IN THIS ISSUE:

*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: High School Students Dive in at Splash!






EVENTS
Soul Umoja’s "Souled Out" Concert!
Friday, May 29
7:00pm-9:00pm
Ida Noyes, 3rd Floor Theatre (1212 E 59th St)
Soul Umoja is the University of Chicago's Gospel Choir. If you enjoy praising the Lord, and you enjoy good music, then this is an event that shouldn't be missed! We will be singing such songs as "Leaning on God", "Souled Out", and "I Can Make It." A perfect way to prepare for finals and to celebrate a beautiful spring!

Building Sustainable Coalitions
Wednesday, June 3
5:00pm-7:00pm
UCSC Conference Room (5525 S. Ellis)
The UCSC Social Justice program hosts an interactive workshop led by Alex Poeter, Director of Organizing at the Chicago Freedom School. Poeter will discuss the process of building and maintaining sustainable coalitions supporting social action.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
The 16th Annual Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon is Saturday, June 13. In just one day, 8,000 volunteers will come together to help 30,000 Chicago students succeed by transforming schools into vibrant places to learn and grow. Volunteers will paint beautiful murals, brighten classrooms and hallways, create line games on playgrounds, beautify school grounds with landscaping and organize libraries. To learn more or register today, visit www.chicagocares.org or call 312 780-0800 for more information.

Information meeting to join our AIDS RUN WALK
Monday June 1
6-8pm
The Children's Place Association (1436 W. Randolph Street 5th floor)
Refreshments will be served. Come find out more! Bring friends! Find out more about The Children's Place Association! Register to run or walk! Find out how to be a team leader! Sign up to volunteer! To register to join our team before the meeting go to www.aidsrunwalk.org. RSVP if you and your friends will attend the meeting June 1!

Volunteers are welcomed to work in other capacities at the Children’s Place Association. Volunteer at the Residence (9-12:00pmMon-Sat) OR the Early Learning Center (9-12pm, Mon-Fri). Pick a day! Pick a shift! Call Ann today if you can volunteer this summer! June, July, August. Weekly commitment! You are needed! Ann’s direct line: 312-660-3033

INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
Federal Work Study (Off-Campus)
UCSC seeks out and posts part-time and summer work-study positions with Chicago area nonprofit and public sector organizations. Opportunities are geared toward identified interests and skills of our College, graduate and professional school students. View this list for the most current off-campus works study positions.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
High School Students Dive in at Splash!
Amy Estersohn, Edited by Allen L. Linton II

With 12,000 students dropping out every year and only half of students entering as freshmen leaving with diplomas, Chicago Public Schools struggles to provide a strong educational foundation for its 400,000 students citywide. Despite these figures, University of Chicago students from various backgrounds offer a unique opportunity to engage high school students in alternative educational experiences.

For the third year in a row, hundreds of high school students from all over the city of Chicago will make their way to Cobb and Harper on the Saturday morning after first week to take classes from University students courtesy of Splash!.

Splash! is an annual program that introduces topics to high school students not traditionally taught in the classroom or formally discussed within purely academic learning. Classes are taught by University of Chicago student volunteers, ranging from knitting, photography, and improvisational comedy to “Glitter and Doom: The Weimar Republic and the Rise of Fascism” and “Splitting the Banana Split: The Science of Cold.” Splash! maximizes student’s engagement by allowing students the prospect of sharing the ideas they love to an interested audience.

“Splash! takes a different approach to learning,” said board member Lyndsey Moulds. “Students are used to associating learning with papers, exams, and test prep. We try to remind students that learning is fun, and we do that by offering hands-on activities in courses designed by U of C students. The students teaching classes think their topic is interesting, and that enthusiasm is infectious.”

The program welcomes experienced teachers as well as novices. “Many of our teachers don’t have extensive classroom experience, and that’s OK. We want the students to learn something, but more importantly we want them to learn that learning is fun,” Moulds said. Compared to other University activities, Splash! requires a relatively small time commitment, as students teach a minimum of one, one-hour class on one day. The student-led, flexible type of community service offered by Splash! makes it appealing to both teachers and students alike.

