Shared Effort

-Boston-

In the Boston area, Princeton AlumniCorps is in full swing!  The current class of fellows has attended seminars on careers in the public interest as well as education reform in Massachusetts. The Area Committee has worked to engage previous fellows and is now focusing efforts on recruiting new partner organizations. Tom Flynn, parent of Julie Flynn ’10, who is currently a fellow at the New York District Attorney’s Office, has joined the Boston Area Committee and is leading up the partner organization recruitment efforts.

-Bay Area-

Our five fellows are very engaged in the work at their placements, including Christina Jones ’10 at KIPP Foundation, who was able to catch an advanced screening of widely discussed Waiting for “Superman” which features KIPP schools.  Another Bay Area highlight, Christina adds, is the popularity of orange and black after the San Francisco Giants World Series win! On November 11th, the fellows attended their first seminar at Stanford entitled “Strategic Philanthropy: Getting Results and Adding Value” along with TAN affiliates Harvard CPIC and Stanford SPIN fellows. Steve McNamara ’55 and his wife Kay generously hosted a welcome dinner on November 20th.

-Chicago-

Kristen Molloy ’08 writes, “The weekly seminar program for 2010-11 Chicago PP55 fellows is off to a great start.  For the past two months, fellows have attended a series of seminars focusing on the theme of “hard times” and how the economic downturn has affected neighborhoods in Chicago.  During this series, fellows visited organizations such as the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the Chicago Jobs Council, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository and heard from speakers such as journalist Salim Muwakkil, who discussed how the downturn has affected the African American community in Chicago.  Starting in December, seminars will focus on education reform in Chicago.  In other news, the Chicago Steering Committee has been busy recruiting new placement organizations, hosting events to acclimate new fellows to Chicago, and planning a spring event for PP55 alums.

-Connecticut-

Connecticut’s two fellows Blessing Agunwamba ’10 and Idil Kore ’10 are excelling at Norwalk Community Health Center. Harry Berkowitz ’55 is looking to work with Larry Cross, the health center’s executive director, to organize a day-long Public Health and Civic Service Event  for local Princeton alumni and the community.

-New York-

Kristen Smith ’03 writes, “We are thrilled to have 20 fellows in New York this year. On October 6th, Steve Houck ’69 and Toni Houck held our annual welcome dinner for the fellows complete with delicious Indian food. We recently held a seminar at the District Attorney’s office which was a debate between Peter Kougasian ’76 (Bureau Chief of Office of Special Narcotics) and Robin Steinberg (Founder and Executive Director of the Bronx Defenders).  We reached out to fellows from Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth to participate in this debate creating a lively discussion about the criminal justice system. We are looking forward to our Career Night on November 30th hosted by the Arthur Malman ’64 P’96 P’03 and Professor Laurie Malman during which the fellows will have an opportunity to meet and network with industry professionals.”

-Philadelphia-

Julianne Grasso ’10, fellow at Foundations, Inc. came to Princeton on October 12th to serve on a panel for an information session and encourage applicants to consider a fellowship in Philadelphia, as a key group of volunteers on the ground works to expand the program. This initiative is being led by Carol Rosenfeld ’05, who has been in touch with Chet Safian ’55 about growing a program.

-Washington, DC-

Kate Lewis-LaMonica ’08 shares the following: “The DC Region was excited to welcome our largest cohort ever – 13 fellows. In July, the early arrivers gathered in Chinatown to meet the other fellows and local volunteers, and then again in August to volunteer together at Bruce Monroe Elementary during DC Public Schools Beautification Day. We finally formally welcomed the fellows at our orientation dinner in September: As tradition,  AlumniCorps President Bill Leahy ’66 and his wife, Chris, hosted a wonderful dinner at their home. Fellows gathered for a September workshop, Career Reflection 101, and the most recent seminar, “Options in Your 20s,” featured a panel of successful young professionals degree who spoke to the career choices they’ve made since graduating. On the social front, volunteers and fellows have organized outings to farm festivals and community dinners to sprinkle fun into our fall calendar.”