ThreeSixty has two openings to join our staff! Both are a one-year AmeriCorps*VISTA position, designed to build capacity in a non-profit and gain professional experience. Please pass the word!

Each position has the following conditions:

Term: 8/3/2010 – 8/6/2011

Salary: Approximately $11,000 with option of education award or additional stipend. Housing stipend also available. View full description of VISTA benefits and expectations here.

Marketing Coordinator

Primary duties and responsibilities

You will work with the executive director, youth publications editor, teen editors and board to develop and implement strategies to:

• Grow the audience for the ThreeSixty online magazine and build relationships with teachers interested in using ThreeSixty material in their classrooms.
• Extend outreach efforts and grow the number of teen participants from underserved communities.
• Increase ThreeSixty’s visibility among donors, funders, volunteers and teens via free media, social networking, e-newsletters and other means.
• Recording and tracking data to measure program impact and reporting that to staff and board.

Experience and qualifications

Must be at least 18 and a college graduate. Looking for applicants with strong communications and organizational skills, a drive for service, knowledge of marketing and communications technology and strategies, project management experience and experience working with diverse populations.

Apply online here.

Volunteer Coordinator

Primary duties and responsibilities

• Recruit qualified volunteers from diverse sources, including journalists, PR and communications, college students, teachers and parents using traditional and social media.
• Develop volunteer training manual for all ThreeSixty volunteers, including forms, policies and agreements explaining expectations, requirements and qualifications.
• Create and implement volunteer orientation, training and materials for new and returning volunteers, using traditional and electronic modes and methods.
• Manage and retain current volunteers through ongoing training, communication, surveys and recognition.
• Communicate regularly with all volunteers.
• Channel volunteer resources to meet the needs of ThreeSixty staff by identifying volunteer-specific skills/strengths and creating new volunteer opportunities as needed.
• Maintain updated volunteer records including a database, files and monthly reports.
• Maintain volunteer policies, recommending updates as needed.

Experience and qualifications

Must be 18 and a college graduate with a drive for service. Looking for applicants with strong writing and organizational skills, experience working with diverse populations, managing projects and working with volunteers. This position will develop a volunteer corps, handbook and training and matching volunteers with appropriate opportunities.

Apply online here.

Mai Lee Yor used to eat candy almost every day. But that was before she spent first semester at Arlington Senior High learning about diabetes.

According to the American Diabetes Association, or ADA, 23.6 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Asian Americans, African Americans and Hispanics are at the highest risk of developing diabetes in their lifetime.

Arlington Senior High, a Bio-SMART school in St. Paul where most of the academics focus on science, math, and technology, has a majority of students in these risk groups with 55 percent being Asian, 31 percent black, and 9 percent Hispanic.

Diabetes is a condition when the body either fails to produce insulin or cells ignore insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body convert food into energy. Diabetes can cause serious problems with your eyes, feet, kidneys and more. Learn more about diabetes in reporter Karen Romero’s essay about coping with the condition.

The ADA predicts that 1.6 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year, so the Arlington staff team decided to lower the chances of those new cases being Arlington students.

Arlington partnered with the American Diabetes Association and created six major events to teach students about diabetes starting with young people with diabetes coming to Arlington to speak about life coping with the disease, which some students found to be a great way for them to relate to the idea of being at risk for diabetes. “It totally changes your way of thinking about diabetes,” Victor Xiong said.

Every year, Arlington has a school-wide project to implement science, math and technology into all of the classrooms. The Bio-SMART management team chose this year to do a unit on diabetes to teach students about how their healthy, or unhealthy, habits can have long-term effects.

“We decided to focus on a disease that heavily impacts young people,” said Bio-SMART coordinator Eric Mjolsness.

Arlington gave students the chance to get in shape with the “Biggest Winner Competition” – a play on NBC’s Biggest Loser TV show – in which students got into teams of three and had to compete in sports for a certain number of hours in pursuit of winning an iPod Touch.

The school also passed out pedometers, which measure how many steps or strides a person takes, and gave rewards to students who took the most steps during the unit.

Students also learned about diabetes in the classroom. All students who were taking an English class were asked to bring a recipe that they use at home to school. They then learned healthy ingredient alternatives and created a wellness cookbook featuring the recipes that students submitted.

Toward the end of the unit a health screening took place in which students were able to check their Body Mass Index — a height and weight measurement that shows whether or not someone is overweight — blood pressure, and glucose levels. Results of the screening could indicate risks of having diabetes.

Although the health staff at Arlington was unable to officially diagnose any students, they were able to make students aware of what to be looking out for in their heath so that they don’t develop problems in the future.

Student Pamala Thao said it made her be more aware of her eating habits. “I learned that it’s important to control what you eat and how easy it is to get diabetes,” she said.

On Nov. 14, World Diabetes Day, students in the school went out onto the campus baseball field and made a human version of its logo to spread awareness to those outside of the school. It was featured on KARE 11 news.

The unit was finished off by the student government raising money to donate to the American Diabetes Association.

Students say the diabetes unit influenced them to make better choices for their health. “I’m eating healthier now and quit eating candy,” Lor said.

“Many students have mentioned that they understand the importance of the choices they make in relation to their future health,” Mjolsness said. “I do think it had an impact on students; we are in the process of collecting data from students as to whether or not we accomplished our goal.”

