Local siblings experience America’s
“Domestic Peace Corps”

By Dan Schiff

Jared Kahan

Helene Kahan raised her children to understand the value of community service through visits to soup kitchens and homeless shelters. But in 2007, her son and daughter took their altruism several steps further by signing up for AmeriCorps, the intensive national service program that helps fill community needs across the country.

“I think my children have found out and value what we have and realize that…there’s a different world out there,” said Kahan, a Colesville resident who works in technology support for Montgomery County Public Schools. “This was a real life-changing experience for both of them.”

Her daughter, Shira, 23, found herself graduating from Ohio University in 2006 and realizing she had been concerned with her own needs for too long. So she joined AmeriCorps as an antidote to what she considered a selfish way of life.

In early 2007, Shira Kahan shipped out for training and orientation at her team’s base in Denver. Over the course of her 10-month program, she has worked with at-risk youth in Denver, helped to rebuild hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast communities in Mississippi and New Orleans, and planted seeds to restore the decimated prairies of Iowa.

She admits that she never would have envisioned performing such grueling labor as a student at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.
“I come back from work sweaty and dirty and tired…but I’m here and I’m doing it,” she said. “It’s a good feeling to know that when I’m out of here, I’ll have met so many different people in areas I never would have touched and literally changed my life.”

As a side result of her initial research into AmeriCorps, Shira Kahan managed to interest her younger brother, Jared, 20, in the program. He wound up taking a year off from college at Arizona State University to join AmeriCorps.
Jared Kahan attended James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring and was heavily involved in the local chapter of the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO), a Jewish youth group.

Jeff Kauffman, a Kahan family friend and Jared’s former BBYO advisor, sees how Jared’s activeness and leadership in BBYO translated into his entering AmeriCorps.

“I think he was that kind of person that felt like, rather than just kind of flounder and figure it out sitting in a classroom, I’m going to go out and try and do something where I can definitely make a mark,” Kauffman said.

From the base in Sacramento, Calif., Jared’s team traveled first to the tiny California town of Alpaugh, distributing food to migrant workers affected by the orange crop freeze of early 2007. His squad would ultimately move down to the Gulf region, including New Orleans, where the Kahan siblings crossed paths.

Throughout her AmeriCorps experience, Shira Kahan was left frustrated by how many people were unfamiliar with the AmeriCorps concept, despite the positive work done by the program.

“We often compare ourselves to a domestic Peace Corps, but I would love for the AmeriCorps name to actually be able to stand on its own,” she said.
Coincidentally, few have been as active in promoting AmeriCorps as Shira’s brother. Jared Kahan served as a big contributor to his team’s blog (http://www.americorps.gov/ncccblog/) and was interviewed on camera by CNN’s Anderson Cooper in New Orleans for a piece on Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts.

“It was cool. Definitely a momentous occasion,” Jared said of the interview. “I’m glad [Cooper] came down to shine a national light on what should be a national problem.”

Additionally, when President Bush and the first lady held a dinner in New Orleans to commemorate Katrina’s second anniversary, Jared represented AmeriCorps at the table, surrounded by notables such as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Jared was diplomatic about the fact that the president’s administration had previously targeted AmeriCorps for funding cuts and said he appreciated the sense of communal recovery fostered by the president at the dinner. Shira Kahan chuckled at her brother’s celebrity encounters.

“We now have a joke on my team that I have to go ahead and be Oprah’s best friend in order to top him,” she said.

Looking beyond AmeriCorps, the Kahans are now plotting their next steps. Jared will be returning to Arizona State to study public affairs and public relations in the spring.

Shira has learned from her service work that she “can’t just be a paper pusher,” and expressed interest in exploring her passions in media and theatre.

Both siblings plan to continue promoting and recruiting for AmeriCorps. Their mother will appreciate this, knowing that many young adults are seeking ways to make a difference.

“Its one of the best programs that exists,” said Helene Kahan. “I wish more people would know about it because there’s so many kids out there that just have no direction and, also, kids out there who come from a middle class environment like we do who have no idea how lucky they are.”

For more information about opportunities about AmeriCorps, visit www.americorps.org.

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