March 10 through 18 is National AmeriCorps Week, but ask volunteers like Alenoush Hagopian, and she doesn’t have much time to celebrate. She has work to do.

A resident of Cranston, the 29-year-old Hagopian is a member of Charter Corps, one of the AmeriCorps chapters in Rhode Island that is dedicated to improving education in charter schools. Hagopian is one of 13 volunteers at the Highlander Charter School in Providence.

“I think it’s a really wonderful program,” she said. “It’s given me a year of reflecting on what I do well and what I can improve on. It’s helped me really hone my teaching skills.”

Charter Corps is one of 11 Rhode Island AmeriCorps programs hat enlist the services of 270 members. Those members are trained in whatever field they pursue – from education and environmental protection to human services and preventative medicine – and receive a modest stipend of $12,300 each year for full-time service. Part-time opportunities are available as well, in which members can give 300 hours of service, often while going to school at the same time.

Since 1993, more than 540,000 people have served in AmeriCorps, and this week, Serve Rhode Island is celebrating those volunteers. Serve Rhode Island is the state’s volunteer center and also the official commission for administering the AmeriCorps program. Serve Rhode Island has overseen more than $25 million in federal funds over the past four years for these volunteer programs.

Bernie Beaudreau, executive director of Serve Rhode Island, said that a majority of volunteers are in their 20s, but he has seen the program attract an increasingly diverse pool of candidates.

“As time has passed, there are more and more mid-career folks and people between jobs. It’s very diverse,” he said. “Everyone’s got their own story for how they got into it.”

Hagopian’s story started in California, where she got her undergraduate degree in psychology from UCLA. She soon realized that her passion lies in education, so she did an initial AmeriCorps service year at a school on the west coast. The experience confirmed her suspicions, and she moved to Rhode Island to get her master’s degree in elementary education from Rhode Island College. When she was finished, she didn’t want to waste her talent, or her enthusiasm, as a substitute teacher.

“I wanted to see the results. I also wanted to hone my teaching skills and gain experience in an urban community,” she said.

The challenges that face students in urban schools, she said, are often out of a teacher’s control, like coming to class tired or hungry, or worried about stressors at home. She believes it’s her job to earn the student’s trust and be able to act as a mentor and sounding board as well as an educator.

During the day, Charter Corps members are there to assist the classroom teachers in whatever they need. They help with lesson plans, implement curriculum and take over certain aspects of the classroom. Hagopian runs the fourth grade guided reading groups and serves as a math interventionist. Her classroom’s literacy scores are the highest they’ve been in five years.

She says that cooperation is critical to improving education.

“Two minds are better than one,” she said.

Still, many classrooms in Rhode Island and beyond lack those extra supports.

“The taxpayer revolt is translating into putting teachers and teachers’ unions into the crosshairs and has resulted in cutting budgets and asking teachers to do more with less,” Beaudreau said.

AmeriCorps helps take off some of that pressure.

“They’re not there to take the teacher’s job away. They’re there to augment the process,” Beaudreau said.

In addition to the work she does in the classroom, Hagopian and other Charter Corps volunteers conduct after-school programs at Highlander. Hagopian runs a Zoomba exercise class and a Harry Potter Club. Her Charter Corps colleagues also offer foreign language instruction, one-on-one reading help, a science club and a beauty school.

It’s those extras that are often removed from budgets that Hagopian and Beaudreau believe can motivate at-risk students to stay in school.

“I think what’s missing from a lot of those traditional public schools are the rewards. I know I needed it,” he said.

Hagopian hopes her students are inspired to not just stay in school, but to excel.

“I’ve always been the kid who loves to go to school. That’s where I feel the most inspired. I look at teachers and professors as celebrities,” she said.

She has plenty of time to spend with those celebrities, now that she is in the classroom daily and sees her fellow AmeriCorps volunteers regularly. Rhode Island members meet monthly for Justice Talks, which are group discussions about their experiences and their efficacy in service. The group support helps Hagopian improve as a teacher.

“I’m always reflecting on the work I’m doing. You’re constantly looking at yourself. How am I making a difference, or how do I tweak that method to reach my goal?” she explained. “Sometimes we feel like, ‘I can’t make a difference; I’m just one person,’ but what I’ve gained from Justice Talk is even one thing, like teaching one kid to read, snowballs into making great things happen.”

She would recommend the program to anyone, especially someone looking to get more experience before diving into his or her career.

“Be open-minded, have hope and know that the work you’re doing is actually making a great impact,” she said.

For more information about AmeriCorps visit www.americorps.gov. For more information about volunteer opportunities in Rhode Island visit www.serverhodeisland.org.