Living as part of a community means being connected to others. Issues ripple through a community and so do successes and triumphs. The American Justice Corps (AJC), an NC State student organization, strives to connect campus with the surrounding community in meaningful ways to foster change for the better.
Matt Dwyer, the executive officer of AJC and a junior studying engineering, describes how the organization got started.
“Wyatt [Russell] is our founder,” Dwyer said. “He started the club because of our seminar together through the Honors Program named Diversity and Ecological Justice, which took place during our first semester at State. The professor, Dr. [Thomas] Easley, taught the class. At the end of this amazing class we had to create a Next Steps project, projects we would pursue after the class that utilized our knowledge from the class.”
Russell’s project was to start a new club at NC State that fights for social justice and impacts the community. According to Dwyer, that club became the American Justice Corps.
AJC has two main activities going on currently that focus on high school and elementary school students.
Joanna Copio, the treasurer of AJC and junior in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the college of sciences, talks about these activities.
“So far, we mentor high schoolers at AMIkids, which is a program for kids stuck in the student prison pipeline so that they can get back on the right track and return to their original high schools,” Copio said. “There, we do bonding and leadership activities with the staff and students.”
Dwyer said this schooling program mentors about twenty-five high school students who are at risk for falling into a continual resuspension pattern that could lead to incarceration at a young age.
“We visit this school every Monday and Friday to help further develop students’ personal and professional growth while providing a positive example,” Dwyer said. “We mentor them and answer any questions they have about college or life in general. This is done by creating fun activities to get students thinking about the future, helping with the garden at the high school and playing sports to bond with the students.”
The club hopes to make a difference in the community by giving kids that are generally overlooked a chance, according to Copio. Once students who have been suspended, expelled or arrested reach middle school and high school, they are generally considered a lost cause.
“Resources and time are not dedicated to them because people seem to believe that they will not be able to become responsible citizens of the community,” Copio said. “Our organization challenges that ideation and gives the students the time and attention they need to know how valued they are.”
The second activity that the AJC is currently involved in is the literacy program through Boys & Girls Club. This program involves working with students in elementary school who have fallen behind in their reading ability, according to Dwyer.
“We try to provide personalized help to these students as well as encouragement,” Dwyer said. “Furthermore, we encourage students to form their own thoughts and opinions on a piece of literature, rather than conforming to standardized ways of thinking. We encourage these students to write down their experiences and thoughts in journals as well.”
The AJC strives to impact the surrounding community through these programs, and these programs support the club’s main goal: impacting the community.
Building a strong and united community has a plethora of benefits, and helping children and changing lives is what being a human being is all about according to Dwyer.
“We all have a common humanity that unites us, therefore seeing people struggle is difficult for all of us,” Dwyer said. “So, helping ease the pain of someone else’s life or forever alter the future of a teen’s life is powerful.”
By uplifting individuals and providing supportive resources, a community is uplifted too.
“I care about the community,” Dwyer said. “We all inherently should, as we are, by definition, part of it.”
