Pros
Pros included working with other dedicated Americorps members who are interested in improving public education, making a difference to children and building relationships with your students, and feeling part of a community. If you are literacy tutor, the program provides great training in foundational literacy teaching. You also gain skills in behavior management and helping students develop their social and emotional learning. The scholarship that you earn by the end is helpful for future education expenses or for helping to pay off your student loans.
Cons
Being an Americorps mentor requires extremely long hours (9-11 hours per day). You are stretched very thin because you are required to help out in many different roles. You are seriously underpaid because the stipend does not even equal minimum wage. If you are at a site where there is conflict between the Americorps mentors and the regular staff or after school staff, it can make the workplace environment really tense. Unfortunately, the management is not very supportive of your concerns and complaints, and just tries to motivate you by telling you to have a growth mindset and sometimes even will blame you for having a negative attitude, even though you are constantly under stress.