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Posts by Paul Costello1

Resumes Are Dying — Here’s What’s Replacing Them

June 16, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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George J. Ziogas ·Jun 8, 2025 Medium

Sending off a resume and tailoring a cover letter to a specific employer used to be the gold standard when applying to jobs.

This is no longer the case. While many companies and employers still ask for them, traditional resumes are increasingly seen as too static, too one-dimensional, to provide any actionable information for recruiters and hiring managers.

There are solid reasons employers are turning away from resumes, and there are all sorts of new things they are looking for instead.

Resumes simply don’t provide the necessary information

Resumes used to be a fast, simple way for employers to find employees with the qualifications they wanted. When humans had to read all the job applications themselves, it helped to have one page of information that highlighted a person’s degree and job titles in handy, bullet-pointed lists.

Because employers now tend to receive so many applications for so many positions, they typically employ applicant tracking systems (ATS) to sift through them and discard those that don’t include keywords or formatting required by the recruiter or hiring manager.

This means that recruiters and HR departments will increasingly square off against job seekers in AI battles that will be detrimental to both. Employers will double down on what they think are the most pertinent keywords their applicants need to use, and applicants will use tools like ChatGPT to employ those keywords.

Luckily, both employers and applicants are turning to new (maybe even more effective?) ways to find one another.

Rise of the video

There’s a reason people spend a lot of time on YouTube and TikTok. Videos are a powerful medium, and applicants are beginning to submit them — in the form of “video resumes” — to potential employers.

Although experts warn that video resumes are becoming more popular, that doesn’t mean they’re right for everyone — or for every role.

When done well, however, video resumes can highlight applicant strengths that might never have shown up on traditional resumes. Video resumes allow people to showcase their personality and communication styles, helping employers visualize how applicants might fit into their workplace culture.

The video format is also helping employers get right to interviewing, faster. Rather than taking a chance on offering just a few qualified applicants in-person interviews, which can be costly and time-consuming, recruiters and other hiring professionals are more frequently offering candidates “asynchronous” interview questions.

This means that employers can ask more candidates the same predetermined interview questions, and allow applicants to record videos of themselves answering those questions.

Asynchronous interviews can be beneficial for both hiring professionals (resulting in travel cost savings and a wider pool of applicants) and those hoping to be hired (who can take more time to prepare their answers, and showcase their interpersonal communication skills).

The power of your online presence

Employers frequently state that they are moving away from resumes because they are more interested in people’s demonstrable skills than in the job titles they’ve had.

One way in which job applicants can show (not tell) their skill set, is to optimize their online presence to highlight those skills.

J.T. O’Donnell, the founder and CEO of Work It DAILY, says that companies and employers are now Googling prospective employees after checking out their resume, but before scheduling interviews, because they are looking for evidence that you’re knowledgeable, credible, and capable of solving their problems.

O’Donnell also lists the components of a strong online presence that can wow prospective employers. Items employers might be particularly interested in include applicants’ LinkedIn profile (including the “about” section, posts about recent achievements, and a job-seeker’s connections) and their “thought leadership content” (content produced to provide tangible resources to other colleagues).

Other online products applicants have created can also entice recruiters and hiring managers, including websites, coding repositories, and online work samples.

A prospective employee’s online presence also includes their social media footprint. Many companies are now performing “social media background checks” on applicants they are considering — meaning that they are looking not only at professional attributes, but at personal values and behaviors as well.

It’s a brave new world of hiring — and being hired

Resumes used to be a tried-and-true method for employers and prospective employees to find one another in an efficient, consistent way.

But job candidates can now present more personal, immediate, and specific pictures of their skills and their interpersonal and online “personalities” to recruiters and hiring managers. Likewise, those doing the hiring can learn so much more about candidates than they were once able to from a short, text-only document.

New times call for new tools, and even if the resume becomes obsolete, those on both sides of the hiring equation should take heart that there are so many exciting new ways to meet one another.

https://medium.com/psychology-of-workplaces/resumes-are-dying-heres-what-s-replacing-them-818422da3fbf

Children’s Hope Scale

June 12, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Children's Hope Scale (CHS) – MHPSS Knowledge Hub
  1. Author(s): Snyder CR, Hoza B, Pelham WE, Rapoff M, Ware L, Danovsky M, Highberger L, Ribinstein H, Stahl KJ 

Directions: The six sentences below describe how children think about themselves and how they do things in general. Read each sentence carefully. For each sentence, please think about how you are in most situations. Please check inside the circle that describes YOU the best. For example, please check in the circle above “none of the time” if this describes you. Or, if you are this way “all the time,” check this circle. Please answer every question by putting a check in one of the circles. There are no right or wrong answers.

