ASTAR

AmeriCorps member reading

Earn money for your college education while gaining valuable job experience through community service

Are you a current student?
Use the opportunity for internship credit.

Graduating soon?
Full and part-time positions are also available.

ASTAR (Appalachian Service Through Action and Resources) is a Maryland AmeriCorps program. ASTAR provides direct, substantive services through our partnering programs in Maryland.  AmeriCorps members provide direct service to build capacity within the agencies they serve. Service includes, but is not limited to, educational programming, field trips, campus, outreach, health and wellness, drug awareness, senior programming, food pantries, and community gardens. 

What is AmeriCorps?

AmeriCorps is the federal agency for national service. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds to serve their country, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, improve lives, improve, and strengthen communities and GET THINGS DONE!

What is ASTAR?

Established in 1994, ASTAR stands as a pioneering Maryland AmeriCorps program, having secured funding and deployed more than 2,000 dedicated AmeriCorps members to address identified community needs over the past three decades.

As ASTAR proudly commemorates its 30th Anniversary, it has evolved into a statewide initiative with a core emphasis on Capacity Building. ASTAR collaborates with 30 partners across Maryland, with a special commitment to enhancing capacities in rural areas of the state.

The ASTAR program is managed through a partnership with Frostburg State University, the University System of Maryland - Hagerstown, the Maryland Governor's Office of Service and Volunteerism, and AmeriCorps. The ASTAR program is a statewide national service program.

Meeting needs in Maryland

Last year more than 5,000 Americans of all ages and backgrounds united to meet local needs, strengthen communities, and expand opportunity through national service in Maryland. AmeriCorps invested more than $17.6 million in federal funding to support cost-effective community solutions, working hand in hand with local partners to empower individuals to help communities tackle their toughest challenges.

AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps senior volunteers served at more than 600 locations across Maryland, including schools, food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics, youth centers, veterans’ facilities, and other nonprofit and faith-based organizations. Through a unique public-private partnership, AmeriCorps and its partners generated more than $7.7 million in outside resources from businesses, foundations, public agencies, and other sources in Maryland last year.

Twenty-five site partnerships in the four-county region of Western Maryland sponsor AmeriCorps positions. To learn more about ASTAR, please contact Lisa Clark, ASTAR Director, at 301-697-3359.

 



 

 

All AmeriCorps members are required to complete a three-part criminal history check including a sex offender registry check. 

AmeriCorps ASTR logos

We are an AmeriCorps grantee and receive funds as part of their State and National Program as well as the Governor's Office on Service and Volunteerism 

National Days of Service

January 15, 2024
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
REGISTER HERE

April 21-27, 2024
National Volunteer Week

September 11
9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance

October 26, 2024
Make a Difference Day

November 11
Veterans Day

 

Contact ASTAR

Photo of Lisa Clark

Lisa Clark
Director, ASTAR
lclark@frostburg.edu


ASTAR
University of System of Maryland - Hagerstown
32 W. Washington St, Hagerstown, MD 21740
Phone: 301.697.3359
Fax: 301.687.7049