Links

Exploring the city beyond the classroom

The greater New Haven area offers many opportunities for students interested in joining with their fellow citizens to promote community development. Two excellent sources for more information on getting involved in New Haven organizations are

• Dwight Hall, the Center for Public Service and Social Justice at Yale (www.dwighthall.org),
• and the Office of New Haven and State Affairs (www.yale.edu/onhsa).

Opportunities for involvement include a wide range of voluntary and paid service activities in New Haven and beyond:

• Dwight Hall Urban Fellows program (contact johnny.scafidi@yale.edu)
• Dwight Hall Public School Interns program (contact diana.mosca@yale.edu)
• Dwight Hall Summer Internship program (contact johnny.scafidi@yale.edu)
• President’s Public Service Fellows Program for summer internships (contact reginald.solomon@yale.edu)
• Association of Yale Alumni Community Service Summer Fellowships (www.aya.yale.edu/cssf)

Other organizations are geared primarily towards graduate and professional school students:

• Community service opportunities at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (www.yale.edu/graduateschool/studentLife/community.html)
• Health Professional Schools Community Service Program (www.med.yale.edu/yaxis/volunteer/medschol.htm
• Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School (www.law.yale.edu/academics/JeromeNFrankLSO.asp)
• Yale Law School Public Interest Activities (www.law.yale.edu/academics/publicinterestactivities.asp) 
• Yale School of Management, Outreach Management Consulting Group (contact omcg@mail.som.yale.edu)
• Yale School of Management, Community Service Student Interest Group (contact communityservice@mail.som.yale.edu)
• Yale School of Medicine, Community Programs (info.med.yale.edu/ysm/community/index.html)
• Yale School of Nursing, Community Outreach and Advocacy (www.nursing.yale.edu/Community/index.html)
• Yale Urban Design Workshop (contact alan.plattus@yale.edu)
• Urban Resources Initiative, a nonprofit agency associated with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (www.yale.edu/uri)

Community Based Learning (CBL) is designed to integrate academics and service, to allow students and community organizations to work together to meet both an organization's needs and the student’s academic requirements. Community-Based Learning projects are research-based rather than typical volunteer or internship projects. Students who take classes with a CBL component will have the opportunity to write a term paper based on research or analysis that local organizations have identified as useful to them.

In 2007-2008, Community-Based Learning classes at Yale will include ARCH 344a, Urban Life and Landscape; PLSC 251, New Haven and the Problem of Change in the American City and PLSC 203b, Inequality and American Democracy.

Since the program started in the fall of 2003, students in CBL classes at Yale have carried out research on topics such as the health benefits of greenspaces, teachers’ impressions of an after-school program, the history of black philanthropy in New Haven, and strategies for growing the size and diversity of attendance at arts events. A student interviewed business owners in New Haven’s Enterprise Zone neighborhoods to find out why businesses were not using tax incentives available to them. Another student took oral histories to assess prior homelessness among residents of public housing. Students have worked with the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Connecticut Voices for Children, Empower New Haven, the Housing Authority of New Haven, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, LEAP (Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership), New Haven Housing Services, and the United Way Compass Project, among other organizations.

If you are interested in learning more about CBL, please contact Ariela Rothstein, Dwight Hall’s Community Based Learning Coordinator, at ariela.rothstein@yale.edu.

The Urban List

An email newsletter is sent out once each week during the Yale College academic year to publicize events and opportunities of interest to people concerned with urban issues. The Urban List contains information about lectures, community events, and urban-related service and employment opportunities at Yale and in New Haven. The Urban List reaches a broad sector of the Yale-New Haven population. For more information about the newsletter, to join its mailing list, or to publicize something on the list, contact Abby Lawlor at urbanlist08@gmail.com.