Looking to make a difference, Yalies volunteer

BY ANDREW KRAUSE

The city of New Haven is a significant factor in the decision to apply to Yale. Every year, numerous prospective students turn Yale down because of uninformed prejudices about the urban community that surrounds the campus.

But many of the students who ultimately do choose Yale consider the urban setting to be an advantage. The city is teeming with opportunities for community service and volunteer activities. Nearly 40 percent of the student body participates in some sort of local volunteer program or organization—whether it's tutoring in a local school, working in a soup kitchen, or joining the Yale chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Service possibilities at Yale are practically endless.

Why do Yalies feel the desire to give something back to the community? Students' individual motivations are numerous and varied. Some students are driven to volunteer by the shock of seeing urban poverty up close every day, others have participated in community service projects since high school, and still others enjoy being able to share a particular skill or talent with others.

The one element that unites all of these segments of the volunteering population is a simple desire to help others, a unique trait that has the potential to match a football player with a Glee Club member in the same community outreach program, working together on the same project.

A large number of student service organizations fall under the auspices of Dwight Hall at Yale. Founded in 1886 and located on Old Campus, Dwight Hall is the nation's only independent collegiate volunteer umbrella organization. Since the group is neither financed nor staffed by the University, Dwight Hall is able to voice its own opinion on various town-gown issues without regard to the administration's feelings. They have ranged from expressing support for Yale's striking unions in 1996 to working for the involvement of Yale voices in shaping city-funding policy.

More than 60 groups are members of Dwight Hall, and their services fall under headings ranging from "Hunger and Homelessness" to "Literacy" to "Youth Mentorship." One of Dwight Hall's largest organizations is the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project (YHHAP). Among other projects, YHHAP members help staff local soup kitchens, work with adults in a literacy program at the New Haven Homeless Resource Center, and run their own political action group. Every semester, YHHAP organizes an awareness week packed with activities. One of the main activities is a campus-wide fast, during which participating students donate their dining hall meals for a day in order to raise money for local, national, and international hunger groups.

Other Dwight Hall organizations associated with campus and citywide activism include labor action and environmental groups. Yale's environmental groups have enjoyed success on several fronts in the past few years. The Yale Student Environmental Coalition (YSEC) is dedicated to greening both the Yale community and the surrounding area and tends to oversee all of the school's environmental activities. Since 1989, YSEC has coordinated a conservation and recycling competition called Green Cup among the residential colleges which is estimated to have saved the University over half a million dollars in the competition's first year alone. Recent YSEC successes include the establishment of a new major in Environmental Studies. Students have also been allowed to join an administrative focus group that will analyze Yale's impact on and policy towards the environment. Students from both Yale College and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies are in the process of conducting an environmental audit of the whole University to gain a better understanding of Yale's impact on the environment. "These are just a few of the innovative things happening on campus concerning the environment," YSEC co-chair Noah Chesnin, BK '04, said. 

JULIA TIERNAN/YH During Youth Day, held twice a year, Yale athletes have a chance to interact with New Haven children, forge bonds with the community, and have some fun in the bargain.

Green Corps, another environmental action group, targets New Haven and Connecticut issues and has been working for the past few years to force five old local power plants known as the "filthy five" to meet newer Federal Clean Air Act standards. The state legislature is now voting on a new bill, supported by Green Corps, regarding the plants. "It is an especially exciting time to join Green Corps because we may be starting a new campaign in the fall," member Jude Joffe-Block, BK '04, said.

Non-Dwight Hall groups include Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) and the Student Alliance To Reform Corporations (STARC). In 2000, SAS staged a highly publicized camp-out in Beinecke Plaza to try to force the University to join the Workers' Rights Consortium, a group that would police the labor practices of companies that make Yale apparel. The Student Labor Action Committee (SLAC) advocates worker's rights both at Yale and around the country. STARC stages protests and other actions to draw attention to excessive corporate power and greed; in the past year they hosted a teach-in about the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. They have sent members to anti-globalization protests in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Quebec City, Canada.

One of the more popular forms of community service at Yale is different than the activist branch of Dwight Hall. It is a group of programs that allow students to interact with children. The Ulysses S. Grant Foundation brings motivated and talented students to the University. Children are enrolled in English and math classes led by Yale students, who often design their own curricula. The program gives its teachers a chance to form relationships with New Haven youths and its students the possibility to learn from a new mentor and friend.

Another program targeted at helping young city children is Tutoring in Elementary Schools (TIES), which is organized through the residential colleges. TIES allows for the involvement of interested Yalies who otherwise might not participate in community service, through the more conventional Dwight Hall channels.

Every year, the Yale Community Outreach Committee and members of the Yale Athletic Department host Youth Day, a daylong event that brings hundreds of New Haven school children and Yale varsity athletes together. The goal of this program is to provide New Haven students with the experience of meeting and playing with Yale athletes, who serve as role models for the children, and the opportunity to take sports clinics. Almost every Yale team is represented by some of its members at the event.

In an effort to forge a stronger bond between the diverse programs offered by Dwight Hall, the Social Justice Network (SJN) was formed in the fall semester of 1996. The SJN is primarily concerned with coordinating and unifying the efforts of some of Yale's ideologically similar organizations. It is also a step toward creating a coherent "service community" on the Yale campus.

Each spring, the University holds an event called the President's Community Service Dinner, an evening that brings together several hundred Yale students to Commons to enjoy a special meal and hear a keynote speaker. The Administration encourages and rewards involvement in the city.

There is no exclusive club to join, no central leadership to follow, and scores of opportunities are available. The various possibilities that exist to improve New Haven make Yale the perfect place for energetic students who want to make a difference. Exploring these possibilities could lead to some of the most important lessons of your education. Volunteering is everywhere and can be one of the most special and memorable parts of your Yale experience. Matthew Ferraro also contributed to this article.

Back to Just do it...