Pros
I felt that I made a significant impact while working with City Year in Denver. I built strong relationships with students and I demonstrated a measurable impact on academic growth and achievement with so many of my students. The work hours are fairly brutal and the rules and constraints holding you to an extremely high degree of professionalism are important. I benefited greatly from them. The tools to develop professionalism are there. The Corps is also highly diverse and accepting of people from all walks of life. I respect and appreciate a great deal of their culture that embraces the spirit of diversity and the multiplicity of voices.
Cons
Where do I begin? I'm not sure what sort of internal inquiry or study verified the merits of the current culture in place. Whatever is keeping City Year's culture in place in its current condition needs to stop. The culture is suffocating, the uniform is suffocating and the management procedures are insufferable. City Year is very much designed to engage the professional development of its corps. People just out of college are expected to entertain the professional development seminars with people just out of high school. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but requires a great deal of self restraint from inane comments and discussion. *It should be noted that each Corps differs from year to year and it is important to consider the startup nature of CY Denver. Keep this in mind while evaluating the organization. I could easily write a extremely long critique of City Year but continuing to write is actually painful for me. I feel like a had a year of my life stolen that I can never get back. I stuck it out because of the relationships I had built with students and the commitment I made to myself to perform service. That being said I have CY Denver two stars and not one because it could be something great. It has the potential. It simply wasn't the right organization for ME and thats an important distinction. If you require a great deal of structure, have an untaped well of boundless energy and feel truly idealistic about the future of America, consider it. Finally, if you have a great deal of work experience, take yourself seriously and don't consider the masochistic nature of 50 hour work weeks for hardly any pay, become a paraprofessional at a school or consider TFA. Para's are in demand in nearly every major city and it is a great opportunity to work on getting a teachers license/teaching in a less traditional but highly engaging way.