With assistance from the Community Service Fund, Splash! is free to attend and teachers are able to incorporate equipment into their lesson plans. Considering the financial constraints on education in Chicago Public Schools, high school students and teachers appreciate the cooperation between student and University members with the common goal of improving education.

“We spend a lot of time working to pull in students from diverse backgrounds. Some of our students have to register for Splash! through their high school guidance counselor because they don’t have internet access at home. If we charged for the program, we would be sending our students through another obstacle towards attending our program,” Moulds said.

The organization regularly reaches out to high school students and parents. Splash! members tabled at this year’s Art in Action, and members visit high schools around Chicago to inform students about the program. Emily Pelka remarked: “Whenever I talk to high school students about Splash!, either they’ve heard of it already or they are really excited about it. And they get even more excited when they learn they can take classes on things like video games and pop music”

To teach or volunteer at this year's Splash!, sign up at uchicago-splash.mit.edu by June 1. To learn more about volunteering for this year’s Splash!, contact Anya Thetford at anyuta@uchicago.edu.

The University Community Service Center (UCSC) fosters the development of civic-minded students by providing substantive community service opportunities through community partnerships based on mutual trust and respect. If you have questions - how to get involved as a student or how to connect to students as a community organization - please contact us.

University Community Service Center
5525 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 160
Chicago IL, 60637
Tel: 773.753.4483
Fax: 773.834.1160
ucsc.uchicago.edu

IN THIS ISSUE:

*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*In the Spotlight:UCPIP: Alumni Support College Graduates






EVENTS
New Politics of Race and Science
Thursday, May 21
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Adler Institute on Social Exclusion (65 E. Wacker Place, Room 1705)
Dorothy Roberts is Kirkland Ellis Professor, Northwestern Law School, and Professor, Department of African-American Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, at Northwestern University. This presentation focuses on the uses of race as a category in science, law, and social policy. It demonstrates how different political approaches to racial equality influence scientific debates on medicine, biotechnology, and bioethics.

4th Annual Art in Action Festival
Saturday, May 23rd
11:00am – 6:00pm
First Presbyterian Church (6400 S Kimbark Ave.)
Art in Action is a day-long festival organized by a diverse group of artists, activists, and students from the South Side. This day long event includes music, barbeque, collaborative art projects, a poetry slam, and much more.

Annual University Memorial Ceremony
Tuesday, May 26th
5:00pm
Rockefeller memorial Chapel
During this ceremony, we remember those from the University community who have died during the academic year, and we also invite graduating students to name those whom they have lost over the course of their studies — family members and friends who cannot be there to express pride and joy, and whose absence is keenly felt. For more information, contact Elizabeth Davenport at ejld@uchicago.edu


VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Help raise community awareness on the issues of Sexual and Domestic Violence. Join the YWCA at their Francis Center (6600 S. Cottage Grove Ave.) in May and June for Informational Saturdays where the group will be walking through the community with program information. Interested volunteers should contact Elspeth at the UCSC at
emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.

Share your paper writing skills! A student from a City College is looking for assistance with a persuasive final paper. She is willing to meet you on campus. Anyone interested in helping should contact Elspeth ASAP at emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.
The 16th Annual Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon is Saturday, June 13. In just one day, 8,000 volunteers will come together to help 30,000 Chicago students succeed by transforming schools into vibrant places to learn and grow. Volunteers will paint beautiful murals, brighten classrooms and hallways, create line games on playgrounds, beautify school grounds with landscaping and organize libraries. To learn more or register today, visit www.chicagocares.org or call 312 780-0800 for more information.


IN THE SPOTLIGHT
UCPIP: Alumni Support College Graduates
Mutisya Leonard, Staff Writer

According to University of Chicago alumnus, and Vice President of the Alumni Board of Governors, Tom Berg, A.B ’72, the University of Chicago Public Interest Program (UCPIP) is a key initiative in the University’s long tradition of civic engagement with Chicago –a tradition that goes back more than 100 years with Jane Addams, and with the creation of SSA. “The talents and energy of UChicago graduates are the best things the University can share with the city,” he said. Berg is also Alumni Director of UCPIP.

UCPIP is a competitive alumni-driven University initiative placing College graduates in paid, year-long non-profit opportunities in Chicago. The program runs as an innovative collaboration between Career Advising and Planning Services (CAPS), the University Community Service Center (UCSC), and the Alumni Association.

