Name: Hil Miller

Profession: Senior Systems Administrator at the Texas Advanced Computing Center

University: University of Florida / University of Texas at Austin

Major: B.A. in Sociology / M.S.E. in Engineering Management

Service Type: AmeriCorps

Service Dates: 2005 – 2007

Service Location: The Dignity Project of Alachua County in Gainesville, Florida

I joined Americorps in 2005 as a computer repair technician at The Dignity Project of Alachua County. My year of service was spent fixing old and broken computers for donation to the local community. Today I am privileged to support some of the most advanced computing technologies in the world. From my perspective, doing a year of service doesn’t necessarily mean moving to a rural area halfway across the world or tagging sea turtles on the beach of a remote island. I consider my current position facilitating the science to solve the complex problems facing humanity to be a form of non-traditional service and a continuation of my Americorps service nearly a decade ago.

You might not know if you should register for classes next semester. You might have the next 10 years of your life planned-out in an elaborate multi-page color-coded spreadsheet. For either of those situations and everything in between there are many federal, state, academic, private, and nonprofit service opportunities for you to consider. My experience has been that professional and personal lives are rarely a straight line forward toward a pre-planned goal, even if it sometimes seems that way for other people. Contact me and let’s talk about your potential, I would be excited and honored to hear your story.