Caroline Gammill | Transforming New Orleans

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, causing the failure of New Orleans' levees, I had no appreciation for the severity of the crisis.

What do terms like mandatory evacuation, flood zone, storm surge and levee breach mean? What would they look like in your hometown?

Coming from a place where streets are blanketed in snow instead of flooded with water, I couldn't picture any of these things. But here I am, two-and-a-half years after those disasters, both natural and man-made, working to change the legacy they left behind.

I'm now the director of the Fox Leadership in New Orleans (FLINOLA) program. I spend 50 percent of my time creating opportunities for undergraduates to come to New Orleans and contribute to the recovery process through direct service, class work and summer internships.

In the other 50 percent, I work for Providence Community Housing on issues of community and economic development as we build affordable housing to bring people home. For me, these two roles complement each other well.

I'm not only immersed in the on-the-ground issues of rebuilding, but I'm also able to use those experiences to engage my peers in similar efforts. All of the issues are intertwined, from schools and healthcare to housing and workforce development.

What's more, there are real needs to be met. Job opportunities exist for every interest and skill set imaginable. Nowhere else can people at the beginning of their careers take on such responsibility, and New Orleans is thriving from an influx of young professionals.

Penn's undergraduates are making a phenomenal contribution here. Students have already logged 1,000 weeks of service and are well on the way to 2,000 over the next several years.

Still, there are tremendous unmet physical, human and financial needs. All across the city, neighborhoods remain in disarray as blighted properties sag with more than two years of neglect.

Formerly crowded streets look more like overgrown soccer fields. With many hospitals and clinics still closed, the uninsured scramble to find basic healthcare. Homelessness is a growing problem as rents soar and citizens have taken refuge in mass numbers under highway overpasses. Close to 50 percent of fourth graders failed to pass benchmark tests last year. Crime wreaks daily havoc and threatens the progress made to date.

To put it mildly, there is widespread disappointment and disillusionment with the political leadership.

Still there is hope. Penn undergraduates and students from universities throughout the country continue to attack these problems. Fox Leadership will be taking 100 students to New Orleans for Spring Break.

To delve deeper into the recovery, FLINOLA developed 18 summer internships to direct programs for emotionally disturbed youth (many of whom suffer from PTSD), lead a pioneering non-partisan Get Out the Vote effort for the burgeoning Hispanic community, offer support for victims of domestic violence, collaborate with a consortium of non-profit affordable housing developers, assess the evolving demographics of the New Orleans metro area and do much more.

These summer internships will give students the opportunity to engage in challenging and exciting roles and will allow them to have a significant impact.

Furthermore, this work will take place in one of the most thrilling cultural, musical and gastronomical cities in the world. It will be an amazing summer experience like no other.

For all of the innumerable reasons to love and to live in New Orleans, one sticks out for me above all others. Simply put, everyone in this city wants to be here. It's not an easy place to live. But despite the obstacles, New Orleanians persevere.

As a result, the work being done every day has tremendous value to this population that has been dealt an unfairly hard hand. It's difficult to overstate the impact and the potential for motivated undergraduates and recent graduates. In the wake of the neglect and failure of government, there are unmatched opportunities to lead.

This year has been heralded as the turning point in the recovery process; as it moves forward, I urge you to become involved and invested as New Orleans is rebuilt, not as it was - in many ways, a city on the decline - but in the image of what this city can hopefully become.

The author is a 2007 College alumna from Boston, Mass. and is currently the director of the FLINOLA program.

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