不知道可不可以po在这里，不过看到这篇文章，的确有打翻我对於发哈佛学生的看法！ 当哈佛精英遇到无家可归的人?? 大部份的人对於哈佛大学的印象就是成绩很好，站在这世界的最前端！位於金字塔顶端的 他们，大部份的人都是来自於生活优渥的家庭或是本身有着不同於一般人的努力和智慧， 大部份的人会知道哈佛大学有新的研发抑或是多了个诺贝尔奖得主，从来没有人去想过他 们除来在学术和公司的领域外，也有着不同的贡献！ 以下为一篇相关报导 每年，哈佛大学的学生总会在活动和课程之间，注意到一直在哈佛广场无家可归的人。有 些人会想：这些就读於世界最富有大学的菁英学生可以提供什麽样的帮助。 根据Continuum Books(由波士顿大学教育学教授Scott Seider撰写)的针对收容所历史、 工作纪录、曾经居住过的仁和经营的学生所做的调查，这个两个不同世界的人相遇地方─ 哈佛广场收容所，是整个国家唯一完全由学生经营的收容所！ Seiger於十一年前在哈佛毕业，就学期间，他也曾经在收容所担任义工，还升为执行长和 领导者。Seider提到他担任义工的启发：「在走路经过这些无家可归的男男女女，到漂亮 的学校餐厅，享受吃到饱的服务，对我来说，是非常难以忍受的！」 Seider在这本书中面试了七十三个曾经在收容所担任义工的学长姐或学生、或是在收容所 待过的人。他写这本书的目的主要是探求社区服务对於青少年的发展影响，尤其是那些不 只担任志工而且担任经营职位的人。 「不管是哪种学生(担任志工或是经营收容所的学生)，都从经验中获得相当丰富的成长。 对於志工而言，他们学习如何面对无家可归的人；对於经营者而言，他们思考永远不够负 担的房子是那些无家可归人永远翻越不过的困难！」 一位接受访问无家可归的妇女Macy DeLong提到「这些学生都还年轻，充满着理想，她们 相信她们有改变的力量─不管是改变人的生活或是这个世界。」虽然因为先前其他收容所 的经验，她不愿意进入居住，但是Macy还是待在收容所附近并且接受食物。「大部份的收 容人都愿意尽自己的力量来帮助同样也居住在那边的其他人，不管是哪种的事情，他们都 愿意做。」 明年负责人─大三的Katie Dahlinghaus说：「在OHIO州长大，我从来没有和无家可归的 人接触过。在这里工作，我发现不论你多麽努力，有些事情总是无法成真。」 另一位四年级生Jonathan Warsh在访问中分享：「他再大一的时候就开始执收容所的大夜 班，在大二的时候，开始担任管理职位，也因此看到很多无家可归人的问题，开始思考他 自己的未来职涯─一个从他高中就开始挣扎的问题。」 「我可能申请法学院或是医学院。」「不管是哪一个职业，都有可能对於无家可归的人做 出一些贡献。」 哈佛广场的收容所在经营的二十五年以来，一直希望可以拓展她们更多的服务！最近，学 生发展出「街头小队」走入大街小巷中去发放食物和毛毯给无法待在收容所中的人。还有 一个最终目标是鼓励其他学生也成立相同的组织。这样的团体也引起宾大和佛罗里达大学 学生的注意。虽然学生愿意贡献，但是多少还是影响到学生的成绩，必须要熬夜或是牺牲 假期…Seider 希望可以透过这本书给予一些鼓励。 ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿以下为原文＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ Harvard and Homelessness August 27, 2010 Every year, some Harvard University students -- between classes and other activities -- begin to notice the constant presence of homeless people in Harvard Square. And some wonder how they, privileged students at the world's wealthiest university, can help. Many of them come across the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, and there they stay, sucked in, enthusiastic, and eager. Shelter: Where Harvard Meets the Homeless, to be released in September by Continuum Books, examines the history and the workings of the shelter, and the lives of the homeless who stay there and the students who run it. According to Scott Seider, the author of the book and a professor of education at Boston University, it’s the only completely student-run homeless shelter in the country. Seider graduated from Harvard 11 years ago, where he volunteered at the shelter and ascended the ranks to become a supervisor and director. “Passing these men and women on my way to this beautiful dining hall with as much food as I could eat was really jarring for me as a young adult,” Seider said of his motivation to start volunteering. The shelter -- which is an independent nonprofit organization -- is ruled by committee with 14 student directors at the top each year, 14 student supervisors, and a corps of about 100 student volunteers. Every night of the week from November to April, two directors oversee the shelter’s operations. Students work in three shifts from 7 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. serving hot dinner and breakfast (leftovers from the Harvard dining halls and donations from local restaurants) and providing two-week bed space for 24 men and women – referred to as “guests” -- based on a lottery system. The directors also take on additional roles such as fund-raising, scheduling, stocking supplies, or helping the homeless find work or permanent housing. Though the shelter opened 25 years ago under the auspices of a Lutheran church (and is still based in its basement), it quickly became entirely student-operated. Seider interviewed about 73 people for the book throughout the past year, including student volunteers and directors, alumni, and homeless men and women who either currently were staying or had stayed at the shelter in the past. He said he wrote the book because he was particularly interested in the impact that community service has on the development of young adults, and particularly those who not only volunteer, but run the whole show. “Both types of students gain enormously from the experience,” Seider said. “For [the volunteers] I think the experience put a face on homelessness… but the students who are really managing the shelter, they get to see the way the lack of affordable housing makes it very, very difficult to allow someone to climb out of homelessness – they get to see the structural barriers.” Shelter is littered with references to developmental psychologist Erik Erikson and the particular attributes of “emerging adulthood” that make students particularly well-equipped to excel at these kinds of