Alumni Spotlight: Jeff Tibayan is a Power House of Community Support with SJPL

Jeff Tibayan served as an ACM with City Year from 2006-2007, and then as a staff member from 2007-2008. Jeff is now a Literacy Program Specialist at the San Jose Public Library and, since his time with us, has continued his journey in service. Check out this blog post to learn what he loved about his City Year, how he’s helping his community now, and his advice for future Corps members!

Q: What made you sign up for City Year?
A: Towards the end of my college career in South Carolina, I was trying to figure out what to do. I was in school for elementary and physical education and thinking about teaching, but I wasn’t quite sure yet. I had also never lived outside of South Carolina so I was thinking about trying something new. AmeriCorps was always fascinating to me and as I explored the organization, City Year came up and I couldn’t help but think, “let me see how this goes for a year!” I closed my eyes, pointed at a map, and landed on the San Francisco/Bay Area. So I said, let’s do City Year there. I got my acceptance two weeks before the program started and picked up and moved to San Jose!

Q: What are your most memorable moments with City Year?
A: There’s a lot of them, but one of the most memorable experiences was the SYZYGY leadership conference where we got to celebrate all the service work done throughout the year with other service groups. The other thing I loved was the basketball tournaments. We got to the third round – which was memorable because it got us together 2-3 times a month to practice and then we came together to try to get past the first round. Putting that together for ACMs and staff members was great. Our team was good enough that people who weren’t interested decided to join after seeing our first game!

Q: What do you think you learned about yourself through City Year?
A: I know teachers work hard, but City Year showed me how hard I could work and be able to extend myself without feeling depleted. Whether it was stuff with the kids or within the organization, I learned how to push myself in ways I never knew possible. Now in my job, with less daily working hours, it feels like I can get stuff done and be creative in the limited time I have.

Q: Did City Year influence and prepare you for your career?
A: Absolutely. All the work I’ve done since City Year has been in education and service, including substitute teaching, working for a nutrition education program with UC Davis, and some construction. Now I work for the San Jose Public Library and I feel like the influence from City Year is always there. It’s public facing and now I get to work with families and people in San Jose in different capacities. I also sometimes help City Year alumni find jobs, and even assist the families of students I met 20 years ago get through ESL programs and find pathways to citizenship.  I feel like City Year really helped me be successful in all these roles, including helping people get what they need.

Q: What is your job title now?
A: I work at the SJPL as a Literacy Program Specialist, which means I’m the person who can connect people to all of the great resources at the Library. I come up with programming, help people with citizenship paperwork and ESL classes, assist with resumes and job searching, and I help seniors with simple technology tasks like sending and opening email and getting on zoom.

Q: What about your life or career are you proud of?
A: During COVID, people had to work and go to school virtually. We had something called Maker Spaceship sponsored by At&T where we had a big RV that we would station throughout San Jose where we would give out hot spots for 5+ months so people could get online. That is a big thing that I’m proud of because it helped people stay connected and get things done that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.

Q: What advice would you give to someone thinking of applying for City Year?
A: When I moved here, I hadn’t experienced much outside of the Charleston area so I was completely flabbergasted by the amount of culture to be found here. If you want to serve the community you grew up in, that’s wonderful, but it’s also great to experience something outside of what you’re used to.

Q: Is there anything I should have asked you?
A: I was in San Jose for two years, one as an ACM and one as a staff member. My years with City Year were some of the best years of my professional life. I really enjoyed the organization, the people I met, the students and families I met (I still keep in touch with some of them). It’s probably one of my favorite things I got from this experience. After one year, I loved it so much I thought, “You know what, I’m gonna stay here for a while” and now that my partner is in San Jose, I think it might be permanent!