A Note from the Chairman. . . . As we approach our 40th reunion, I'm pleased to report that the CSF continues to advance even in these difficult economic times. In fact, we believe it's all the more important to link Princeton students with service-related opportunities in order to help them consider community service as a vocation or avocation once they graduate. The centerpiece of our efforts--The PICS Program--will send out close to 60 undergraduates to summer internships with non-profits, and we'll soon reach 500 total placements over the course of our history. You'll be able to learn more about us at reunions as the Class has chosen to celebrate the CSF as our Class contribution to Community Service at Princeton, and we've invited former interns (some of whom are approaching a major reunion themselves) to our Friday afternoon reception. With close to 100 classmates and spouses having participated in our program as mentors and board members, we hope we can count on your continued support as we move into an even more challenging and potentially rewarding phase in development of our relationship with the University, its students and the service organizations we support. Rick 
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Legal Action Center Though my main responsibility was screening initial phone calls to determine if applicants had defensible cases, something I really appreciated about my internship was how active it was—I was constantly working with different people and I never did the exact same things twice. I felt like I got a good grasp of the bigger picture of how law, legal service, and public resources all work together in Seattle through various other tasks, which included setting up and running intake for clients facing legal evictions, researching legal defenses for cases and writing up my findings in memos, assisting with the Housing Justice Project at the courthouse with hearings for walk-in clients, and obtaining copies of reports from the police department, municipal court, and the Juvenile Detention Center. There’s an image that stands out vividly in my mind when I think about this summer. An attorney and I were meeting with a client who was being evicted for failure to pay rent, but there was a problem with some of the evidence we needed—hundreds of receipts (which she had meticulously kept) did not have dates on them, just serial numbers. I can remember the attorney leaning over the client’s receipts and spending a full half hour putting them in order by serial number for her. I remember thinking to myself about how much the time of an attorney was worth, and transfixed that he was doing something for this client out of the goodness of his heart that anybody could have done. And then I realized that sure, anybody could have done it, but nobody had. And if nobody else would, Legal Action Center would. I believe strongly in Legal Action Center’s mission, and I know it is an incredibly important tool in Seattle that manages to do amazing work on a shoestring budget with a tiny staff. I enjoyed my time, and was also forced to stretch and grow while dealing with so many new experiences. Umoja Student Development Corporation My internship consisted of two projects. The first was planning and coordinating Umoja University, a week-long conference for Chicago public and charter school teachers and administrators. This was Umoja’s first year hosting such an event. The second project was with Umoja Community Builders, a six-week program for high school students to help them develop leadership skills and citizenship. This was, without a doubt, my favorite part of working with Umoja. I was a co-supervisor for a group of 8 students, and it was my responsibility to keep the students on task and help them think outside the bubble. Working with these kids completely changed my impression of inner-city public school students. When given the opportunity and a little encouragement, they truly shine and I was very proud of the work they accomplished. Umoja’s biggest strength is that everyone in the organization truly cares about the well being of the students and will go above and beyond the requirements of their job to ensure that Umoja thrives in the community and in the lives of their youth. I came into this internship telling myself I wanted to make a difference—a measurable, meaningful difference. After listening to my students present their work in front of a crowded auditorium, I knew that I had succeeded in helping to bring about change and making a difference in the lives of these students and in the North Lawndale community. This internship helped me grow as a person and inspired me to continue working in public service after I graduate from Princeton.
American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) At ACRIN, I had the opportunity to research minority recruitment in clinical trials. As continuously poor minority accrual rates are becoming major subjects of concern for much of the research community, this was a subject of interest for ACRIN. I began the internship by conducting background research on the documented barriers to minority participation to clinical trials, strategies to overcoming these barriers currently in use by National Cancer Institute funded cooperative groups and pharmaceutical companies in their quest to increase minority accrual rates and rcommendations from minority organizations as to the best population specific strategies to employ to gain the trust (and therefore the involvement) of minorities in clinical trials. Once this research was completed, I created a document outlining the best and most feasible minority recruitment strategies for ACRIN to employ to increase minority participation. I then created a list of population specific recruitment practices – practices that work best for Blacks, for Latinos, for Asian Americans, for American Indians etc. I had the chance to present some of my research on behalf of ACRIN at the National Medical Association conference in New York City in late July. I loved the work that I did. Investigating health care policies and looking at how they can be changed for the better was exactly what I was interested in. I really appreciate that the work I did is actually going to be used by ACRIN: at their fall meeting, online, and possible other places as well. Creating by presentations and delivering them was incredibly satisfying. I got tremendous feedback from all of the Project Managers and Data Managers at ACRIN – it was wonderful to be asked questions that I had to go and search for the answer to.
