Shared Effort

PP55 fellows currently serve in the above locations.

Bay Area, CA

Our opening reception was a success! There is a seminar on education planned for  October 28. We are collaborating with Harvard CPIC and Stanford SPIN programs this year which is working our well. We will be recruiting volunteers to work on the local PP55 20th anniversary celebration.

Boston

Join us in celebrating 20 years of public service and civic leadership with a screening of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North directed, produced and written by Katrina Browne ‘89.

The screening will be November 10th at 7:00pm at the Museum of Science, Cahners Theater in Boston.

Chicago

The new cohort of PP55 fellows got a glimpse of the Chicago’s offerings in August while enjoying free music and the company of PP55 alumni, committee members, and mentors at the Pritzker Pavilion.  The group gathered again in September for the annual welcome dinner, hosted by Bob Loveman ‘69, and the fellows have since been meeting with Northwestern and University of  Chicago fellows at the weekly Public Interest Program seminars.

Meanwhile, the Area Committee is busy planning for a 20th anniversary cocktail celebration in early spring and looking forward to sharing our love for Chicago with a new round of PP55 applicants!

Connecticut

Area Committee Coordinator Harry Berkowitz ’55 sends this update:  “Our two fellows at The Norwalk Community Health Center continue to produce amazing results in any task or project assigned to them. I have seen them on the phones in Pediatrics and taking the lead in installing a new state-of-the-art patient information system that will bring the systems at the Center to one of leadership nation-wide. They are also playing an integral part in the move of the center that will result in yearly      patient visits ballooning from 30 to 50,000.

Executive Director, Larry Cross, often says he could not function without his Princeton fellows…as a matter of fact, the new facility has an office designated on the blueprints as ‘Princeton Fellows’ Office.’”

New York

The NYC PP55 chapter successfully kicked off its fall 2009 seminar series with a discussion led by Charles Best, CEO and founder of Donors-Choose.org. Since its inception in 2002, Donors-Choose.org has helped over 2.5 million public school students nationwide.

Best shared stories about first conceptualizing the idea for this online charity as a schoolteacher in the Bronx and how he turned this vision into reality, making it an engaging and inspirational evening for all who attended.

The next seminar will be in November on the subject of politics and the press.

Washington, DC

On the evening of September 30th Raj Vinnakota ’93, current chair of Annual Giving at Princeton University and this year’s Woodrow Wilson Award Winner for public service leadership, spent an hour sharing the lessons he has learned as co-managing director of the SEED Foundation.

Raj recounted a story from the early days of the SEED School of Washington, DC—the nation’s first inner-city boarding school—and how just twelve years after its founding 98% of graduates go on to attend four-year colleges.

Guests had the opportunity to ask Raj about a range of topics, from the health and social services the school provides, to fundraising advice for this challenging economic environment for nonprofits. An evening full of insight and inspiration, it was a terrific event to kick-off the year for Project 55 in DC.

To learn more about PP55’s exciting regional activities taking place across the nation, contact John Shriver at jshriver@alumnicorps.org.