I think I am doing pretty well.
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time
I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are most important to me.
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time
I am doing just as well as other kids my age
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time
When I have a problem, I can come up with lots of ways to solve it.
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time
I think the things I have done in the past will help me in the future.
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time
Even when others want to quit, I know that I can find ways to solve the problem.
None of the time A little of the time Some of the time A lot of the time Most of the time All of the time

Citation: Snyder CR, Hoza B, Pelham WE, Rapoff M, Ware L, Danovsky M, Highberger L, Ribinstein H, Stahl KJ. The development and validation of the Children’s Hope Scale. Journal of pediatric psychology. 1997;22(3):399-421.

Hopeful Kids are Happy Kids

June 12, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Dr Justin CoulsonJuly 6, 2015

Raising a happy and resilient kid requires more than just encouragement—it involves fostering hope. Through goal-setting, resilience, and pathways to success, children can grow with the optimism and confidence they need to thrive. Here’s how hope plays a central role in their wellbeing.

Think of two children you have regular contact with: one who is resilient and happy, and one who is struggling and languishing. Imagine you are interviewing each of them, and you ask them to respond to each of these six questionnaire items:

  1. I think I am doing pretty well
  2. I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are important to me
  3. I am doing just as well as other kids my age
  4. When I have a problem I can come up with lots of ways to solve it
  5. I think the things I have done in the past will help me in the future
  6. Even when others want to quit, I can find ways to solve the problem

Chances are that the child who is resilient will respond affirmatively to these items. The child who is struggling is more likely to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’.

These items are from the Children’s Hope Scale, and assess the hopefulness of children and teens. In terms of resilience and wellbeing, hope is a critically important predictor of how our children are going.

Understanding Hope

Psychologists say a person has hope when they belief that they can find ways to achieve their goals and to motivate themselves to try and follow those ways to get those goals. Hope theory suggests we need three things to actually have ‘hope’:

  1. Goals – something we are aiming to achieve in the future
  2. Pathways – at least one way (and hopefully more than one) that we might achieve those goals
  3. Agency (or sometimes called efficacy) – the belief that we can actually make things happen along those pathways in order to get the goal.

Hope vs Optimism

Hope sounds a bit like optimism. We hope good things will happen… so we’re optimistic. But there’s more to it than that.

While optimism is the belief that good things will happen in the future, and the sense that the glass is half full, hope is about taking that optimism, making it goal oriented, and putting legs on it to make things happen.

And while optimism is great for boosting wellbeing and can act as a useful tool for inoculating people against depression, it seems hope does it better. This may be because while optimism is a positive mindset, hope is about action.

Why hope?

The Importance of Hope for Children

Kids who are hopeful are happier. They are more satisfied with life. They even do better with things like academic and athletic achievement and success. Hopeful kids have better relationships.

And if you don’t have hope, well, you’re hope-less. That’s related to all the things we don’t want for our children. Hopeless kids don’t try, have poor relationships, and feel helpless. They don’t achieve goals, often because they don’t set any. And when they do set them, that’s where it stops because they don’t have enough hope to find ways to achieve those goals.

How to Instil Hope in Your Child

Parents who want to instil hope in their children can try the following three ideas:

  • Build a future focus. Speak to your children about their possible futures. What do they want to achieve, and why? Have them imagine their potential best selves. Talk to them about what they’re looking forward to. Ask them what they want to have, do, and be.
  • Work with them on plans (or pathways).When your child says “I want to be a marine biologist”, be encouraging and then ask them, “What do you need to do to get there?” Discuss pathways, options, and possibilities. Thinking about the future and making plans is central in fostering hope.
  • When they’re stuck, rather than giving them an answer, ask them, “What do you think is the next best thing to do?” or “When have you overcome something like this before?” These types of questions promote a sense of agency or efficacy. Rather than having our children rely on us for all of the answers, they can rely on themselves, their resourcefulness, and their initiative. They can recall times they’ve succeeded before and use that to build hope that they can succeed again.

As parents, our wish for our children is that they will grow up happy and resilient. Our wish can become ‘hope’ when we use these three keys to build hope in them as they look towards the future.

