Service-learning conference draws education enthusiasts

For local college students interested in getting more involved in community service, this weekend's third annual gathering of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development provided just the opportunity. PHENND consists of 38 colleges and universities in the region, including Penn. The network's conference, entitled "Service, Education, and Activism: Finding Common Ground," is designed to "bring the various constituents of PHENND together to talk about service and service-learning," said Hillary Aisenstein, the network's assistant director and a 1999 College graduate. Karl Nass, the director of PHENND, called the conference a chance for participants to assess their effectiveness in "solving the core problems of the communities." Friday's events, which drew about 40 area college students, featured Nadinne Cruz, the director of Stanford University's Haas Center for Public Service, as the keynote speaker. Haas' talk discussed various community service programs that have been implemented at Stanford and stressed that the mere intention of giving to the community is often not enough. "A lot of people came up afterwards" to say they enjoyed the talk, Aisentein said. "It went over very well." The participants then split up into 13 different workshops, which, according to Aisenstein, ranged from discussions about "practical" issues -- like "How to Build an America Reads" information session -- to the more theoretical debates -- like why the majority of people involved in community service are white females. In the pre-conference activities of PHENND's conference, community members, college students and staff gathered Thursday evening at Drexel University's Creese Student Center to discuss the connections between institutions of higher education and their surrounding communities. After serving themselves food in a buffet-style dinner to start the 1 1/2-day conference, 70 area residents settled in for an evening of discussion about serving communities. Before the participants split up into different workshops, they listened to a keynote speech from Alba Martinez, executive director of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, in the center's Grand Hall. Martinez began the evening's program by describing her experiences with her organization, which serves a community in North Philadelphia, and stressed that such organizations need help from neighboring universities. To be effective, she explained, "Congreso requires alliances.? Many of the alliances we need are with institutions outside of our community." Schools, colleges and universities have what the organization needs, such as resources to be used for training staff members and people who "generate great ideas" on how to solve problems, she said. "Our partnerships with higher education institutions need to be much, much stronger," Martinez said. After the speech, the three workshops began. In one, entitled "Student Action for Change," students described their experiences running service programs. One student, Ann Yerenink of Bryn Mawr College, said she hopes to form a coalition of area groups interested in social change. A simultaneous workshop's topic was the effect that service-learning programs have on faculty members up for promotion or tenure. According to Frances Hart, director of the service-learning program at St. Joseph's University, when colleges and universities judge faculty, they are more concerned with the "scholarly activities" seen as service to the institution than with service that faculty may help provide to the communities themselves.

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