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What are the benefits of service?

[Image description: Six MCC members stand in a field, two holding large crosscut saws, and two with mattocks in their hands.]

Adult Conservation Crews

What are the benefits of service?

A term of service with AmeriCorps comes with a variety of benefits!  Below are some of the many perks of joining MCC.

  • AmeriCorps Segal Education Award
    AmeriCorps Segal Education Award

    This is awarded to all members after a successful term of service.  It is a monetary award that is uploaded into your AmeriCorps portal up to 30 days after you successfully complete your term of service.  The amount ranges from $1,000 - $7,000 depending on the length of your term.  It can be used to pay off student loans, pay for future education including trade schools, or many other types of educational expenses.  Many colleges will also partially or fully match these funds.

    Check out our Alumni Resources page to learn more about the Education Award!

  • Loan Forbearance
    Loan Forbearance

    Many Student loans can be put in forbearance while serving with AmeriCorps! Forbearance is temporarily postponing your obligation to make payments on your student loan. As an AmeriCorps member you may be eligible for forbearance on your qualified student loans during your term of service.

  • Personal & Professional Development
    Personal & Professional Development

    Gain leadership, technical, teamwork, and problem solving skills that are transferable to a wide variety of careers.

    Utilize the Alumni Resources Page to help you leverage your service to gain future employment.

  • Professional Networking
    Professional Networking

    MCC crews work with a wide variety of federal, state, non-profit, and tribal project partners.  We ensure our crews have the necessary tools to navigate these relationships.  We also encourage our members and leaders to network with these individuals for future career opportunities. Maintaining a level of professionalism with our partners is key to our success and maintaining the standard of MCC work in the field.  

    Our partners are very invested in hiring MCC Alumni! 

    Find out more about our partners and who you could be working with here.

  • Federal Hiring & Resume Training
    Federal Hiring & Resume Training

    At the end of their term, leaders and members receive training on resume building and how to apply for state and federal jobs.  MCC will help you communicate to future employers the value of the transferable skills you gained while serving with AmeriCorps.  Many of the connections crews make over the course of their season become vital in their future employment prospects. 

    Utilize the Alumni Resources Page to help you leverage your service to gain future employment.

  • Work in a Small Team Based Environment
    Work in a Small Team Based Environment

    MCC is a crew-based experience. Corps Members will serve their term of service in a crew with five to seven other Corps Members that will develop into a well-integrated team.  Many alumni say serving, living, and working within a small crew was one of the major highlights of serving with MCC.  The crew structure allows Corps Members to grow together and experience the satisfaction of working as high-performing team.

In addition to the benefits listed above, as a leader or member with MCC you stand to gain a wide variety of skills: 

  • Leadership Development

    Our Crew Leaders participate in a 2.5 month Leadership Development Program, where they grow in emotional intelligence while outfitting a tool box of practical leadership competencies. Our crew leaders then pass those skills on to their crews as they live, learn, and serve together in some of our country's wildest places.  The entire season, crew leaders and crew members will hone their skills, receive feedback on their performance, and work with regional staff to meet their performance goals.  These trainings have been refined over the course of three decades:

    • Experiential Learning Model
    • Communication Styles
    • Feedback and Reflection
    • Stages of Group Development
    • Mind Styles
    • Emotional Intelligence
    • Conflict Resolution
    • Facilitation & teaching to different learning styles
    • Debriefing
    • Specialist Roles
      • We provide leadership opportunities for our crew members, who can choose a role based on their interests and desires for professional development: Vehicle Specialist, Gear Specialist, Tool Specialist, Safety Officer, Crew Journalist

     

  • Risk Management

    Our crews travel throughout Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and the Dakotas to do rigorous project work with heavy tools, oftentimes in very remote locations.  Many times crews are operating on their own without the benefit of an MCC Staff member or project partner.  It is important that our crew leaders and members develop sound risk management skills to keep safe in the field.  This includes:

    • Emergency Management & Incident Management Procedures
    • Working in all types of weather  
    • Field Communication 
    • Water Filtration
    • First Aid & CPR
      • Our leaders are provided with a Wilderness Advanced First Aid certification and our members receive basic first aid and CPR.  We utilize local professionals who understand the rigors of backcountry field work and ensure our crews have the skills to manage incidents in the field.
    • Ergonomics Foundations
      • Field work physically challenging.  MCC wants to ensure that every participant leaves the program stronger than they arrived.  A physical therapist helped MCC develop a specific stretch and safety routine designed for our crews.  Practicing these basic ergonomics (the study of people's efficiency in their working environment) helps to reduce workplace injury and allows our members to focus on their personal growth and technical skillsets, rather than on being injured.
  • Backcountry Travel

    Never backpacked before or spent time in the woods away from your car?  MCC will provide you with skills to travel safely in the backcountry, whether that's with your crew or on your own with your friends and family:

    • Reading topographic maps
    • Utilizing a compass
    • Bear & Wildlife Safety
    • Using bear spray
    • Setting up a bear safe camp
    • Using OnX & Avenza mapping applications for backcountry travel and trip planning
    • How to safely read water, cross creeks and rivers, and use a throw rope 
    • Principles of Leave No Trace
    • Working with pack stock
    • Backcountry nutrition & meal planning
    • Using and maintaining backcountry stoves & water filters
  • Technical Field Skills

    MCC members and leaders stand to gain many technical field skills while serving with MCC.  Training can vary depending on crew type and position, but could include:

    • Chainsaw use and maintenance
    • Crosscut saw use and maintenance
    • Hand tools:
      • Pickmattocks
      • Pulaskis
      • Shovels
      • Rock Bars
      • Tamping Bars
      • Loppers
      • Hand saws
      • Axes
    • Grip Hoists
    • Trail Maintenance and Construction:
      • Digging new and existing tread
      • Drain dips
      • Water Bars
      • Puncheons
      • Bridges
      • Turnpikes
      • Retaining/Crib Walls
      • Working with treated lumber, natural timber, and rock
    • Invasive Weed Identification
    • Applicator Licensure
    • Tool Maintenance & Re-handling
    • Knots
    • Fencing 
    • Defensive driving (all leaders and some members)
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