Hopeful Kids are Happy Kids

The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful

June 12, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Teaching Your Kids How to be Hopeful

By Cambria Siddoway…. Brigham Young University

Kids hope for a lot of things. Some kids may hope that Santa will bring them a puppy for Christmas or that they can become great at what they love – when I was a child I hoped to be an accomplished ballerina. Still other kids hope that their brother will stop fighting in school or that their mom will get a better job to help pay the bills. Regardless of the object of hope, the ability to possess hope has significant benefits for children. For example, children who feel hopeful set high goals for themselves, are more optimistic, and have higher self-esteem.

Despite these benefits, levels of hopefulness decline with age. Where did all that hope for the future go? Why are youth naturally more hopeful? Can anything be done to keep hope from fading with age? These important research questions are central to the work of Dr. Ashley Fraser in Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life.

Measuring Hope

Dr. Fraser’s work builds on the theory of hope developed by Rick Snyder (Fraser et al., 2022) which highlights three central characteristics through which hope is experienced. For an individual to truly hope for something, they must be able to first, set a goal. Second, they need to engage in a process known as pathways thinking, which means making a plan to accomplish the goal. Third, the individual must believe that they can make the choices and develop the abilities necessary to follow that plan, a practice known as agency thinking.

In light of this process, Dr. Fraser’s research aims to identify how the unique experience of each individual affects their ability to develop hope.. She examines how the quality of relationships with family and friends relate to the characteristics described by hope theory. Importantly, her research highlights how people’s differences in race, gender, socioeconomic status, and religion, either promote or hinder the abilities central to children’s ability to hope.

\Though many studies have examined how feelings of hope change over time (Fraser et al., 2021; Fraser et al., 2022), Dr. Fraser’s research goes beyond documenting levels of hopefulness to examining what influences the experience of hope. In order to measure the nebulous construct of hope, she observes children’s behaviors associated with goal-setting, pathway thinking, and agency thinking during a structured play task.

In this play task, Dr. Fraser’s research team assigns children to complete an easy task where the goal is for each child to drive a toy car through a simple maze to reach a sticker. After the children complete this task, they are asked to do the same thing but this time the pathway to the sticker is blocked. The speech and behaviors the children use to complete this task even with the obstacle allows Fraser and her team to observe elements of pathway thinking. The final task assigned is an impossible one. All of the paths to the sticker are blocked. Researchers monitor the kids’ self-talk and reaction to facing an impossible task in order to measure aspects of their agency thinking. These observations, allow Dr. Fraser’s team to examine characteristics of hopeful thinking in children and also analyze the type of things that influence its development and expression over time.

The Importance of Hope

When kids feel hopeful, they have better outcomes. In school, kids who feel more hopeful score better on tests and reach a higher GPA (Fraser et al., 2021; Fraser et al., 2022). Emotionally, kids who feel more hopeful have higher self-esteem, believe in themselves more, and feel a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in life (Bryce et al., 2020; Fraser et al., 2022). Hope can offset poor mental health such as depression and anxiety (Fraser et al., 2021; Fraser et al., 2022). Further, hope is not a fixed or innate ability. Research shows that hope can be taught and learned (Bryce et al., 2020; Fraser et al., 2022) and that positive experiences in children’s families and schools can help them feel more hopeful about their abilities and their futures.

How to Encourage Hopefulness in Children

Based on the research surrounding hope, Dr. Fraser suggests three ways to promote higher levels of hopefulness across childhood.

• First, regularly and intentionally discuss the future with children. Guide and assist children in setting goals that are realistic and attainable. 2 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/familyperspectives/vol5/iss2/3Siddoway: The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful

• Help children make smaller “stepping stone” goals that will help them to achieve their larger goal. When challenges arise, work with children to overcome those obstacles in order to keep moving towards their main goal.

• Provide warmth, love, and support. By developing a relationship that is founded on encouragement, children are better equipped to believe in themselves. Praise children when smaller goals are reached and encourage children to not give up when obstacles occur.

Discussing the future, working on small goals, and being supportive can help children nurture hope. This hope is a powerful tool for building a brighter future.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

References:
Bryce, C. I., Alexander, B. L., Fraser, A. M., & Fabes, R. A. (2020). Dimensions of hope in adolescence: Relations to academic functioning and well‐being. Psychology in the Schools, 57(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1002/ pits.22311

Fraser, A.M., Alexander, B.L., Abry, T., Sechler, C.M., & Fabes, R.A. (2022). Youth Hope and Educational Contexts. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138609877-REE117-1 Fraser, A. M., Bryce, C. I.,

Alexander, B. L., & Fabes, R. A. (2021). Hope levels across adolescence and the transition to high school: Associations with school stress and achievement. Journal of Adolescence, 91, 48–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.07.004

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=familyperspectives#:~:text=Emotionally%2C%20kids%20who%20feel%20more,et%20al.%2C%202022).

