Announcing PBHA's Priscilla Chan Stride Service Program
Dear PBHA Alumni, Supporters, Friends, and Family,We are excited and deeply humbled to announce a 15-year commitment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to strengthen PBHA’s ability to support our students with high financial need who are engaged in year-round service and to increase diversity among public service leaders. The Priscilla Chan Stride Service Program will remove financial barriers for 40 low-income students so that they may participate in service leadership at the same level as their peers. Building on and sustaining a 35-year tradition of scholarships that have made a difference to hundreds of alumni, the CZI grant will ensure skills development, mentorship, and peer community learning opportunities for those students. In addition, the program will continue to offer three postgraduate fellowships every year for seniors committed to a lifetime of service. For Priscilla Chan ’07, co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, expanding access to service opportunities is deeply personal. When she was an undergraduate at the College on financial aid, PBHA made it financially feasible for Priscilla to pursue her passion for service through the Franklin After School Enrichment (FASE) program. Yesterday, she returned to Franklin to speak with current volunteers and participants. Today, she shared her personal story with a room full of students committed to year-round service, including members of the first cohort of the Priscilla Chan Stride Service Program. In the Harvard Gazette, Priscilla reflected:
“The opportunity to work with the kids of Franklin Hill inspired me to pursue a career dedicated to serving children and families as a pediatrician and educator… So many students hope to give back to the communities that helped shape them, but for many, financial considerations are a real challenge. It’s my hope that, through this grant, a more diverse generation of public service leaders will have the same opportunity that PBHA gave me.”
The Priscilla Chan Stride Service Program is part of a larger $12.1 million grant for low-income students engaged in public service at Harvard College. The grant will also support the Priscilla Chan Summer Service Award through the PBH Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship, the Harvard department, which will cover the summer earnings contribution for students on financial aid who participate in immersive summer service experiences sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Careers (CPIC), the Institute of Politics (IOP), and the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). As a condition of the grant, individual gifts to PBHA made through the Harvard gift fund “General Support of the PBHA Fund” (310-330584RG) are now eligible for Harvard class credit to encourage others to join in supporting the ongoing funding needs for all of our programs, including PBHA’s Summer Urban Program, out-of-school time enrichment, adult services, prison education, and homeless shelters.We are sincerely grateful to Priscilla, Mark, and everyone at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for their commitment to our students and to their mission of advancing human potential and promoting equal opportunity for all. Yours in service, Maria Dominguez Gray Leszek KrolClass of 1955 Executive Director, PBHA President, PBHA
