UNPACKED

In the season 3 finale, Micah is joined by three current Americorps and City Year New Hampshire Service Leaders - Abby Watson, Elinor Bragaw, and Kailey Johnson.

Abbey Watson is from Kalamazoo, Michigan. There she attended school and graduated with a Master’s of Social Work degree. After studying in El Salvador and Guatemala, she realized that she wanted to explore educational systems outside of her own experiences. Abbey was introduced to City Year at a job fair and realized the organization would give her that opportunity. During her first year of service, she fell in love with the Manchester community and decided to return to serve another year. She credits this to the amazing students and teachers that she served alongside. The relationships she built and the energy, passion, empathy, and laughter shared by the students made her realize that she did not want her time in Manchester to be over so quickly.

Elinor Bragaw is from Crozet, Virginia, a little town between Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge mountains. She lived in the same house all her life with her parents and three younger siblings up until she moved away to college in Washington, D.C. College was a rollercoaster. She took time off in the middle, worked as a camp counselor out in California, applied to transfer to other schools, and changed her major a few times, but she made it to the other side and graduated from American University in December 2019 with a degree in art history and a minor in political science. When she considered her next steps after college, she chose to serve with City Year, and her experience last year taught her that she is an educator. Her eyes were opened to the realities of the public education system and she believes it is a calling to dedicate her time to helping children have the best shot they can.

Kailey Johnson grew up in Londonderry, New Hampshire. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2020 and majored in psychology and justice studies. She also spent a very formative semester completing an internship through The Washington Center. During college, Kailey was also involved with the Kappa Delta sorority where they supported the philanthropies Prevent Child Abuse America and the Girl Scouts of America. The work of these organizations inspired her to advocate for children to have happy and healthy childhoods. This belief led her to join City Year after graduation. She was inspired by City Year’s model of supporting kids through tutoring, and building communities within their schools. Kailey chose to serve in Manchester because it gave her the opportunity to learn and grow in a community that had been next door to her throughout her whole life. She decided to return for another year because she truly believes in the impact City Year can have on students and the community.

To read more about their ongoing journeys, check out this post.

In this episode, Micah is joined by a childhood friend, Byron Abrigg. Byron is the cofounder, CCO, and COO of Mission Control, a community platform that organizes recreational esports. Byron started his career in venture capital and accelerators, serving as the Accelerator Coordinator at Stadia Ventures, an early-stage sports tech and esports VC and accelerator program in St. Louis, MO. In addition to his current work at Mission Control, Byron is also an Adjunct Professor at Saint Louis University where he graduated in 2017.

Our stories are tied to those who came before us. In this special episode, Micah is joined by his grandmother, Inez Tatebe. While growing up in Kapaau, Hawaii life changed very quickly for her and her family when World War II found its way to American borders on December 7th, 1941 with the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Inez and her family were whisked away, like so many other Japanese-Americans, to internment camps in various locations throughout the United States. After the war, Inez moved to California with her sister and brother-in-law where she met her late husband, Hiroshi Tatebe. She now lives in Oceanside, California, and is a proud mother to four boys, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. This is her and her family’s story