Family Perspectives Family Perspectives Volume 5 Issue 2 Article 3 2023 The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful Cambria Siddoway cambsidd@student.byu.edu

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/familyperspectives Part of the Life Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Siddoway, Cambria (2023) “The Importance of Teaching Kids How to be Hopeful,” Family Perspectives: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 3.

Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/familyperspectives/vol5/iss2/3

Federal Court Ruling

June 11, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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United States District Court for the District of Maryland - Wikipedia

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

STATE OF MARYLAND, et al.,                       *

            Plaintiffs,                                                  *

v.                                                                           *                Civ. No. DLB-25-1363

CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND            * COMMUNITY SERVICE, operating as

AmeriCorps, et al., *
            Defendants.*

ORDER

For the reasons stated in the memorandum opinion issued today, in accordance with

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(b), and upon finding that the defendants likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking before making significant changes to service delivery, that the plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed if this injunction does not issue, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest favor an injunction, it is this 5th day of June, 2025, hereby ORDERED: 

b.       The defendants shall RESTORE the affected AmeriCorps programs in the plaintiff states to the status quo prior to the April 25, 2025 grant terminations by

– REINSTATING the grants in the plaintiff states that were terminated

-and by RETURNING to service the AmeriCorps and VISTA members who were serving on those programs as of the date of the grant terminations (if they are willing and able to return). 

Attorney General Brown Wins Court Order To Stop The Dismantling Of AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps Publishes 2025 National Service Reports

June 10, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mar 13, 2025

The latest national service reports detail the AmeriCorps footprint across all 50 states, Washington, DC, and U.S. territories.

WASHINGTON, DC— AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, released today the 2025 National Service Reports. The reports provide a comprehensive view of the financial investments made by AmeriCorps across all 50 states, Washington, DC, and U.S. territories. These profiles review how each state and their local partners leveraged federal investments, in addition to highlighting the number of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers who served between February 23, 2024 and February 21, 2025.

These state reports demonstrate the scope of AmeriCorps’ presence throughout the nation with programs in nearly 35,000 locations spanning urban, rural, and tribal communities. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve at nonprofit, faith-based, municipal and community-based organizations to address the nation’s most pressing issues in six core focus areas: education, economic opportunity, disaster services, environmental stewardship, healthy futures and veterans and military families. The top five states receiving AmeriCorps and non-federal funding include California ($131.1 million), Texas ($70.4 million), Minnesota ($64.5 million), New York ($59.1 million) and Florida ($52.2 million). See a full list of reports by state.

“AmeriCorps works for America,” said Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi, Interim Agency Head, AmeriCorps. “Our latest National Service Reports prove it, showing strong returns on investment across all 50 states, U.S. territories, and DC. Through evidence-based projects meeting urgent local needs, we engaged 200,000 Americans in sustained service last year, who then inspired 1.9 million more volunteers to join in.”

Between January of 2023 and January of 2024, 200,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers supported student success, connected veterans to services, provided key services to fight the opioid epidemic, helped seniors live independently, and rebuilt communities after disasters. Almost 60,000 of these participants were AmeriCorps members who received a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which can be used to pay down student loans or cover tuition, as AmeriCorps alumni further their education and improve their career prospects. Since 1994, AmeriCorps participants have earned a total of $4.8 billion in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards. 86 percent of these members report that their service has furthered their professional goals, leading to communities across America benefitting from improved local employment outcomes as a result of service with AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, provides opportunities for Americans to serve their country domestically, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, improve lives and communities, and strengthen civic engagement. Each year, the agency places more than 200,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in intensive service roles; and empowers millions more to serve as long-term, short-term, or one-time volunteers. Learn more at AmeriCorps.gov.