At Arlington Senior High in St. Paul, students spent first semester studying diabetes. The majority of its student body is of a race at higher risk of developing the condition -- Arlington is 55 percent being asian, 31 percent black, and 9 percent Hispanic. Below, students form the World Diabetes Day symbol.

ThreeSixty has been publishing a news web site since November 2007. We bring you some of our reader’s favorites.

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The 2010 census is the shortest in its 220 year history, said Minnesota State Demographer Tom Gillaspy. It only asks 10 questions this decade. Check out this interactive graphic to see what each question is and why the federal government wants to know your answer.

After math I hit the next subject, language arts, to be followed by any foreign language that I am studying. Next would be history/geography, etc. This is the usual school morning for me and more than a million K-12 students who are being home-schooled across the nation.

My routine has been the same since I was five and joined my older brothers – who are now taking college classes — at school in the dining room. When I was little, my mom would guide me through my lessons and work with me as a teacher would. Now, most of the time, I am on my own, working with an accredited, independent-study high school program. So far so good. It’s just not the same as being in a classroom with the teacher right there to answer my questions.

Most of the time, I can work through the curriculum myself. But in math especially, I sometimes have questions that neither my mom nor the book can answer.

Home schooling has been a good experience – I have great relations with my family, and have had some pretty cool and exciting adventures such as working on a farm for a week, or impromptu field trips to museums. But now I am considering other options for my education.

Meanwhile, I do have to deal with the stereotypes.

High schoolers, coaches, college kids, they all ask the same question: “Why don’t you go to a normal school?” Maybe they think I’m home schooled because I’m trying to stay sheltered from swearing and trashy talk, or bullies and bad teachers. Maybe they think I’m either super religious or anti government.

That’s true for some home-school families. According to National Center for Education Statistics, 31 percent of home-schoolers choose education at home due to the environment of other schools, and 30 percent do so for religious/moral reasons. And 16 percent home school because of dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools.

When I learned this, I wondered why we had started home schooling. So I interviewed my mom and she said that she started home schooling because relatives were doing it. In addition, “I liked the idea of being there when you read your first book or read your first sentence,” she said.

One of the most common stereotypes for home-schooled kids is that they are socially handicapped. I have to admit that there are some home schoolers who fit the stereotype. But there are socially-challenged students everywhere.

The question I hear the most is, “So, do you get out?” As in, “Are you in the house all day? Do you go anywhere?”

Yes, I get out. A lot.

During the first years of home schooling we would go on nature walks through a park and try to identify trees with a handbook, or we would tour a bakery – always with cookies at the end — or various factories and stores. We have volunteered at homeless shelters and food shelves such as “Feed My Starving Children.”

But if you think that home schooling means I can pretty much do what I want throughout the day, do not be deceived. My teacher, also known as my mother, is kind of strict. She wants me to know structure and discipline. I can’t mess around during school or spend hours on my favorite subject. We have a core curriculum that we need to push through in order to meet the state law requirements for Minnesota home schools. I hardly ever get snow days.

My mother also wants me to learn to be taught by others.

For this reason she has enrolled me in classes and activities outside my home ever since kindergarten. I have also been active in two home school co-ops. Each of these co-ops consisted of approximately 25 families and met about twice a month, except for electives which met on a weekly basis. We have rented out Rec Centers and churches as meeting places.

A memorable co-op moment was when we dissected cow’s eyes and turned them inside out. What a sight! Even more memorable was when my science class dissected a fetal pig. I’ll never forget how the intestines reminded me of spaghetti. Then when I got home we had spaghetti for supper! I was really hungry so I tried to forget about the intestines when I chewed.

Not only have I enjoyed those classes but I have made some awesome friends. In addition to the standard academic subjects, I have been able to study theatre and perform in a few productions. I have studied Japanese print making, Chinese watercolor techniques, how to prepare traditional foods from around the world, and Shakespeare. Through our co-op I was able to earn the National Physical Fitness Award for the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge.

In addition to all of these, I have participated in sports on a year round basis. According to recent studies, 90 percent of home-schooled kids participate in at least two social/community activities, including such things as 4-H, Bible clubs, Scouts, ballet classes, music lessons, sports, field trips and Sunday school.

You may be wondering, if this is such a great thing, why would I want to leave it?

I’m the kind of person who likes trying new things. I’ve been doing this all the way through the first year of high school. I would like to try out something else and see how I do in it. Now that I’m getting more into sports I would like to get on a school’s team and experience the school spirit. Plus, would like to meet new people and make new friends.

Last December I had the opportunity to tour Cretin Durham Hall, a Catholic high school in St. Paul that I hope to attend next year. The tour was after school hours so the huge building had a slightly creepy silence to it. As I moved down the long, winding halls, I thought, “This place is huge!”

My mom was more positive. “I think you’d love it here,” she said. “Think of all the people you’ll meet.”

As I began to take it all in, I started to think how fun it would be to play on those big basketball courts and to make my way through a bustling hallway.

And boy, would it be nice to be able to raise my hand and have someone come over and answer my question. Especially when it comes to math.

For Simon Lancaster, the family dining room has always been his classroom. Now a freshman in high school, he may switch to a Catholic high school in the fall.