Search this site:
   Go

• Who is eligible?
• What can AmeriCorps members do?
• The Education Award
• Prohibited Activities
• What students are saying about ASLIS!
• Member Handbook

Who is eligible?
Any student who commits to completing a term of service and can answer positively to the following questions can participate:

• Are you at least seventeen years of age?
• Do you have a high school diploma or GED?
• Are you a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or a lawful permanent resident of the United States, and can you provide documentation?

What can AmeriCorps members do?
These are just some examples of service that is and is not acceptable for the ASLIS program. If you are not sure about whether or not your service is permitted, please ask your campus supervisor!

Some broad examples of service that CAN count:

• Recruit and coordinate additional campus and community volunteers
• Education, outreach and recruitment efforts on and off campus related to service programs
• Program development support for community service and service-learning offices
• Assist faculty, community service and service-learning offices, and community partners in the development of campus-based programs that will meet needs identified by community-based organizations
• Assume a leadership role in the initiation, development and coordination of campus service projects and programs to address local need
• Tutor and mentor youth
• Coordinate after-school programs
• Provide public health outreach and education
• Build and renovate homes for low-income families
• Provide basic food and shelter needs
• Improve natural resources, environmental education
• Provide other services as identified by community organizations

• Staying after a church service to hand out flyers relating to the church (service cannot have any religious ties)
• Calling citizens to promote voting (service cannot have any political ties, especially one-sided campaigning)
• Serving in Spain as an English teacher (service must be done in the United States)
• Petitioning in front of your local city hall against the death penalty (lobbying, petitioning, union organizing, etc is not permitted)
• Helping your biology professor plan lessons or grade papers (administrative work cannot count unless it directly relates to your approved direct service activities)

There are four primary uses for the AmeriCorps education award:

1. Repay qualified student loans,
2. Pay for current costs of attendance at a qualified institution of higher education,
3. Pay for expenses incurred in participating in an approved school to work program,
4. Hold on to the voucher for up to seven years and use it for future education costs, such as re-certification courses, graduate school, study abroad, etc.

• Stafford Loans
• Perkins Loans
• Federal Direct Loans
• Supplemental Loans for Students
• Federal Consolidated Loans
• Health Education Assistance Loans
• Health Professions Student Loans

Prohibited Activities
AmeriCorps members, like private citizens, may participate in any of the activities listed below (lobbying, political and advocacy activities, etc.) on their own time, at their own expense, and at their own initiative. Any individual may take part in the prohibited activities, but they may not count that time toward an AmeriCorps term of service and may not wear AmeriCorps service gear in such instances.

1. Political Activities
• Participating in efforts to influence legislation, including state or local ballot initiatives, or lobbying for your program;
• Organizing a letter-writing campaign to Congress;
• Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office;
• Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials;
• Voter registration drives;
• Organizing or participating in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes;
2. Religious Activities
• Engaging in religious instruction;
• Conducting worship services;
• Providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship;
• Constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship;
• Maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship;
• Engaging in any form of religious proselytizing;
3. Union Activities
• Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing;
• Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements;
4. For-Profit Businesses
• Providing a direct benefit to a for-profit entity, a labor union, a partisan political organization, or an organization engaged in religious activities;
5. Safety Factors
• Participating in activities that pose a significant safety risk to participants or others;
6. Fundraising
In general, AmeriCorps Members cannot assist their organizations with major fundraising efforts. However, Corporation policy permits some limited activities related to fundraising by AmeriCorps Members to the extent that such activities:
• Provide immediate and direct support to a specific and direct service activity;
• Fall within the program’s approved direct service objectives;
• Are not the primary activity of the program;
• Involve in-kind donations rather than cash donations.

[Back to Top]

Member Handbook
Download Member Handbook (PDF)
[Back to Top]