Alumni Spotlight: JJ Telebrico on Service, Education and Finding New Possibilities
For JJ, City Year was the beginning of a journey that connected a passion for supporting students with a growing interest in education, technology and social impact.
JJ first joined City Year Bay Area as a January Mid-Year AmeriCorps Member during the 2023–2024 service year, serving as a Student Success Coach. The following year, they continued their City Year journey as a Team Leader and second-year AmeriCorps Member with City Year Washington, D.C.
Today, their work sits at the intersection of education, technology and policy. We caught up with JJ to reflect on the experiences that shaped their career, the students who made an impact on them, and what they believe a year of service can offer young people navigating an evolving world of work.
What first inspired you to serve with City Year?
I first came across a posting for the role of Student Success Coach while I was trying to decide what role education had in my professional trajectory. As someone who had been coaching debate for secondary students for a few years, I already felt very aligned with the work of promoting student success and life coaching.
I later came to understand how deeply that commitment connected to City Year's work, particularly around social-emotional learning. Recognizing that AmeriCorps Members can play a vital role in helping students achieve long-term success was a significant part of what motivated me to apply.
Do you have any memorable or inspiring stories about your students?
Two students I worked closely with during my small-group Tier 2 interventions both shared a deep interest in Spider-Man. While my first interaction with one of the students resembled a chase scene out of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, I was eventually able to develop a strong rapport with the student by catering our intervention time to his interests.
I began incorporating Spider-Man into our work, including using ClassGenius-generated passages referencing Spider-Man to practice phonics and bringing Spider-Man LEGO figures to play with during morning supervision.
By engaging students at the level of their interests and imagination, I learned that developing positive relationships with students starts with better understanding how you relate to them. Like a spider's web, those relationships are interconnected.
What experiences during your City Year service continue to shape your career?
Three qualities cultivated during my service year that I hold closely throughout my career in education are resilience, adaptability and collaboration.
Whether adjusting academic interventions to include reflection time or communicating with my team and partner teacher about how a student was feeling on a particular day, my service year instilled in me a deep understanding that educational stakeholders are dynamic and responsive to students' circumstances.
It reinforced the importance of ensuring schools are safe and empowering spaces where students can grow and learn.
My City Year experience also opened doors I didn't know existed. Before serving, I had no idea that certain postsecondary institutions partnered with AmeriCorps as Schools of National Service. City Year's university partnerships enabled me to pursue my Master of Arts in Philosophy.
There, I presented research internationally, including at KU Leuven's International Conference for an Inclusive Digital Society in Belgium and the North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society in Philadelphia. My research focuses on the philosophy of education and how emerging technology like artificial intelligence affects knowledge production and communal learning—something I first encountered while leveraging generative AI tools with City Year Bay Area's partner ClassGenius.
Today, I've been able to extend those early City Year experiences and my disciplinary training into tangible policy contributions, collaborating with New York City Public Schools through the Paragon Fellowship to develop AI tool evaluation frameworks that center ethics and support teachers.
What was your favorite part of your City Year experience?
My favorite thing about my City Year experience has been the community I've been able to form.
To this day, I've remained in contact with my entire school site team, where we share updates about our life milestones. Every person I've served with at a school site, whether in the Bay Area or Washington, D.C., remained involved in education after City Year—continuing to work within K-12 education or pursuing higher education themselves.
I think our City Year experiences provided a lot of clarity about the role education played in our educational and career journeys by emphasizing its transformative potential.
What would you tell someone considering a year of service?
I would encourage anyone considering a year of service to embrace the unexpected and be open to possibility.
While I didn't anticipate joining the teaching profession this early, I trace my willingness to continue contributing through K-12 education back to my service years with City Year. It was there that I gained the confidence and understanding to manage my own classroom.
Witnessing the transformational development of students has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences of my life. City Year's near-peer approach provides an opportunity for first-hand involvement in helping that process unfold and making a meaningful impact.
Looking Ahead
For JJ, service has been more than a year of work—it has been a foundation for exploring what comes next.
As technology continues to reshape education and the broader workforce, they see service as an opportunity for young people to better understand the systems around them, develop transferable skills and discover where they can make an impact.
Their own journey—from Student Success Coach to Team Leader, graduate researcher and emerging education professional—reflects the possibilities that can grow from a year of service.
