you would like me to send it!
Thanks!
Courtney
Happy New Year, I will be writing a guest post. I really miss my NCCC days! #reminiscing Life isn’t sweet unless I am serving. 🙂
Thanks for getting in touch with us Elle! I’d love to connect with you on writing a guest post. Send me an email at Ken[at]AmeriCorpsAlums[dot]org and I can give you more details.
Ken
Hi Maria,
There is no links of signing up or login? Then How can I write a guest post?
Thanks for your interest in guest blogging! You can find out how to submit a blog with us here: http://blog.americorpsalums.org/write-a-guest-post/
Thank you Maria. I am in the process of writing my guest blog post, on why I found my Americorps year of service right after college to be a necessary part of the professional journey. I hope to email you soon.