David Hays, Assistant Director at UCSC says, “It’s a true partnership. Alumni identify Fellowship sites, and they provide mentorship and training crucial in transitioning from the unique education at UChicago. CAPS offers the structural support students need in navigating the application and interviews, and in developing professional relationships with host organizations. UCSC contributes to strategic planning, defining of program directions, visions and timelines, facilitates outreach to community partners that would potentially host Fellows, and connects with students actively engaged in service-work that may find reward and challenge in applying to UCPIP.”

College graduates bring their skills, creativity and commitment to bear on projects with direct relevance to crucial public interest issues while mastering the tools needed to work locally on significant social issues. Graduates receive an annual stipend of at least $27,000 plus benefits from the site they match with, and are partnered with a supervisor at the site. Additionally, during the course of the year, Fellows receive professional development training –in the form of weekly seminars with peer Fellows in the program— and formal mentorship opportunities with established alumni in public interest work.

The supplementary development training is aimed at promoting awareness on public interest issues and best practices in non-profit work, connecting the host sites’ work to the University, and expanding the pool of public interest resources. Berg retired from a for-profit career a year ago and enjoys working with UCPIP because it “uses the skills learned in corporate life –strategy, management and marketing skills, metrics and entrepreneurial skills– in the exciting public interest setting.”

“It's a way to give back where you can see the impact, and have a lot of fun interacting with Fellows and learning about public interest work in Chicago,” Berg concludes.

“Students applying to UCPIP are coming from different places,” notes Berg, “some are trying out non-profit work, and assessing its fit. Some are looking for an entry to a life-long career in public interest. Others want to contribute before starting graduate school or another career.”

“A fellow worked at Greater Southwest Development Corp and was introduced to a trade school -Austin Polytechnic School- during the weekly Fellow seminars and brought those ideas back to his site. A current fellow writes and edits a neighborhood newspaper pretty much by herself in North Lawndale. Other fellows work in education settings and have good success with underserved students,” Berg continued, “They are a diversely engaged lot, involved in dynamic work!”

“Host organizations see the value of UCPIP but the current economy has hurt us,” Berg notes. “Still UCPIP has become creative in meeting the challenge. In recruiting sites, we highlight UCPIP as an exciting opportunity to hire intelligent, resourceful and enthusiastic UChicago graduates that bring fresh ideas to work at a reasonable cost. Other organizations want to create or deepen relationships with the University and we show them how UCPIP is a good starting point in linking to professional and institutional support. In a small immigration organization in Little Village, for instance, we settled a deal where alumni offered voluntary advice and support to help them with strategy, metrics and marketing while they took up a Fellow to, among other things, implement the ideas.”

UCPIP seeks to build long-term partnerships with public interest organizations. Some organizations do decide to hire Fellows as regular full-time employees beyond the Fellowship year.

Maxwell Brooks, Assistant Director for Undergraduate Preparation at CAPS manages the fellowship program. He may be reached by e-mail: mbrooks@uchicago.edu.



The University Community Service Center (UCSC) fosters the development of civic-minded students by providing substantive community service opportunities through community partnerships based on mutual trust and respect. If you have questions - how to get involved as a student or how to connect to students as a community organization - please contact us.

University Community Service Center
5525 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 160
Chicago IL, 60637
Tel: 773.753.4483
Fax: 773.834.1160
ucsc.uchicago.edu

IN THIS ISSUE:

*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: UCSC Says "Thank You for Service"









EVENTS
A Marathon Reading of Les Miserables
May 14 - May 16
24 hours!!
Regenstein Library and the Quads
From May 14 - 16, students, faculty, and friends will read Les Miserables as a chance to reflect on the morals and values of our society. The event is open to all levels of French speakers (Note: French 201-205 will receive extra-credit toward their coursework. Come and hear our new professor Danel Désormeaux, who will be joining the Romance Languages and Literatures Department next year read the opening pages of Les Misérables.

