AmeriCorps Member Spotlight

Macy Barwick, Indy Reads WorkLiteracy Coach

Favorite memory so far as an Indy Reads AmeriCorps Member?

Playing games with the students in the ELL class. They are super competitive and have totally mastered the art of trash talk. I love it.

Last book you read?

Severance by Ling Ma

Favorite band/musician?

Phoebe Bridgers. I love being melancholy.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Read, write really bad poetry and screenplays, take care of my copious number of plants, thrift with my roommate, and find obscure gifts to mail to my friends.

Why did you apply to be an Indy Reads AmeriCorps WorkLiteracy Coach?

I think the simple answer is to help people and to help my community. One summer I interned at a local nonprofit near my college that specializes in connecting members of the community with resources that could help them with basic necessities, such as job training, housing, child care, and reading. This organization, like Indy Reads, offered literacy classes for the community, and that is when I realized that something I took for granted, my ability to read, was something that a lot of people struggled with. I began learning how literacy impacts every facet of someone’s life. When I found the Indy Reads AmeriCorps program, I knew that I had to do it.