An experiment in community service on campus took a few steps toward fulfilling its original purpose after getting off to a slow start.
The Franklin Community, a residential program meant to encourage interested students to collaborate in providing public services, faced a dearth of housewide initiatives in the fall.
The program is housed in the Stouffer College House Annex -- the former Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house.
At the start of its first year, it seemed as if Franklin residents could not decide whether to pursue their own individual initiatives or collaborate as a group. This indecision stalled the program's progress.
But after spending the last semester in a course designed to put service ideas into action, some of the students pulled together and put out a research paper about Sayre High School in West Philadelphia. The report specifically looked at methods for revamping the high school's college-access and career-training programs.
The course explored "how to take an idea, to run with it and to bring it to fruition in order to research a real world problem," Franklin Community Fellow Everett Herman said.
However, only eight of the community's 18 residents were enrolled in the course.
Residents recently participated in Martin Luther King Day activities by helping out at the Community Education Center at 35th and Lancaster streets.
And the residents say they couldn't be more at home.
"I love it here. I wouldn't change it for the world," College senior Lisa Chau said.
"I feel like it has an added dimension to it from living in a dorm because it has a friendlier atmosphere," said Athos Cakiades, a College senior who graduated in December.
While most residents seem to love the program and community service, they also have differing opinions on how to serve the community.
"College students are such a transient volunteer force -- we are all passionate about what we do, but we all want to be entrepreneurs," Burg said.
However, the experience involves more than whether or not the group is always successful.
"You want everything to work, but at the end of the day it's a learning process," said Greenfield Intercultural Center Director Sean Vereen, one of the program's organizers.
Going forward, house leaders plan to make those applying to take part in the program next year show that they can fit the seminar into their course schedule before admitting them. According to Herman, 20 to 30 students have expressed interest. The program will be accepting online applications until the end of this week.
No group class is scheduled for next semester, but the community leaders hope to make more progress on service projects. Tentative plans include cooking at the Ronald McDonald house and inviting local leaders to speak with them at their weekly house dinners.
"We try to bring together as diverse a group as possible. It's a powerful experience," Vereen said. "When you have a strong mixture of people you can learn a lot of from each other."
