PSC announces participants in fellows program

The Cornell Public Service Center has announced the selection of new fellows for its second annual Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program.

The Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program enables outstanding community leaders involved in economic and community development efforts in the area to join the Cornell community of scholars, both as learners and teachers, for an academic year. It was established to help expand and improve university-community collaborations.

The fellows are chosen by a committee that includes representation from the community and the university. The new fellows will participate in an orientation on campus Sept. 13, which will be followed by a dinner reception that evening.

The fellows and a description of their proposals are given below:

·Holly Adams of Brooktondale, N.Y. -- Adams will be furthering her goal of developing a Clown Doctors Program particular to this community and its members. Clown doctors would work to help further healing, by means of humor, in hospitals, nursing homes, cancer treatment centers or other organizations or centers where people are trying to recover from illness, either physical or mental. Most other programs like this exist outside of the United States, with the exception of the Virginia-based Gesundheit Institute, the home of the well-known Patch Adams. The program's concept is supported by numerous studies that document the powerful relationship between humor and healing and the necessity of treating the whole individual and not just physical symptoms.

·Cal Walker of Ithaca -- Walker's Village at Ithaca Initiative, which takes its name from the African proverb "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child," was created to address underachievement of black and Latino students both in the Ithaca City School District and across New York state. The program seeks to ensure that groups committed to eradicating black and Latino underachievement work collaboratively and strategically to build a climate of excellence and to advocate for additional school policies and practices. By assessing similar programs and other initiatives by selected colleges and universities with their own area school districts, Walker hopes to utilize and implement these "best practices" in this community. Walker is associate director of the Learning Strategies Center at Cornell.

The Cornell Public Service Center, the university's Department of City and Regional Planning and the Community and Rural Development Institute of Cornell are sponsors of the Cornell Civic Fellows Leadership Program. To learn more about the program or the Cornell Public Service Center, visit the center's web site at http://www.psc.cornell.edu or call the center's office at 255-1148.