Leonardo Vargas-Mendez poses recently at the Public Service Center. Denise Weldon/University Photography
On the "hill," it is sometimes hard for students to realize that there is more to Cornell than reserve readings and "Takenotes."
According to Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, associate director of counseling and advising for minority educational affairs and assistant director of service learning at the Public Service Center, a Cornell education must help students realize that they are citizens who need to be aware of social concerns and "give back" to the larger community.
"Service learning presents the opportunity for students to make the most of their academic experience by applying learned classroom work to the community," Vargas-Mendez said.
Along with faculty and staff at the Public Service Center, Vargas-Mendez has developed programs to help build community and enhance the quality of education for all students. Since he started working there in September of 1991, the Public Service Center has grown from a small program to an educational operation that serves more than 3,000 students and includes over 100 faculty members to support its 12 learning courses.
One of Vargas-Mendez' current projects is a leadership program designed for Cornell students to help them develop skills to facilitate positive social change.
"Some students need more skills than they are actually given. The leadership program will enhance student education by increasing their awareness in working with communities," Vargas-Mendez said.
For his counseling and advising in minority educational affairs, he has helped many minority students, particularly Latinos, in dealing with academics and other issues of concern. Vargas-Mendez also has watched closely the increasing Latino community in Ithaca over the past 10 years and has felt their need for specialized services.
"The growing Latino community has many social, economic and educational needs which tend to be quite marginalized," said Vargas-Mendez. "Addressing these educational issues can help expand opportunity for minority students."
A need to address these issues was one reason for his role in the development of the Esperanza Latino Youth Mentorship Program, he said. The tutoring/mentoring program celebrates culture and addresses the academic needs of Latino students within Ithaca's elementary school system and allows Latino students at Cornell a chance to develop relationships with young Latinos from the community.
"The program has been very effective. I have seen a difference in the self-esteem and confidence of the students," said Bob Navarro, principal of downtown Ithaca's Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, which is the home base of the Esperanza program. "They are getting things which they ordinarily would not get within the school system."
Vargas-Mendez also is the founder and current president of the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, a commissioner with the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission and a commissioner on the Board of Public Works.
"It is sometimes difficult to wear all these hats. When I am out there being a community activist, I am a committed member of the community, and I'm not speaking for the university. They may feel uneasy about that -- somebody out there speaking loud, but you cannot divorce your work life, your personal life and your life as a citizen," Vargas-Mendez said.
Vargas-Mendez traces his focus on community back to his attending La Universidad de Concepcion in southern Chile, also his place of birth, where the curriculum was not just based on an acquisition of skills but promoted a "civic education," he said.
"[During the course of education], you become a citizen and strengthen your connection to the community," he said.
Vargas-Mendez holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from SUNY Cortland and a master's degree in sociology from SUNY Binghamton. During his graduate studies, he worked at Cornell as a lab technician until 1989, when he obtained his graduate degree and began working in the Public Service Center.
Although Vargas-Mendez has been instrumental in helping bring about educational and social opportunities for students and members of the community, he says it could not have been accomplished without help from Cornell faculty and staff and close relations with the community beyond the university. He gives credit to at least 150 individuals within Ithaca and statewide who have helped make a difference for countless members of the community.
At the Public Service Center, students are encouraged to become effective, capable citizens who contribute something to the world. They come to personally experience the rewards and challenges of service to their communities, while gaining self-confidence through working partnerships with community members and fellow students.
For more information on volunteer, work study or other community-service learning opportunities through the center, call Leonardo Vargas-Mendez or Renee Farkas at 255-1148.
For information on student leadership programs, contact Kim O'Halloran, who coordinates and directs student leadership programs for the center, at the same number.