From Corps Member to Collaborative Leader

For the past 15 years, young men and women right out of high school or college put on the signature red jacket, khaki pants, and boots and hit the streets of NYC to spend a year of service in high-needs public schools. Among the individuals in the first class of Corps Members was Laura Hamm , a recent graduate of Louisiana State University who wanted to do a year of service.

That first year of service in NYC continued to fuel a deep passion for volunteerism and building a vision around the importance of mentorship. I recently had time to sit down with Laura to talk about her pathway from Corps Member to being the new Executive Director at City Year after serving in several other roles across the organization, and most recently the Executive Director of City Year Baton Rouge the community in which she grew up. Laura spoke passionately about working at City Year New York during the first few years, and how she was able to be a part of visioning and strategizing with a number of intelligent leaders. “It’s been a dream to come back to where I first started and lead the organization to its next phase,” said Laura.

It was clear that Laura is all about relationship building, when she said “I am drawn to relationship building, and I want City Year to be a fun filled place to work and for that to trickle into all facets of the organization.” “At the end of the day it’s about humans caring for one another she also said, and the work I want to do is having everyone co-create the strategy, the vision, and take pride in moving the organization forward.”

Zone 126 would like to thank the 246 Corps Members serving students across all of NYC, and a special thank you to the four teams serving in the Zone at PS 112Q , PS 171Q , IS 126Q , and IS 204Q .