North Andover native Andy Addivinola, 22, describes the five short months he's worked for City Year, an urban service program, in two words: life changing.
"It's probably the hardest thing I've done in my life. Not only is the work rewarding, but [so is] seeing the stuff we do, and seeing how much I've grown as an individual in the five months," said Addivinola. "I'm definitely not the person I was. It's shown me a new way to live."
The 2004 North Andover High School grad hit the ground running as part of City Year's Boston civic engagement team in September, coordinating service projects and working in some of Boston's poorest areas.
From giving a school or community center a new paint job to planting trees and organizing a litter clean-up in a local park, Addivinola works with nine other team members and two supervisors on a different job every day, organizing projects in communities such as Roxbury, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain. Addivinola's team also helped organize and run a Martin Luther King Day ceremony and march through Roxbury.
The City Year team works to encourage people to help improve their communities, instead of coming in, making a change and then leaving, said Addivinola.
"My job is setting up days for people to do community service, encouraging people to fix up the area where they live," he said. "We want people to get involved where they live. If they're putting in the sweat, it means more to them."
Working in urban areas has been eye-opening, said Addivinola, because the areas are "like night and day" from his hometown of North Andover. His team once worked on a service project where a shooting had taken place the night before.
Growing up in North Andover has given him a great foundation and perspective for his job at City Year, he said.
"North Andover is a nice town to grow up in," he said. "It's made me mature in a lot of ways — being in these areas I realize I've had a really good life. Seeing families torn apart makes me realize how lucky I am to have my mom, dad and brother with me."
Addivinola is the second son of Joe and Deborah Addivinola, who still live in town. His older brother, Nick, who lives in Arlington, just finished a master's degree program at Brandeis University and has a job lined up with an alternative energy corporation, said Andy Addivinola.
Addivinola said he had never done community service before working at City Year, and decided to "jump right in" this fall because he was interested in working with kids and youth. He also volunteers with Big Brother Big Sister and meets with a 7-year-old student at the Boston Renaissance Charter School once a week.
"City Year attracted me because it really focuses on the youth of the world. I really wanted to be part of a child's life," he said. "If I could change one kid, it would be so worth it. Children are so honest and sincere, and they have so much innocence."
When Addivinola meets with his little brother, Jay, on Wednesday afternoons, he helps him with homework and then they play basketball, other sports or draw. Addivinola is also teaching Jay to play the drums.
"He brings out the child in me, which really doesn't get to come out ever, because I'm supposed to be a professional," said Addivinola, with a laugh. "He's taught me dance moves. He's really just made me kick back and relax."
After NAHS, Addivinola went to Northern Essex Community College for one year and worked selling Christmas trees at Riverside in Lawrence. When he took the City Year job in September, he moved from North Andover to Arlington.
Addivinola's job at City Year is a 10-month commitment, and will end this spring. One of the hardest parts about this year has been making a living off of his City Year stipend, which comes out to about $3 an hour, he said. City Year is part of Americorps, a national service program that allows people to earn help paying for education in exchange for a year of service.
His job at City Year — tough, yet rewarding, he said — has given him a great life experience.
"It [the City Year job] fits who I am because there's a lot of freedom here. There's a basic foundation laid out, and it's up to you to put it together. As long as I'm given a first step I can complete the staircase. It's teaching me the right way to do things, managing people, meeting people's needs — almost like how to run a company, minus the pay," he said with a laugh. "It's rewarding and definitely given me a good foundation for after this."
Addivinola has been accepted into the North Bennet Street School in Boston, the oldest trade school in America, and will start studying carpentry there next fall. He'd like to own a business someday, he said, and pictures himself as a carpenter or owning a record shop.
Besides his job at City Year and volunteering as a Big Brother, Addivinola plays the drums, guitar and piano and gets together often with friends to jam and record, he said.
For more information on City Year programs, visit www.cityyear.org.
