05/06/93
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- At least 20 Stanford University students are set to work with East Palo Alto youngsters in the coming months as part of President Clinton's first Summer of Service (SOS) program.
Clinton unveiled the program - which will serve as a model for larger national service efforts - during a speech at Rutgers University in March. The plan calls for about 1,500 young people, aged 17 to 25, to perform service in 16 regions throughout the country, beginning this June.
"I've had literally a hundred phone calls today from people who are interested, " said Sue Gray of Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service, who is helping to handle recruitment of Bay Area college students. "There's a lot of enthusiasm and interest."
The Bay Area program, the nation's largest, will place 250 young people with local health-care and education organizations serving more than 15,000 needy children in Oakland, Berkeley and East Palo Alto.
The local effort is run by a consortium headed by the East Bay Conservation Corps of Oakland, in partnership with the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service.
"We are delighted to participate in this pilot project to demonstrate models for national service," said Timothy Stanton, acting director of the Haas Center.
"Both Stanford students and other youth in the Bay Area will receive training and financial support to carry out important work in our community," Stanton said.
Besides helping with recruitment, the Haas Center will coordinate six academic enrichment and job training programs serving East Palo Alto youngsters, including the Center for a New Generation, the East Palo Alto Center for Technology, Students Offering Alternative Realities, the Ravenswood City School District Summer School, Stanford Upward Bound, and the East Palo Alto/Stanford Summer Academy.
Program participants will include high school students, college students, recent college graduates, and non-college bound youth representing the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the Bay Area.
They will earn $4.25 per hour for their nine and one-half weeks of service, plus a $1,000 bonus at the end of the summer (to be used exclusively for education or vocational training). Selection will be based upon leadership skills and a desire to serve others.
The first phase of training will begin June 16. All 1,500 participants from throughout the nation will take part in a five-day training program to be held on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay the week of June 21.
After that, they will return to their home states to begin eight weeks of service. Regional and national community service summits involving all SOS participants have been tentatively scheduled for Aug. 21-22 in Washington, D.C.
Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service was established in 1984 as the focal point for local, national and international volunteer efforts on the Stanford campus. It houses both student organizations and university projects.
Other local consortium members include Cal State- Hayward, Mills College, the Peralta Community College District, the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, the Ravenswood, Berkeley and Oakland Unified School Districts, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, the American Indian Child Resource Center, the East Bay Asian Youth Center, and the Alameda County Health Agency.
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