AmeriCorps offers opportunities for individuals of all backgrounds to be a part of the national service community, grow personally and professionally, and receive benefits for their service. Learn how to get involved at AmeriCorps.gov/Serve.

https://www.americorps.gov/newsroom/press-release/americorps-publishes-2025-national-service-reports

AmeriCorps funding restored temporarily

June 10, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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smiling man in Americorps tsho=irt works in commercial kitchen

Alamoza Citizen Own Woods June 5 2025


U.S. District Court Judge Deborah L. Boardman on Thursday issued an 86-page preliminary injunction stating the Trump Administration must restore millions of dollars in AmeriCorps grant funding and the employment of thousands of its service members. 

This comes after two dozen states sued the administration in late April over the cuts to funding. The temporary block to the administration is only applicable to the states that sued the administration, which includes Colorado. 

Attorney General Phil Weiser in a statement on Thursday in response to the ruling said, “The illegal cuts to AmeriCorps threaten Colorado communities that rely on program volunteers to provide services to military veterans, older Americans aging in place, people dealing with substance abuse, and wildfire mitigation support.” 

The cuts to grant funding were headed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. AmeriCorps was budgeted through Congress, which approved spending of $557 million this year. It has an average operating budget of more than $1 billion.

Boardman allowed for the reduction in AmeriCorps’ workforce, effectively denying the states’ request to restore the majority of staff that were placed on administrative leave. At least 85 percent of the 500 full-time federal AmeriCorps staff were put on administrative leave in late April, some with very little notice. 

Boardman’s ruling also allowed for National Civilian Community Corps members to be reinstated only if they are willing and able, according to the Associated Press. 

Attorneys general in 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a joint lawsuit in late April. Weiser said the coalition of states is arguing that the Trump Administration acted unlawfully in cutting AmeriCorps, violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution. 

“The true spirit of service embodied by the hundreds of AmeriCorps members and volunteers across the state is something that gives me hope in the future,” Weiser said. “As the judge says in the opinion, ‘these volunteers represent the best of us.’ The mass closure of AmeriCorps programs, removal of national service corps members from service, and the termination of federal funding makes no sense.”

Most AmeriCorps members are between the ages of 22 and 26. More than 1,000 members were in service across Colorado at the time of the cuts. The San Luis Valley hosts a current cohort of 18 members who primarily worked through La Puente. 

TJ Mendez, who oversees AmeriCorps volunteers in south-central Colorado as part of the Rural Alliance for Dignity, or RAD, which includes the Valley, was notified late at night in April of the cuts. He oversees 35 members across the region. 

“All 35 of my members were part of that 33,000,” Mendez said in an earlier story. 

He said without AmeriCorps volunteers, a drastic reduction in services would ensue. “We cannot sustain our current programming without these AmeriCorps members. So our services are going to be drastically affected.”

Alamosa Citizen reached out to Mendez for comment on the injunction but hasn’t received word at the time of writing. 

La Puente executive director Lance Cheslock noted that for the past three years, the San Luis Valley has hosted more than 120 AmeriCorps members who have provided more than 250,000 hours of service.

At La Puente, AmeriCorps volunteer service included distributing more than 1 million meals, serving more than 12,000 distinct families. These volunteers are among a long list of young people who have become part of the fabric of rural communities, he said.

A 2022 study found that for every federal dollar spent, AmeriCorps volunteers generate as much as $34 in value. They are the “elbow grease, the manpower” in the Valley’s communities, Mendez said. 

“Every region in Colorado has directly benefited from the contributions of AmeriCorps members. This win today is important, but I won’t stop fighting until we’ve permanently put a stop to the Trump Administration’s reckless and shortsighted attempt to destroy AmeriCorps and the spirit of community service for which it stands,” said Weiser. 

AmeriCorps funding restored temporarily 

Judge Orders Reinstatement of AmeriCorps Programs in 24 States

June 10, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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People wearing blue Americorps T-shirts stand with their backs to the camera.

NYT June 6th Zach Montague

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s wholesale dismantling of AmeriCorps, an independent federal agency that facilitates public community service opportunities, reversing the termination of its grants and volunteer network across 24 Democratic-led states.

In an opinion explaining the ruling, Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the Federal District Court in Maryland wrote that the various programs funded through AmeriCorps — which include public health, veteran transition services, conservation and environmental protection, and education support — have come to fill a void in government services in many parts of the country.

The sudden suspension of those programs, which she emphasized was done at the behest of the Department of Government Efficiency, left states marooned and struggling to provide for their residents, she concluded.

The government had argued that if it were ordered to restore the grant programs, but eventually prevailed in the case, it could stand to lose millions of dollars that would be impossible to recover.

