Political Science major

My name is Jason Lemons and I graduated from Eckerd College in 2007 with a degree in Political Science. My first significant experience with service came as I graduated High school, on a service trip to Puerto Rico. I really enjoyed this experience and was happy when I was reintroduced to it at Eckerd during the Autumn term Into the Streets program. Into the Streets was a valuable way for me to meet other freshman who were also interested in service and orient myself to the St. Petersburg community.

At Eckerd I found service to be a great way to integrate what I was learning in school with practical experiences in my field. While I was there, I worked with the Sierra Club, Eckerd College homeless Outreach (ECHO), the St. Petersburg Summit on Homelessness, in an indigenous village in Ecuador on an Alternative Spring Break trip, and during my semester abroad in London I worked with the British Trust of Conservation Volunteers.

The service experiences I had at helped me gain insight into what I wanted to pursue in life and the confidence in my abilities to pursue it. This past year I have worked for Americorps VISTA at New College of Florida as a volunteer coordinator. Part of my duties have included organizing service work with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, The Boys and Girls Club, and two alternative break trips, one to the migrant community in Immokalle, Florida and the other to work in the Myakka River State Park.

After my term of service ends, I will begin to pursue my Masters in Public Policy at Duke University.