AMHERST – For Gabriel Killough-Hill, the traditional route of going to college right out of high school was not a priority. First, he wanted to get some life experience.
“I wasn’t that motivated,” he said of going to college.
Killough-Hill, 19, of Amherst, instead chose to join AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), a national community service organization that works with FEMA. The organization employs 2,800 Americans between the ages of 18 to 24, training them to assist areas with needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development. Killough-Hill is in a full-time, 10-month position.
He says the experience is what he needed to keep going after high school.
“I think that learning through service and learning about yourself through those experiences is a great way to grow,” he said, in a phone interview from West Virginia.
Since starting with the NCCC, Killough-Hill has worked in FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation department in Louisiana, and has since moved to Charleston, West Virginia, where he assists with public relations, outreach to the community, and communications with Congress. He said the work he’s done feels worthwhile, and made for a better transition than going to college or immediately into the workforce.
“I know that I’m doing something meaningful, I’m not just flipping burgers,” he said.
As part of Killough-Hill’s employment at AmeriCorps, he is required to develop a post-program plan. To assist with that, AmeriCorps offers $5,000 grants to help members go to school if that’s what they choose. Killough-Hill says his plan is to go to college when he leaves the program in mid-November, where he hopes to double major in business and biomedical engineering.