The Corporation for National and Community Service often calls Massachusetts the "Silicon Valley of service."

Here's a quick look at the numbers: 8,340 national service members volunteer at 1,500 locations throughout the state. More than 2,600 of them are AmeriCorps volunteers, many of whom serve as tutors, mentors and teachers at both private and public schools.

But perhaps no place in Massachusetts relies more on AmeriCorps than Nativity Preparatory School of New Bedford. Aside from administrative staff, all of the teachers are volunteers.

"What we're doing is we're really tapping into the enthusiasm and energy of these really bright young people who want to give back to society, particularly to the inner city, and particularly, to boys," said headmaster John Martin.

Eight AmeriCorps volunteers instruct 55 middle school boys with everything from science and math, to English and social studies. None of them have prior experience in the classroom. In return for their two-year stint, the school, which relies on the Notre Dame Mission Volunteer AmeriCorps to subsidize its teachers, provides the volunteers with free room and board and money to help pay off student loans.

Headmaster John Martin talks with some AmeriCorps teaching staff. (Tonya Mosley/WBUR)

"It works because they're very dedicated," Martin said. "They're very bright. They want to spend time with kids. They have passion about what they do. And that passion, I think, is transmitted to the kids."

Martin says 98 percent of Nativity Prep graduates also graduate from high school. Seventy-five percent go on to college.

A large number of the boys are minority, and all of them come from low-income families. The school is private, but there is no tuition.

Eighth-grader Jacob Rivet will be attending a highly selective country day school next year, but he says academics isn't the only thing that makes this school special.

"The brotherhood, too, is something that I like at Nativity," he said. "And everyone knows everyone's name. And the bond here between students ... it's a tight-knit community."

President Trump's budget proposal, released in February, called for the elimination of AmeriCorps. The budget, while not likely to pass in its current form, reflects the priorities of the Trump administration.

In a document sent to the House and Senate appropriations committees, the Trump administration said about AmeriCorps, "It is not a core function of the federal government to promote volunteerism, and therefore these programs should be eliminated."