12th Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception
Monday, May 18th
5:00pm – 7:00pm
The Cloister Club of Ida Noyes Hall (1212 E. 59th Street)
AVRR brings together community partners, students, faculty, staff, and administration to celebrate the hard-work, dedication and exemplary service in the community throughout this academic year. This year features keynote speaker Steven D. Biedermann, Investment Portfolio Manager for Chicago Public Schools and entertainment by Shower Songsters and Voices in Your Head. RSVP at ucsc.uchicago.edu.

New Politics of Race and Science
Thursday, May 21
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Adler Institute on Social Exclusion (65 E. Wacker Place, Room 1705)
Dorothy Roberts is Kirkland Ellis Professor, Northwestern Law School, and Professor, Department of African-American Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, at Northwestern University. This presentation focuses on the uses of race as a category in science, law, and social policy. It demonstrates how different political approaches to racial equality influence scientific debates on medicine, biotechnology, and bioethics.

4th Annual Art in Action Festival
Saturday, May 23rd
11:00am – 6:00pm
First Presbyterian Church (6400 S Kimbark Ave.)
Art in Action is a day-long festival organized by a diverse group of artists, activists, and students from the South Side. This day long event includes music, barbeque, collaborative art projects, a poetry slam, and much more.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Help raise community awareness on the issues of Sexual and Domestic Violence. Join the YWCA at their Francis Center (6600 S. Cottage Grove Ave.) in May and June for Informational Saturdays where the group will be walking through the community with program information. Interested volunteers should contact Elspeth at the UCSC at
emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.

Share your paper writing skills! A student from a City College is looking for assistance with a persuasive final paper. She is willing to meet you on campus. Anyone interested in helping should contact Elspeth ASAP at emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.

Volunteer for the 2009 Green Festival, May 16-17. Green Festival is a
2 day event co-produced by Global Exchange and Green America committed to the movement towards a just and sustainable society, featuring over 400 socially and environmentally responsible enterprises, over 100 leading speakers, live music, and delicious organic food and drink. Volunteers are needed for the event and receive free admission, an organic cotton t-shirt and free memberships. For more information please visit: www.greenfestivals.org/volunteer.

INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
United Negro College Fund Google Scholarship
Due: May 15th, 2009
Applicants must be entering their senior year of undergraduate study or be enrolled in a graduate program in 2008-2009 at an accredited college/university in the United States. Applicants must be pursuing a computer science degree, with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5. To apply, visit http://www.google.com/jobs/scholarships.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
UCSC Says "Thank You for Service"
Rachel Cromidas, Staff Writer

Next week, University of Chicago students will trade their old pairs of jeans (muddy from gardening during the Earth Week Day of Service, no doubt) for slightly more formal wear to honor their commitments to community service at the Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception (AVRR).

At AVRR, which will take place for its twelfth year on Monday, May 18th at 5pm in the Cloister Club of Ida Noyes, the University will award students, Community Service RSOs and houses for their particular community service endeavors while students from across the University’s College and graduate programs congregate for refreshments.

The college will give out several awards to students and groups, including: the Edward Turkington House Service Award, President’s Volunteer Service Award, Perry S. Herst Prize, the Brown Service Learning Award and the CSRSO award.

“AVRR really is not only for those who receive the awards, but for all the students throughout the year who have worked hard,” said Wallace Goode, director of the University Community Service Center.

For Goode, the AVRR awards are less about rewarding students and more about publicly thanking them for their achievements.

The awards “are certainly a goal for younger students to strive for, but for those students who receive an award, it is mainly a community affirmation of their efforts,” Goode said. Students “do it because they want to do it, and there are very personal reasons why people do service. This [award reception] is simply a public way of saying thank you for all that you do.”

Alex Gagne is one such student; she is a nominee for the Presidential Volunteer Award. Her experiences with community service on campus stem mainly from the tutoring program she runs at Woodlawn’s University of Chicago charter school on 64th and University, Gagne said.

Gagne became the RSO’s leader, she said, “because I really enjoyed the program. Sometimes it’s really frustrating because you are tutoring kids in math and they aren’t getting it, but then there are other weeks were you feel like you really helped them get better at something that’s really important.”

Gagne is graduating this June with a Masters of Public Policy.

“I knew I was going to be working in educational policy, with numbers and statistics. But before I work in an office somewhere just working with numbers and not really seeing the children I’m trying to help…I am trying to work with these kids as much as I can.”