Human Rights First I was working with the Human Rights Defenders Program within Human Rights First. I spent roughly half my time helping my colleagues in the program on their specific projects. For example, one of the Program Associates focused on Eastern Europe and Central Asia and was working on a report on Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan. Because I have basic Russian language skills, I would help her translate press releases from Uzbek and Russian newspapers. The Defenders program also released a weekly “Defender Alert” to its mailing list in which it urged readers to take action on a specific human rights defender case. These cases usually concerned individuals from countries such as Colombia, Indonesia, Syria, Guatemala, and Sudan among others. I would help gather information on the specific cases and also help circulate the campaign letter to senators, congressmen and members of the State Department. The other half of my time I was working on a database of human rights defenders in the Middle East. I scoured the internet for information and was able to obtain contact details for workers in the human rights field in the region and spoke to many firsthand about their experiences. I really enjoyed working on this project; it was challenging, I had great creative freedom and was able to put my Arabic language skills to good use.
Schenectady Inner City Ministry
Whitney Spaulding '07 worked with the Schenectady Inner City Ministry. Whitney wrote, "My main project this summer was the Computers for Kids program. Computers for Kids is a program designed for underprivileged, inner city 14-18 years olds in which they are taught by trained instructors about the basics of computer hardware, software and refurbishing. At the end of the course, each student gets to take home a refurbished computer. I helped set up most of the logistics with this program, which included providing food for the students, getting donated computer parts, recruiting students, dealing with disciplinary issues and with the job training agency, being an extra body for crowd control, cleaning up everything at the end, and writing a newspaper article about the program. One of the best perks about the program was learning along with the kids. I previously had little knowledge about computer hardware, but during the final days, I actually built a couple of computers of by own, to be donated to the community."
What's the
Community Service Fund?
With approximately $800,000 in our Class Memorial Fund prior to our 25th Reunion, a task force appointed by then Class President Marc Miller recommended that 50% of the Memorial fund be retained under class auspices and directed toward (1) making a contribution to community service globally; (2) stimulating community service activity by Princeton students and enhancing their education through related experiential opportunities; and (3) providing members of our class with opportunities to become deeply involved with both students and community service organizations that are important to class members. CSF sponsored the first interns in the summer of 1996-13 placements with a grant total of $34,000. Since 1998 some of the host organizations are co-funding their interns, and the University's Work-Study Program provides additional support. In 2006 the internship program expanded to include all summer internships previously administered by Princeton Project 55 and received a name, “Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS), The Community Service Funds of the Class of 1977 and members of the Class of 1970 have become major supporters of the PICS program, providing funding, organizational contacts and mentors. In the summer of 2008, the Fund sponosred a record 75 summer internships. Since its inception, the Fund has placed over 400 Princeton students and graduates with over 150 community service organizations involved in a wide variety of areas-the environment, health care, education, public policy analysis, legal services, etc. In addition, the Fund today continues to provide opportunities for financial support to other community service programs initiated by Princeton alumni In1998, the Alumni Council recognized the value of our Fund by awarding the class its Community Service Award. MENTORING:
Mentoring is one of the most important aspects of the PICS internship program. Chosen from Princeton alumni and alumni spouses, a mentor acts as a friendly contact point and source of information for the Princeton student intern, and as a liaison, if needed to the sponsor organization. The mentor’s presence and availability enhances the summer’s experience for the intern, providing that little extra bit of security in a place that may be far from home. Classmates who have served as mentors have found the experience to be a rewarding part of their summers. If you would be interested in serving as a mentor please contact Rick Kitto, Chairman of the Fund kitto@69csf.org or Seva Kramer, Executive Director of the Fund skramer@69csf.org.
Interns were placed with the following organizations during Summer 2008:
It's not difficult for an organization to apply for support for an internship. The organization is asked to provide information about itself including its mission statement, activities, size, etc. The selection committee is particularly interested in a detailed description of the work or project an intern will do including the particular skills, background or qualities the organization is seeking in the intern. Summer interns are temporary employees of the sponsor organization and in summer 2009 will receive a stipend of $450 per week for a ten-week period. The PICS program chooses proposals based on various factors, including the nature of the community service they involve, the specificity of the internship description, the ability of the host organization to co-finance the internship, and the educational value of the experience they provide to the interns. PICS gives preference to positions aimed at promoting systemic social change as compared to those that focus on ameliorating the present impact of social problems. In prior years we often have been able to fully fund our internships for organizations. As the program has grown we find that our limited resources are no longer adequate to do this. Consequently, we are asking all our internship sponsor organizations to share with us the intern's stipend of $4,500 to the best of their ability. Organizations interested in proposing an internship for summer 2010 should contact Rick Kitto at kitto@69csf.org or Seva Kramer, skramer@69csf.org, Community Service Fund, Center for Civic Leadership, 12 Stockton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540. Students interested in internship opportunities should contact Laura Spence-Ash at 609 921-7948 or pics@69csf.org. Are you involved with or do you know of a community service organization that could benefit from a CSF intern? Contact Rick Kitto, kitto@69csf.org or Seva Kramer at 609 921-7948 or skramer@69csf.org. Don't have time to serve as a mentor? Want to be sure your Class' fund continues to provide opportunities to Princeton students and your classmates? MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION! Its easy: send your check payable to Princeton University Class of 1969 Community Service Fund to: Community Service Fund, Center for Civic Leadership, 12 Stockton St., Princeton, NJ 08540.
© 2002 The Princeton University Class of
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