Community service funding board announces grants for 10 student projects

The Community Partnership Fund Board (CPFB), a student program of the Cornell Public Service Center, has announced awards of more than $7,000 in grants to 10 Cornell student-developed community service projects.

Grants were awarded this year to:

• Chinatown Mentorship Program, to provide motivation and self-esteem to the students from the privately funded Immigrant Social Services program in New York City's Chinatown;

• Environmental Education Outreach Program, affiliated with Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, to organize environmental education events at four local community centers;

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT Coalition) Educational Workshops, to provide awareness of LGBT issues through discussions with local student groups; and

• Thakaneng Collective Saturday School, a program to bring an African-centered philosophy of education to the Southside Community Center.

Other student-developed projects funded by the board include: Ancient African History Puppet Show Performance, to be performed periodically at local elementary schools by Africana studies students; Child Health Plus, to provide awareness of a free health care program for local children; Dilmun Hill Cornell Student Farm and Loaves and Fishes Partnership; Freshmen Achieving Together (F.A.T.), to partner freshman members of the National Scholars program with economically or scholastically disadvantaged high school freshmen; Natural History Educational Project, affiliated with the Paleontological Research Institution, to inspire learning among local elementary school students; and Together Ithaca Empowers Students (T.I.E.S.), Urafiki Library and Academic Learning Center, to work with children at the Southside Community Center.

The CPFB annually awards, from its Community Partnership Fund, up to $1,500 to individual students or campus organizations for projects that foster student leadership, social responsibility and encourage students to take action against social problems in the local community.

In addition, the CPFB assists students in developing community action projects. Since its inception, the board has allocated more than $39,000 in funds for student service initiatives.

For more information about the Community Partnership Fund Board, call 255-3836 or stop by the Public Service Center at 200 Barnes Hall.

Board members can be reached electronically at cpfb@cornell.edu or you can visit their web site at http://www.sas.cornell.edu:8000/cpfb/home.