Gagne is just one of more than one dozen students nominated for awards who will be honored at the reception.

Steven Biedermann, the Investment Porfolio Manager in the Bureau of Treasury at Chicago Public Schools, will give the keynote address at the reception. Mr. Biedermann served two years as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Kiribati as a mathematics instructor at Teabike College. Most recently, he spent several months volunteering with the United Nations in southern Sudan on The Global Fund project.

All students are welcome to attend the reception. Please RSVP to ucsc.uchicago.edu.

The University Community Service Center (UCSC) fosters the development of civic-minded students by providing substantive community service opportunities through community partnerships based on mutual trust and respect. If you have questions - how to get involved as a student or how to connect to students as a community organization - please contact us.

University Community Service Center
5525 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 160
Chicago IL, 60637
Tel: 773.753.4483
Fax: 773.834.1160
ucsc.uchicago.edu

IN THIS ISSUE:

*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: Peer Health Exchange: Training College Students, Empowering at-risk Youth







EVENTS
STRIVE Information Sessions
Wednesday, May 6
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Harper Memorial: Room 140
STRIVE is a unique intervention for teens with sickle cell disease. Undergraduate mentors provide one-to-one mentoring/peer support, disease management education and academic support to teens at-risk for poor academic achievement and social/behavioral problems due to frequent hospitalizations. Learn more about STRIVE and how to apply at this informational session.

Role of Free Speech on Campus
Friday, May 8
Noon-1:30pm
Social Science Research Building, Room 122 (1126 E. 59th Street)
Please join Provost Thomas Rosenbaum and faculty for a discussion on the role of free speech on campus. They will explore issues related to creating and sustaining an environment that allows for open, rigorous, and intense intellectual inquiry and debate, while fostering civil discourse both on campus and in the classroom.

Walk for Peace in Humboldt Park
Saturday, May 9
10:00am-2:00pm
Clemente High School (1147 North Western)
Humboldt Park organizations celebrate safer communities, safer schools, and safer homes! Immediately following the walk will be a Celebration of Peace until 2:00 pm at the Humboldt Park Boat House. The Celebration will include free food, performances, music, games, resources and much more.

A Marathon Reading of Les Miserables
May 14 - May 16
24 hours!!
Regenstein Library and the Quads
From May 14 - 16, students, faculty, and friends will read Les Miserables as a chance to reflect on the morals and values of our society. The event is open to all levels of French speakers (Note: French 201-205 will receive extra-credit toward their coursework). The readinig will attempt to raise money for an organization that helps combat the misery that author Victor Hugo experienced.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Help raise community awareness on the issues of Sexual and Domestic Violence. Join the YWCA at their Francis Center (6600 S. Cottage Grove Ave.) in May and June for Informational Saturdays where the group will be walking through the community with program information. Interested volunteers should contact Elspeth at the UCSC at
emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.

Share your paper writing skills! A student from a City College is
looking for assistance with a persuasive final paper. She is willing
to meet you on campus. Anyone interested in helping should contact
Elspeth ASAP at emcgarvey@uchicago.edu.

Soundscapes/Devon: Collaborative Audiowalk in an Immigrant Neighborhood of Chicago

The University of Chicago and the Indo-American Center are facilitating a community-driven effort to create an artistic, educational, widely-disseminable portrait of Devon Avenue. This project may be of interest to students and teachers who want to explore firsthand how an organization that would like to serve a new community takes root in that community, as well those interested in music, sound art, or service-learning. Interested individuals may contact Currun Singh at 773-702-8635 or currun@uchicago.edu for more information or to find out how to get involved.

Screening and Workshops around Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath

This spring, the University of Chicago will host a two-day series of screenings and workshops around the newly-released film Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath, which explores hate and healing in America post-9/11. Screenings and Q&A will be held for middle and high school students and the public, with reflective discussions, interfaith dialogues, and oral history trainings to follow for those interested in communities across Chicago. If you would like to bring the film and a workshop to your community, school, classroom, etc., please let us know and we will do our best to make it happen. Interested individuals may contact Currun Singh at 773-702-8635 or currun@uchicago.edu for more information or to find out how to get involved.

INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
2 Rhodes, a Marshall and a Churchill…
A panel discussion on British scholarships on Tuesday, May 12th at 7pm in Harper 284. Open Hour with Maria Cecire (AB ’06, Rhodes 2005) will be Wednesday, May 13th at 10-11am in Harper 286 and a final British Scholarship information session at 2-3pm in Harper 284.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Peer Health Exchange: Training College Students, Empowering at-risk Youth
Mutisya Leonard

In Chicago, one in six high school aged teenagers is overweight, one in four binge drinks, one in four smokes, and one in five sexually active teenage girls becomes pregnant each year. One in five teenagers experiences violence in a dating relationship.

Across most of the United States, and more severely in urban settings experiencing significant racial and economic segregation, public school health efforts are underfunded, and understaffed. Students attending most of these schools live in precarious settings, experience a disproportionate number of health risks, often with little information on the health and legal implications of their everyday decisions. Further, wherever health curricula does occur, the programs often promote abstinence-only and moralized advice that’s informative and precautionary but heavily biased in preferring certain behavior patterns.

Recent budget cuts exacerbate the crisis, leaving even more teenagers unprepared to protect themselves against health risks. At-risk youth are more vulnerable, often harming themselves, and hurting their futures, and they are less likely to excel in school, or obtain gainful employment.

Peer Health Exchange, a national non-profit working with high schools serving economically disadvantaged majority minority populations, works to identify, recruit and train college volunteers to teach ninth-grade class sets in these schools the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy decisions. PHE covers wide-ranging topic areas – from substance abuse to nutrition and physical activity, contraception, to rape and sexual assault.

Since its founding in 2003, PHE has trained at least 1,500 college student volunteers representing 20 college sites across the nation, to deliver effective health education to 15,000 ninth-graders in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and the Bay Area. PHE was adopted as a Community Service RSO at University of Chicago last year, and in the year 40 college volunteers taught at least 500 students in Kenwood Academy, Dyett High School and Harper High School. This year, Robeson High School was added on.

In reporting the impact of PHE’s work in Chicago’s South Side, 2008-2009 co-coordinators, Josh Liss, a fourth year in the College, and Nora Vallerini, a third year in the College, announced that on a survey taken by high school student at the end of the year’s teaching, “90% of teenagers reported that they intend to use information learned in making decisions about their health in the future, while 57% said they had already used something they learned from PHE workshops to make a healthy decision during the six months the program ran. Additionally, high school students made statistically significant increases in their health knowledge, with a 21% improvement from Pre-Test to Post-Test.”

In the classroom, students are guided to articulate their values and goals, they learn basic, accurate health information, discuss attitudes and perceptions of peer norms and peer pressure, analyze the influence of culture and the media on health, discuss barriers to healthy behaviors and strategies to overcome them, and identify how one can use health resources in their communities. PHE volunteers help students practice skills such as effective communication, risk evaluation and prevention, limit-setting, and decision-making in role-plays that resemble challenging, real-life situations. By applying the skills they learn in PHE workshops outside of the classroom, PHE high school students can make informed decisions that will help them become responsible, accountable adults capable of leading healthy families.

According to Chicago Chief Executive Madeline Kerner, “74% of high school students say that having college student volunteer lead workshops helped them learn about health topics more enthusiastically.” “As slightly older peers,” Kerner continues, “PHE volunteers provide the benefits of peer education while also commanding the advantages of traditional instruction. They deliver health information to teenagers in a language and context that is relevant to their everyday experiences, yet they can also serve as role models, demonstrating healthy behaviors and the successful transition from high school to college.”

For many PHE volunteers, their experience in the classroom compels them to commit to public service jobs, and volunteer work. 90% of past PHE volunteers surveyed nationally say that their experience with PHE altered their career, academic and volunteer goals in lasting, meaningful ways. Volunteers typically plan to go on to service careers in teaching, medicine, public interest law, and policymaking.



The University Community Service Center (UCSC) fosters the development of civic-minded students by providing substantive community service opportunities through community partnerships based on mutual trust and respect. If you have questions - how to get involved as a student or how to connect to students as a community organization - please contact us.

University Community Service Center
5525 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 160
Chicago IL, 60637
Tel: 773.753.4483
Fax: 773.834.1160
ucsc.uchicago.edu