PBHA Holds Festive Spring Open House

Phillips Brooks House Association opened its spring semester with a festive air yesterday.

Representatives from more than 80 community service programs ringed the rooms of the organization's Yard headquarters, competing like carnival barkers for several students who came through looking for volunteer opportunities.

Members of the officer's committee stood at the door with PBHA flyers taped to sweatshirts that already advertised the outreach organization, welcoming newcomers and handing them maps to help them find their way through the maze of programs.

Instead of getting lost in the service sprawl, students said they were excited at the opportunity to volunteer.

Ana Morrel-Samuels '00 said she came to the PBHA open house out of guilt for not buying Spare Change News in the Square.

"I always used to tell myself that it didn't matter that I didn't buy it because I was a volunteer, but I didn't actually do anything last semester. So here I am," she said.

Due M. Quach '00 also came to PBHA to fill some extra free time.

"Volunteering just didn't fit into my schedule in the fall, but it looks like it'll be O.K. this semester now that I'm not taking any CS classes," she said. Quach took Computer Science 50 last semester.

Options this year are dizzying. About 1,700 volunteers work on and manage more than 80 programs, including 10 full-time summer camps.

Some of the more unusual groups include the Wizard of AIDS, a theater group that attempts to educate high school students about AIDS and methods to prevent the spread of HIV.

According to the program's literature, in the Wizard of AIDS Dorothy is transported to a world threatened by AIDS. Along the way, she meets the Wicked Witch of Needle-Sharing and her sister, the Wicked Witch of Unsafe Sex, and makes friends with the "over-sexed" Scarecrow, the "promiscuous" Tin Babe and the Homosexual Cowardly Lion.

Differentiating between the programs can be difficult, and their representatives resorted to more active recruitment.

"Civics? Do you want to teach civics? Everyone can teach civics," the program's directors yelled to the milling crowd.

Students left with stacks of brightly colored flyers, and more than half of the programs lured volunteers with bags of candy.

Signs posted on the stairs advertised kegs of beer on the second floor. No beer actually materialized, but no one appeared to be upset.

PBHA Vice President Michael W. Ma '98 said he is enthusiastic about the new semester.

Although the spring open house isn't as well-attended as the fall event, Ma said, it is important because some programs aren't year-round.

"Mission Hill, for example, starts up new each semester," he said.

Summer programs are the best-kept secret of PBHA," said Treasurer Judy Hung '99. "We have ten full-time, 9-4 day camps for kids ages 6 to 14. There's a refugee youth summer enrichment program, language programs--and everyone who works gets a $2,700 stipend."

The officers waxed enthusiastic about their organization.

"PBHA is considered the best class at Harvard," said Ma.

"Where else at Harvard are you going to find people who are this passionate about what they do? Which is not to say that everyone who does PBHA has to be so gungho. It's a chance to do something that's more real than classes, stress, all that," said Amanda Spector '98.

"As I see it, this is partly why I came to Harvard," Hung said.