Energy Express, a WVU Extension Service program in partnership with AmeriCorps, will induct its 2025 AmeriCorps cohort. 150 college-bound high school and college students as well as community volunteers will serve as AmeriCorps members in 22 counties across West Virginia this summer.
Energy Express is a free summer program focused on literacy and nutrition for low-income and rural children in first through sixth grades. AmeriCorps members serve as mentors to children or volunteer coordinators, while gaining leadership and career skills under the guidance of experienced education professionals employed by WVU Extension. Members will be sworn in at an induction ceremony on June 8, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. at West Virginia University’s Morgantown Evansdale Campus (Evansdale Recreation Field if sun, Evansdale Towers Dormitory Blue and Gold Room if rain).
Energy Express AmeriCorps members and participants complete 300 hours of service and receive a $4,050 living allowance, a $1,565.08 education award, and their service can also be applied toward the West Virginia AmeriCorps Tuition Waiver (WV Code §18B-10-7d).
In 2024, the program served about 1,150 children across 48 sites, with 88% showing gains in reading fluency. 2024 also marked the program’s 30th anniversary. In the program’s 30 years, a total of 84,000 West Virginian children have participated with 13,600 AmeriCorps members serving them. Since 2006, Energy Express has distributed approximately 1,747,000 healthy meals and 360,000 take-home books to children across West Virginia.
AmeriCorps is a national service program whose members help meet the nation’s critical needs in the areas of education, economic opportunity, disaster services, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families. As an AmeriCorps program, Energy Express is under the leadership of the WVU Extension Service Center for Community Engagement and is funded in part by a grant from Volunteer West Virginia, the state’s Commission for National and Community Service. Volunteer West Virginia encourages West Virginians of all ages to strengthen their communities through service and volunteerism.
For more information about Energy Express including Summer 2025 Sites, visit the web site at www.energyexpress.wvu.edu or email energy.express@mail.wvu.edu. For information about other AmeriCorps and national service opportunities, visit www.americorps.gov.