To underscore her point about the critical nature of the agency’s work, Judge Boardman reversed that logic.

“If, at the end of this litigation, the government is vindicated and cannot recover the funds that Congress appropriated for national service,” she wrote, “the funds will have been spent on improving the lives of everyday Americans: veterans, people with substance use disorder, people with disabilities, children with learning differences, Indigenous communities, people impacted by natural disasters and people trying to survive below the poverty line, Any harm the defendants might face if the agency actions are enjoined pales in comparison to the concrete harms that the states and the communities served by AmeriCorps programs have suffered and will continue to suffer.”

Ticking through the diverse services AmeriCorps volunteers provide, Judge Boardman listed a handful of them in her opinion, mentioning disaster recovery after the California wildfires, awareness programs to fight opioid misuse, and teacher residencies that support special education and low-achieving elementary school students.

While the order preserved the programs and their funding across the 24 states involved in the lawsuit, it did not reverse cuts to the agency’s staff of roughly 700 people, which was dramatically downsized.

In April, the Trump administration took a series of steps to dismantle AmeriCorps, including firing nearly 85 percent of its employees and terminating more than 1,000 grants that supported its tens of thousands of volunteers with roughly $400 million in federal funding. It also shuttered the National Civilian Community Corps, a full-time residential volunteer program, recalling about 750 participants in the program stationed around the country.

The moves were spearheaded by Elon Musk and his associates with the Department of Government Efficiency, who descended upon the agency with an eye to dismantling it within weeks, using the same blitz playbook used on other congressionally funded entities like the U.S. Institute of Peace.

A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia sued to stop the effort, citing scores of key services that the program cuts had jeopardized.

Especially after the Supreme Court recently weighed whether to prohibit district courts from issuing sweeping nationwide actions, judges have been cautious about delivering such rulings. In her opinion, Judge Boardman, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., detailed her rationale for keeping the order tailored.

In limiting her order to the grants and programs supporting the 24 states that sued, only volunteers working in those states could be restored. That included participants in programs such as VISTA, the agency’s most popular anti-poverty program.

But Judge Boardman found that trying to impose the same limitations on the National Civilian Community Corps would be “neither practical nor feasible” because of its structure. She noted that the program’s members rotate through short-term projects across multiple states in a given year, and could not be returned to work only in service of the two dozen states that sued.

She ordered that the program be returned to the status quo before the Trump administration cuts took effect in April, and that its participants resume their work “if they are willing and able to return.”

Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the U.S. Department of Education, the White House and federal courts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/politics/judge-reinstatement-americorps-programs.html

How to Lend a Child Confidence

June 9, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Published on September 9, 2021 | Updated on June 6, 2025 The School of Life

A near-universal goal of parents is to try to imbue their children with confidence; to try to lend them the energy, self-belief and courage to eventually be able to act decisively in the world. With sufficient confidence, they will know how to go up to strangers and ask for help, push their interests forward at work, articulate their wishes to prospective partners and trust in their decency and right to exist.

But how to imbue this confidence remains a complex matter. The standard approach involves trying to remind children of their qualities: whatever they may sometimes feel, they are clever. Whatever a few mean people might say, they are special. Whatever they may think in front of the mirror, they are beautiful. Whatever they sometimes fear, they are neither idiots nor fools. With such generous sentiments in their ears, children will – we trust – have a chance of confronting challenges without being interrupted by a sense of inadequacy. They will know that despite the difficulties, they are competent and deserving – and that the world should be grateful for their presence.

Although this sounds generous, exulting a child in this way may unwittingly generate whole new levels of doubt. The implication is that grounds for confidence are primarily derived from being clever, talented, beautiful and deserving. Yet by equating confidence with wondrousness, the child is being burdened with a forbidding picture of what is required for success. The bar is unconsciously being set in an elevated position; one is just being assured – slightly unbelievably – that one will clear it.

It might be better to push in a slightly different direction. Sensitive children are in danger of overestimating the adult world and thereby of throttling their talents and sense of initiative out of misfounded respect. It can seem to them as if teachers must know everything, so there is no need to think sceptically about most of what they teach. It can seem as if people at the top of important professions have been endowed with unusual degrees of intelligence, which makes their jobs impossible to get. And in their own peer group, it can look as though the popular and attractive people must have life securely worked out at every level, and could therefore have no need for a new friend or partner.

