Service agency co-founder speaks at Cornell Tradition convocation

Michael Brown, co-founder and president of the national service organization City Year, will visit Cornell Friday, Feb. 11, and interact with student groups. He will be on campus to speak at the Cornell Tradition's fifth annual convocation.

The Cornell Tradition is an alumni-endowed fellowship program that recognizes and rewards outstanding undergraduates. Brown will speak at the 7 p.m. convocation in the Pepsico Auditorium of Ives Hall on connecting citizens with democracy through civic engagement. His address will be followed by a reception in the Smithers Lobby. The event is open to the community, but students in the Cornell Tradition, Cornell Presidential Research Scholars and Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars are especially encouraged to attend. Attendees are asked to RSVP at 255-8595.

Brown's organization, City Year, is an "action tank" for national service that enlists hundreds of young adults, ages 17 to 24, from all backgrounds for a demanding year of full-time community service and leadership development. City Year Corps members meet critical needs in their communities, serving as teachers' aides, running after-school programs and vacation camps, teaching the prevention of violence and AIDS, rehabilitating public-housing units and building parks and playgrounds. From a 50-person pilot program launched in 1988, City Year has grown to involve more than 1,000 corps members serving in 11 cities across the United States.

Since its founding in 1988, City Year has engaged more than 4,000 young people in giving a year of service to their communities. Together City Year Corps members have provided over 5.8 million hours of service. Upwards of 250 corporations and foundations, 25,000 individuals and both local and federal governments have invested a total of $118,885,788 in City Year. In 1992, the Bush administration named City Year one of only eight demonstration national service programs in America, and in 1993, the Clinton administration used City Year as a model for its AmeriCorps program.

Prior to founding City Year with Alan Khazei, Brown served as a legislative aide for then-Congressman Leon Panetta, public information coordinator for the City Volunteer Corps of New York City and law clerk for then-Federal Judge Stephen Breyer. He is a recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Jefferson Award of the American Institute for Public Service and the Boston Bar Association's Public Service Award. Brown is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review.

Co-founders Brown and Khazei say that developing City Year and promoting voluntary national service unify theory and practice in providing the "missing link" that connects citizens with democracy