Pros
City Year Cleveland is a great place to work if you want to make a difference. You can do anything from tutoring students to coordinating business partners. Cleveland needs all the help it can get, and when working for City Year in Cleveland you know you're making a difference in the lives of children and young adults. Not only do you get to help students (from 1st grade to senior year, and even some college students) achieve success, you also get to help the community directly by coordinating and participating in service events. Another great thing about CYC (City Year Cleveland) is the community and culture you build within the organization. CYC has a vast culture and warm environment, as soon as you start working there, you feel like your coworkers are your family. You develop professional and emotional bonds with the people you work with, making your community stronger and your working environment more comfortable and fun to be in. Along with improving the Cleveland community and getting involved in a very interesting culture, CYC also helps you improve your professional skills as well as personal practices. Spending a year with CYC makes a person grow personally in ways hard to imagine. If you aren't from Cleveland, it gives you a whole new perspective on the education system in big cities. And, everyone can benefit from the professional training CYC provides. Part of City Year culture is learning about Big Citizenship and how to fully implement your own personal power and idealism. Since the age range is 17-24, you work with a variety of people, from high school graduate to the occasional masters degree, it's an amazing opportunity to learn from peers who have the same goals and ideals as you. As if all this wasn't good enough, at the end of a year of service with City Year you'll receive an award of almost $5,000 toward a college education. In addition, if you've already been through college, you can benefit from forbearance on any loans. Meaning, you won't be racking up interest on your loans during your term of service with City Year. Since CYC is a type of civil service you will be eligible for many government benefits from the state of Ohio. A CYC corps member under 21 years of age is eligible for full health insurance from the state of Ohio, including dental and prescription coverage; any CYC corps member is eligible for the Ohio food stamps program; and HEAP which helps with heating bills. Overall, CYC is a great professional and personal skills building job. It is a very supportive community, and you'll be making a big difference in the lives of others. City Year Cleveland gives you many creative opportunities to shine, it is a very flexible organization where almost any program you want to implement is possible.
Cons
For all its strengths, City Year Cleveland is not a flawless company. The communication within teams can be foggy at times. When the service leader and other corps members are out at their school, the program manager for that team is in the office and sometimes communication between PM (program manager), SL (service leader), and CMs (corps members) gets convoluted. One of the most frustrating things about CYC is that we don't have enough corps members on certain teams, and when any CMs on smaller teams quit it puts a lot of burden on the remaining team members. Also, sometimes there can be disharmony between teams which causes a bit of an awkward situation for the members of those teams. City Year can be a pretty stressful job, and sometimes tensions grow thick, and patience grows thin. Since CYC focuses heavily on corps member development, some of your fellow corps members are going to seem incompetent, and very well may be. Sometimes it is very hard to maintain your patience with a team mate who is in charge of something that is too difficult for them. You just have to remember that their development is important, too, and that you can help your fellow corps members to succeed. The discipline system within City Year Cleveland is not as tight as the rules and expectations decree. Many times corps members will get away with breaking a rule multiple times in the same day without getting a write up. This can be very frustrating to those of us who always follow the rules. Working with high school students, especially, can be really disheartening. The saddest part of my job is trying to teach high school students who don't even know how to read. Sometimes, this job will seem hopeless, you might lose sight of the reason you joined, you might even contemplate quitting. But, really all the good you will do here will over shadow the bad if you stick with it long enough. It can be hard to find your niche among the students, it can be difficult to establish good relationships with them, but CYC will give you the support you need if you ask for it. As with any job, CYC is full of different types of people. Not all of whom you will get along well with, it can be a very flustering job at times. But, in the end you know it's probably worth it, and all the students you help to succeed will make you know it was worth it.