Crimson Article Understated the Impact and Value of Public Service

I am writing in response to an article The Crimson ran last week concerning public service at Harvard ("Students Question Services Impact," News, October 28, 1996). I feel it is very unfair and inaccurate to take the opinion of one PBHA volunteer and apply it to the entire core of public service volunteers at Harvard. Certainly, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but to generalize about the sentiments of an entire organization that encompasses over a thousand people is absolutely ludicrous.

I myself have been involved in public service at Harvard ever since fall semester of my first-year, and I can honestly say that it has been one of the most positive, rewarding experiences of my Harvard career thus far. Currently, I am co-chairing CHANCE, a comprehensive college preparation program affiliated with students at Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School, and although I feel that I somehow tumbled into the program my first-year without really having a clear idea of what I wanted to do, two and a half years later I know that it was exactly the right decision for me.

With all the controversy and negative publicity public service, and specifically PBHA, has received recently, I would like to turn things around and say something positive about the organization. I think I can speak from a fairly unbiased perspective--I am not a PBHA Board member, nor am I on the administrative staff at Harvard. I am simply a volunteer who, over the past two years, has come to realize the impact public service has made on both my life and the lives of those with whom I work.

At a competitive institution such as Harvard it is easy to get so caught up in your own life that you lose touch of what is going on in the lives of the people around you. Academics, athletics and extra-curricular activities at times become over-prioritized.

It is easy to care only about what directly affects your life. And I say this from experience. However, what I am realizing more and more is that while these are all noble pursuits, there is so much more. Committing myself to public service has helped me to keep in touch with matters beyond Harvard Yard. And I believe that my work with CHANCE has given me much more insight than I could have ever received in any class at Harvard.

The news article brought up two issues that I would like to address: First, the nature of the time commitment for many of the PBHA programs and second, (admittedly, a much more difficult issue to tackle), the effectiveness of such undergraduate public service organizations.

One of the benefits and drawbacks of many programs in PBHA is the nature of the time commitment. If you are a volunteer, it is easy to assume that working in a program that requires only two or three hours each week may not accomplish much in the larger scope of things. And if you are not involved in PBHA, it is equally easy to assume that volunteers in a program that requires only two or three hours a week are participating so they can pat themselves on the back for being socially aware.

However, in my opinion neither of these views is well-justified. Through my involvement in CHANCE, I have witnessed and been impressed time and time again by the energy and care many of our tutors have put into the program. And I have been equally impressed by the positive response of the students with whom we work. For example, in the past two years, 100 percent of our CHANCE seniors have gone on to two or four-year institutions. Although it is certainly impossible to quantify the full effects of our program, and other similar programs, I genuinely believe that we are able to make an impact on their lives, just as I believe they are able to make an impact on ours.

I do not, and will not, ever come to believe that idealism is a bad thing. There is nothing wrong in believing and wanting to improve the situation of those around us. Of course, I am not blind to the social realities of racism, sexism and cultural misunderstandings; if I were, I do not think that I would have ever chosen to volunteer in the first place.

Rather, I feel that many people are involved in public service because they firmly believe in making a change in this world, even if it is as "little" as affecting just one person. Can you condemn these people for wanting to try? Is it so bad to hope to make an impact? And would it truly be better if everyone stopped volunteering simply because a few people believed that it only perpetuates societal problems? Basically, what I am asking is this: How can we ever know until we try?

It is difficult to talk about public service. Believe me, I know. How does one communicate positive feelings about volunteering without appearing to others as an overly confident Harvard student who may or may not have the "right" intentions?

I do not have the answer to that, nor do I assume that I ever will. But it doesn't really matter. Sometimes I feel that with all the discussion and critiquing of public service, many people have lost sight of or lost faith in what is really at the core of PBHA--not the hours spent, or the numbers involved, or the structure of it, but the relationships cultivated when someone reaches out and another person responds. And sometimes I have to remind myself that this is what it's really all about, anyway.

I would like to close with a passage from an essay one of our students wrote a few years ago. I think it speaks for itself.

"My whole life I have lived very close to Harvard, and through a couple of living stereotypes and my own prejudices, at a young age I formed an opinion of what a Harvard student was. A Harvard student was one that was driven only by the quest for money and self-gratification. I have found only the opposite at CHANCE. In fact, if it wasn't for CHANCE, I don't think I could have gotten through school. When all my teachers gave up on me, I felt nothing but alienation, but CHANCE made me feel a sense of self-worth and pride."

If only we could recapture some of our lost idealism, just think of what we could accomplish. --Grace S. Chen '98   CHANCE Co-Chair