Earlier this month, Service Year Alliance celebrated 11 outstanding Americans united by a common experience – a service year. They served in Buffalo and Missoula, built homes in the Bay Area, helped community members find safe and affordable housing in Salt Lake City, and provided free vision care for students on the South Side of Chicago. 

And, while impressive, their 20 collective service years are just half the reason why they were identified by our organization as Service Year Alums Awards Honorees in 2025. 

Today, they’re doctors-in-training and global education consultants, law students and lawyers, volunteers and data scientists. Their accomplishments in post-service professional, academic, and volunteer settings exemplify the unwavering commitment to service and impact we sought to celebrate and offer a reminder about the true strength and character of everyday citizens. 

Here is just some of what they can teach us about our country and each other:

Logan Beyer found direction – and an unexpected talent for striking a nail with a hammer – in back-to-back service years with Habitat for Humanity.

While serving, she saw firsthand how the factors accounting for where someone lives can affect their health and well-being. She met parents stuck in high-crime neighborhoods too afraid to let their children play outside, and children with asthma struggling to breathe thanks to moldy carpets in their apartments.

Today, six years after taking off her hard hat for the last time, Logan’s doctoral work at Harvard Medical School specifically examines how, when, and where neighborhoods impact children.

Logan’s post-service path reflects what many alums have shared with us – a year of service positively impacts communities and corps members alike.

Don Holly and Brendan Csaposs grew up worlds apart and pursued drastically different service experiences. 

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Don Holly helped growers in Jamaica adopt modern farming techniques and adapt to modern ways of doing business. Today, he continues his service as a Program Analyst for the Environmental Protection Agency.  

Brendan Csaposs’ service years were largely spent within classrooms in New York City and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As an AmeriCorps member with Jumpstart, Teach for America, and City Year, Brendan honed his expertise in schools and education systems to now serve as a global education consultant based in Nairobi, Keyna.

Don and Brendan represent America at its strongest, when “the face of America” abroad, as former Secretary of State Colin Powell observed, includes the Peace Corps volunteer, U.S. diplomat, or aid worker. 

Service years have a unique way of bringing people together across lines of difference, an impact of service we’ve explored through our Bridging Divides in National Service Initiative.

Jordan Bohlen served with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City, helping newly arrived refugees and other vulnerable populations find safe, healthy, and affordable housing. Jordan’s mission was to help clients – many of whom did not speak English and had no rental history in the United States – navigate this landscape amid a post-pandemic housing shortage.

“It was more than just helping people find housing,” Jordan shared with us, “it was about helping them reclaim stability, security, and a sense of belonging.”

In the years since then, Jordan remains committed to helping refugee and immigrant families find a home in the Salt Lake area.

Keith Smith’s journey to AmeriCorps began more than 50 years earlier at the height of the Vietnam War. As a 19-year-old, Keith joined the United States Navy and served aboard surface ships directly engaged in combat operations. The experience left an enduring impression on Keith, both in answering the call to serve and in dealing with the memory of war.

Through counseling, Keith began to find his way back to his sense of self – a journey that accelerated once he found a new sense of purpose in helping others. While the mission of AmeriCorps was new, the call to serve was a familiar feeling.

At Service Year Alliance, we’re committed to making service years a common opportunity and expectation for young Americans. Recent terminations of AmeriCorps programs and funding impede our ability to foster the next cohort of Service Year alums like Logan, Don, Brendan, Jordan, and Keith.

Their contributions make clear that the benefits of a service year are not contained to the months a corps member or volunteer spends in service, but lead to a lifetime of impact.

They are role models for us all, and our nation is better because of their service.

As Chief Executive Officer of Service Year Alliance, Kristen Bennett is responsible for formulating and ensuring the execution of Service Year Alliance’s strategy to make a service year a common expectation and opportunity. A leader at Service Year Alliance since its founding — most recently as Chief Strategy Officer and interim co-CEO — Kristen brings nearly 15 years of national service experience and an in-depth understanding of the sector to the role as national service launches into a new era.