responsibilities. Seider lists qualities such as young adults’ optimism, focus, willingness to listen to people’s stories, and motivation to do something good for the world. One of the defining characteristics of this particular shelter is the powerful relationship the students build with some of the homeless who stay there; students are eager to listen to the stories of people older and more experienced than they are, and they lack the jadedness that may come from professionals who have spent years working at such shelters. “The students are young, they’re idealistic, they believe that the re are changes that can be made – whether it’s changes in people’s personal lives or changes in the system as a whole,” Macy DeLong, a formerly homeless woman who was interviewed for Shelter, said in an interview. Though DeLong refused to stay at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter because of a bad experience at a different shelter, she lived outside of it and took food from the student volunteers. “Most shelters are there to take care of the people who are staying inside the shelter… but they were doing everything that they could to help people wherever they were at,” she said. DeLong is the founder of Solutions at Work, a nonprofit near Harvard that helps people transition out of homelessness. The book is split into three thematic sections, one each on how the shelter is good for the homeless, for society, and for students. Not only is it a literal shelter for those who need it, but it also becomes a type of shelter for the volunteers, granting them a respite from academic and social pressures and a familiar place outside of the “Harvard bubble,” Seider writes. It also enables them to break out of their perhaps-sheltered lives: many of Seider’s interviewees said they had never witnessed homelessness in their own cities, or never considered homeless people as individuals before beginning to work with them. Junior Katie Dahlinghaus, who will be a shelter director this year and appeared in the book under a pseudonym (as did all the people Seider interviewed), grew up in a small Ohio town where, she says, there is no homelessness. “Going into it I never understood the idea that it doesn’t always work out for you no matter how hard you work,” she said in an interview................... “I’ll probably go into law or medicine,” Warsh said in an interview. “In either of those careers, some pro bono part of my law practice or some volunteer time of my medical career will be dedicated to homelessness.” But working at the shelter is also a bit of a double-edged sword for both the students and the guests. Sometimes the homeless are wary of being catered to by wealthy young adults, and sometimes the students must deal with challenges beyond what they would normally encounter. Seider describes episodes where students have had to break up fights, deny people beds because they are drunk or on drugs (the Harvard Square shelter is a dry shelter), or comfort people confiding in them about difficult issues, such as having HIV/AIDS. “In some cases you have an 18-year-old girl who’s 5’2” and weighs 105 pounds handing out a little warning slip to a man who is 50 or 60 years older, and that creates a very challenging dynamic,” Warsh said. Dahlinghaus said one of the biggest challenges for her is remembering that although the shelter is a nice place to be, when the guests leave every morning they face a harsh reality. The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter has evolved over the past 25 years, and is always hoping to expand its services. Most recently the students developed a “Street Team,” which goes out into the Square and hands out food and blankets to the homeless who are not staying at the shelter, and occasionally encourages people to put their name in for a bed. Warsh says an upcoming priority will be to try providing more nutritious meals. One of the ultimate goals, however, is to encourage students at other universities to establish similar programs. The Harvard shelter has received some attention from students at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Florida. Though the degree to which students must be willing to commit is high – potentially sacrificing grades, staying up all night, or working through the winter holidays – Seider says he hopes the book will prove to be an inspiration........................ － Iza Wojciechowska http://www.hellonyc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7372 --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 122.118.75.158