In this context, it may help a young person to be given access to some apparently dark but in the end liberating truths about the adult world. Despite certain appearances, and a lot of puffery and decorum, human beings are not on the whole an especially clever, competent, knowledgeable or respectable species. Indeed, as a rule, they are properly idiotic and rather damnable. The path to confidence is not to build up a child; it is to knock down society as a whole.

To appease a child’s terror that they might be stupid, rather than telling them that they are brilliant, one should let them know a far more cheering and believable idea: that they have foolish sides, but so has everyone else. They are definitely sometimes idiots, but so is the headmistress, the geography teacher, the president, the finance minister, the Nobel Prize winner, the great novelist, the zoologist, the movie star and all parents who have ever lived. There is no other option for a human being. We are a planet of seven billion idiots. We walk into doors, get things wrong, proffer moronic ideas, spill things down our fronts, forget our own names and ruin our lives – and these aren’t exceptions; they are the general rule. A worry that one might be a bit stupid doesn’t therefore mark one as special or specially damned; it makes one more like every other human in history. It certainly isn’t an argument for not trying to join a team or asking someone on a date, for refusing to apply to a particular university or imagine oneself in a given career.

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How to Lend a Child Confidence

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An after-school program in Trump’s backyard struggles to survive DOGE cuts

June 3, 2025 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Teo Armus Washington Post June 2nd 2025

It would have been hard to see much of a crisis brewing at the Arlington Mill Community Center, given the joyful stream of middle-schoolers bolting inside last month.

But it was there in the way 11-year-old Mason Soto greeted his teacher, Andrew Gelsinger.

“Mr. Andrew!” yelled Mason, running into the classroom. “You’re still here!”

Less than a week had passed since Gelsinger abruptly lost his position at the free after-school program in Northern Virginia — one of tens of thousands of roles funded by AmeriCorps that were slashed in cuts to that federal agency.

Gelsinger sat in the classroom with his students, some of them weeping, as they were told they would not be able to come back to Aspire Afterschool Learning to start their homework, grab a snack or play volleyball.

Just a few days later, Gelsinger’s bosses tapped into surplus funds to bring him and most other teachers back through the summer. How much the nonprofit’s budget could stretch after that, though, was uncertain.

In April, the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service canceled nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, effectively firing service members at Aspire and more than 1,000 other organizations across the country. Those groups were told the lost funding “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”S

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly has said AmeriCorps, an independent federal agency, was “a target-rich environment for President Trump’s agenda to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse” after failing eight consecutive audits.

Less than seven miles from the Oval Office — past the diners, taquerias and hair salons along Columbia Pike — here’s a sampling of what could be eliminated:🌸

Aspire teachers such as Gelsinger, who makes less than $30,000 a year, would lose their year-long positions. People such as Mason’s dad, a construction worker whose shifts often end past the final bell at his son’s middle school, would go without free child care and have to find and pay for it elsewhere. And students such as Mason, a mischievous kid in thick, rectangular glasses, would no longer have someone to teach and care for them after school. Instead, they would spend the afternoon alone.

The nonprofit’s leaders estimated that, following DOGE’s cuts, Aspire would be forced to serve as many as 50 fewer students per year.

On the day he and his teacher returned to class, Mason shifted his gaze to a laminated sheet pinned up in the back of the classroom, where Gelsinger was marking the boy’s attendance with five green dots.

“Mr. Andrew, what’s the schedule today?” he asked.

“We’re doing phonics,” Gelsinger answered, pointing to the whiteboard at the front.

The word of the week, scrawled in big, black letters, was “DISASSEMBLE: To take apart, to come apart, to disperse/scatter.”

Gelsinger fixated on the definition. It was, he later said, an apt summary of what might happen to Aspire.

Help for families in need

Aspire was created in 1994 to serve families that fall outside the more widely known image of Arlington County, a wealthy D.C. suburb that is home to lobbyists, federal workers and the Pentagon.

The Arlington parents who send their children to the nonprofit — at no cost — are the nurses, day laborers and janitors who make this community function for everyone else. Many of them can’t afford tutors or summer camps. In some cases, recently arrived immigrant parents rely on Aspire’s teachers to help their children pick up English.

Over the past three decades, the organization has grown from a shoestring operation inside a church basement to a nonprofit with a dedicated space in a county community center, where a group of largely Black and Latino students — most of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — come after school for extra lessons in math, reading and writing.

