Athletes in Service to America (AIS), an AmeriCorps-funded academic support and violence prevention initiative, uses former collegiate student-athletes to work with children in grades K-12 providing tutoring, mentoring, and conflict resolution training.

In the six years of operation, Athletes in Service has enrolled over 400 corps members and provided over 400,000 hours of community service. The following are excerpts from corps members' journal entries which describe how their work mentoring children can be a life-changing experience for them.

"I have been mentoring and tutoring a 6th grade girl, Jessica ... she started to tell me how she has been beaten most of her life. Her mother smokes drugs, has a mental problem and beats her ... so she and her friends can get high. I am heartbroken over this. How can anybody hurt a child? I know these things actually happen, but to actually hear it from a child who is trusting you with her darkest secret ... I was crushed. What can I do to ease her pain? The only thing I can do is listen and be her friend. We can truly find who we are by opening our hearts and eyes to these children. They have taught me more about my values and beliefs than four years of college has."

– Charline Jones

– Christopher Lync

"There has been a huge increase in the prevalence of gang activity in and out of [the school] this year. The result is a poorer environment for learning and a lot of intimidation. ... one young man was taken away from school in hand cuffs this week ... One encouraging sign is my leadership as a football coach has earned me a lot of respect with the students and players who are very influential around the school. This I believe will have a very positive effect on the message I am trying to get through."

– Donald Suchyna

"Don't count on everything going smoothly. This program is what you make of it. Being an athlete opens many doors to great things."

– Patrick McCavanagh

"A girl in my counseling group today told our group that she was thinking about committing suicide ... she had a plan and a time to kill herself ... the other girls in the group were great toward her. One of the girls told a similar story about how she wanted to kill herself last year ... how she got help and now is much better. ... She said the only way she would talk to the school counselor was if I went with her. We went and talked to the counselor together ... she said she will not harm herself and will give counseling a try ... she is now going to see [the counselor] every day at 5th Period. I was so impressed that she felt comfortable enough to share this with the group."

– Keri Raymond

– Yumi Yamazaki

"The most uplifting part of [the program] has been my work with a group of five unruly young girls who are dealing with their learning disabilities. In spite of the difficulties ... I have endeavored to work on team-building activities with the young girls. There has been an improvement which is evident because they no longer physically attack one another through the program."

– Garrick Loveria

– Caitlin Wise

"I learned about myself. That I have the ability to effect change and be a positive influence on children. I know that the education systems resources were severely lacking but I had no idea how desperate the situation was in some schools. I have furthered my understanding of how to relate to people from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Also, due to the amount of difficulty that we have experienced, I believe that I have become more flexible and improved my ability to deal with adversity."

– Erik Redinger