Friday, May 11, 2012

Cornell students continue to help out W.S.

This summer begins the fourth year of the High Road Project, a program through which Cornell students get involved in non-profit organizations in order to make improvements on the West Side and throughout Buffalo.
This eight week long program begins in mid-June and works in cooperation with the Partnership for the Public Good (http://www.ppgbuffalo.org/) and the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations (http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/), said Lou Jean Fleron, director of the High Road Program.
“We’re looking at really mutually beneficial relationships between the students and the organizations and the greater community as a whole,” said Megan Connelly, program coordinator for the High Road Program and director of program and development for the PPG.
            “The High Road Program is really a living laboratory of community and economic development in the city,” Connelly said.
Students undergo an application process before being assigned a highly defined project to work on throughout the summer, Fleron said.
            “I think we’ve been fairly West-centric in the past couple of years, in part because the majority of our partners are working on the West Side,” Connelly said.

Lou Jean Fleron, director of the High Road Program, and Megan Connelly, director of programs & development at the Partnership for Public Good, discuss the upcoming project that begins in June:

            PUSH Buffalo, Urban Roots and Buffalo First are just three of the many organizations that receive student interns through the High Road Program.
            “I think it’s an excellent way for students to apply the theoretical to practical experiences,” said Sarah Bishop, executive director of Buffalo First.
            Carolyn Krupski, from Clifton Park, is one of the 20 students that will be taking part in the High Road Program this summer. 
“I am really looking forward to a summer in Buffalo! I have never been to Buffalo before, and I hear from other High Road Fellows that there are really unique, fun things to do in Buffalo in the summer time,” Krupski said.
Krupski said that she is really interested in “the effects of post-industrialization on rust-belt and industrial cities and their current economic development.”
            “This summer I am hoping to gain first hand knowledge of the people of Buffalo's initiatives to address the economic challenges that the city faces,” Krupski said.
            Students in the program work at their specific organizations Monday through Thursday and then on Friday they come together to share their week’s experiences and participate in programs and workshops in specific areas, Connelly said. 
            In addition, the students are expected to journal, or blog, on Thursday nights in order to reflect on their experiences, Connelly said.
            Interest in the program has increased substantially over the past four years, going from five participants in 2009 up to 20 who will be participating this summer, said Fleron.
            The program has received positive feedback from students who were involved in the past.
            “It was an honor working with PUSH; they are really doing a wonderful job empowering folks on the West Side,” said John Parker, a Cornell student who was involved in the program last summer, in his program evaluation.
            "The most rewarding part for me was probably just being able to work in the community,” said Daniel Cooper, a Cornell student who worked with Buffalo First through the program last summer.
            In the past, the students accomplished a great deal by the end of the summer.
            “I ended up creating a marketing plan for Buffalo First, like how to improve the organization, and then I also created a technology guide to help local business owners gain a large consumer base," Cooper said.
            “We’re very happy to have [the students] here and look forward to it summer after summer,” Fleron said. Edited by Richard Cumpston



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