Juan Jose Soto, Mason’s father, said it was an easy decision to send the 11-year-old and his older brother there, given the difficulties in finding someone to watch them. He and his wife worried about them walking home alone after the older son, Joseph, was hit by a car while heading back from the bus stop by himself.

“Work doesn’t allow us to be on top of them all the time,” Soto said. “They don’t have anyone to watch over them. They’re safer here.”

Mason would get distracted easily at school, but at Aspire he was able to catch up and pushed his grades toward a mix of A’s and B’s.

A big part of that, Soto noted, was the teachers. Most classrooms had a pair of them, and in this case Gelsinger and his co-teacher, Dakota Yoon, managed to coax a restless kid who often blurted out comments in class to jot down his thoughts in a notebook instead.

Gelsinger, who moved every few years for his parents’ jobs, wanted to stick around the D.C. area after graduating from the University of Maryland. Earlier in the pandemic, he worked for a company that distributed coronavirus vaccines.

But every day felt monotonous there. Looking for a change, he applied at Aspire last year.

The position paid a “stipend” amounting to little more than the Virginia minimum wage — plus some student-loan relief. But seeing the children’s progress, week by week, made it feel worth it, Gelsinger said.

The eldest of four siblings, he loved working with the middle-schoolers, giving shout-outs to students who made big improvements so the rest of the class could hear.

“Now they’ll come in and, like, rush over to show their math test,” he said, “and it’s an 85. Which for most kids isn’t the greatest thing in the world. But for some of these kids, that’s a huge step forward.”

A dreaded email arrives

The three-sentence email arrived in Paula Fynboh’s inbox on a Monday afternoon in April, around the time Gelsinger and Yoon would have been leading their middle-school classroom in their daily “free choice” period.

“Pursuant to this notice of termination, all activities related to your grant should cease immediately,” the email read.

AmeriCorps already had been cutting programs across the country in reaction to the Trump administration’s efforts to cut government spending. Fynboh, who is Aspire’s executive director, had a bad feeling her program would be next.

The notice meant that Aspire’s 17 AmeriCorps service members, most of whom lead classrooms from third grade to middle school, could no longer get paid.

That afternoon, she allowed the classes to carry on as normal and offered the AmeriCorps service members the chance to return the following day — purely as volunteers — to wrap things up with their students. When the children got the news, some could not hold back their emotions.

A worried Mason did not know what to do. He had so many homework assignments the next week, he told his teachers, and now he had no idea how to finish them all.

He and Gelsinger sat togetherfor an hour and a half, tackling as many of his math problems as they could.

At night, he told his parents that he did not understand. “Why are they doing this? Why are they taking this away from me?” Soto recalled him asking.

At home in Greenbelt, Maryland, Gelsinger asked himself similar questions. He sent out four job applications that night.

“Everyone there is serving for not that much, and we have a $3 trillion budget as a country. You can’t pay to help the kids?” he said. “They’re smart. They care. Their parents just don’t always have the means to help them.”

Families trying to pitch in

The program’s directors joined a lawsuit against the federal government. They appealed to county lawmakers, who offered words of support but no financial assistance.

The Aspire board of directors decided to hire back the AmeriCorps service members, funding those positions through the end of its summer program. Come August, it could convert some positions into full-time staff jobs, using the rest of Aspire’s budget: $1.4 million that comes from state and local grants and corporate and personal donations.

But the math was unavoidable: If Aspire wanted to maintain reasonable class sizes — about a dozen students per teacher — the 150-child program would have to shrink by about a third.

Fynboh pulled out a sketch of a dollar bill one student had drawn,meant as a contribution to the program’s coffers. Even cash-strapped families were trying to pitch in as the organization scrambled to raise money,she said.

“It’s so touching because our parents may have very little,” Fynboh said, “but they still want to try to help.”

She was concerned that some students could miss out on reading and math help because they would have to take care of younger siblings after school, she said. Others might go without a hot meal in the afternoon. Families — most of whom would be eligible for a 75 percent discount on Arlington’s summer-camp programs — mightnot be able to afford even that sharply reduced cost.

Down the hall in the middle-school classroom, some students munched on plates of meat loaf and cucumber salad. A group of girls crowded around Yoon as one showed her photos from a cousin’s sweet 16 birthday celebration.

She and Gelsinger gathered them to start a phonics lesson, a routine they have followed since August.

“We’re so excited to have you all back,” Gelsinger told them. “We’re so excited to be back.”

How long that would last, though, he was not sure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/02/americorps-cuts-doge-trump-after-school-virginia/