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 Issue No. 258  l   September 18, 2008   l   Providence, Rhode Island

 

Mayor to Bring Artists Together to Strengthen City's $112 Million Arts & Culture Economy
City to launch unprecedented planning process at a breakfast on Wednesday, September 24 at 9am

 

Mayor David N. Cicilline and the Department of Art, Culture & Tourism will launch a comprehensive planning process designed to strengthen Providence’s position as a leading arts and cultural destination at a breakfast on Wednesday, September 24 at 9am at the Renaissance Hotel, 5 Avenue of the Arts.  

Creative Providence: A Cultural Plan for the Capital City is a collaborative planning effort designed to build upon the strengths of Providence’s arts and cultural sector of the economy. The process will also explore how the city’s arts and cultural organizations are uniquely positioned to address community-wide challenges in the area of education and economic development. 

Two consulting firms will lead the unprecedented effort: Craig Dreeszen, a nationally recognized cultural planner, and the staff of New Commons, a Providence-based think tank.  The planning process was initiated by the City’s Department of Art, Culture & Tourism following the release of a 2007 economic impact study that revealed Providence’s arts and cultural organizations generate nearly $112 million in annual economic activity.

Local artists, representatives from arts and cultural organizations and business and community leaders will be on hand for the launch of Creative Providence.

 

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Feature: My Community

Brown University Students Mentor Providence Youth at John Hope 

For Brown University seniors Riaz Gillani and Peter Boyle, getting an Ivy League degree in engineering is simply not enough to make for a well-rounded, meaningful college experience.  Since they were freshman, Gillani who grow up in suburban Virginia, and Boyle who came to Brown by way of Chicago’s Oak Park neighborhood, have been climbing up and down College Hill to Providence’s West Broadway neighborhood.  Through a program at the Howard Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown, Gillani and Boyle have been mentoring young Providence students at the John Hope Settlement House.  

Colleges and universities offer many opportunities for students to perform community service.  And for some, like Gillani and Boyle, the experience has a much longer lifespan than just the four years they spend in academia.  They walk away with a broader view of the world beyond their college dorm rooms and cafeterias.  They take away with them the lives and stories of the young people outside their college town who they got to serve and learn from. 

City News caught up with these two extraordinary students, and neighbors, to reflect on their years of public service to Providence, and to learn about how the experience might have changed their views on the future.

Tell us briefly about this partnership that the Swearer Center has with the youth at John Hope Settlement House.
Peter: The John Hope Settlement House (JHSH) has an after school program which is partially subsidized.  A component of it is the John Hope Mentoring Program, which has been around for roughly 20 years and is essentially a mentorship relationship between a Brown or a RISD student and a child at the JHSH.  Once a week, the Brown or RISD student goes over to the JHSH and does a lot of different things with the kids there that could involve helping with homework or just generally hanging out.  For the student at Brown it’s an opportunity to see the rest of Providence and also to see the perception that Brown University has amongst the people of Providence.  The child also gets the opportunity to have a connection to the rest of Providence and Brown.  It ends up being just a valuable thing for both the youth and the Brown students. 

Approximately how many Brown mentors do you anticipate you’ll have this year?
Riaz: We’re in the process of recruiting right now.  We’ll have a table set up during our activities fair.  We’re shooting for a sizable group of 10 to 15.  We do strive to have a large group but at the same time to get quality volunteers.  After the activities fair, we’ll be having an open house to acquaint the volunteers for an hour. 

When did you begin volunteering for this program?
Riaz: Peter and I joined in our freshman year and we’re lucky enough to be coordinating the program in our 4th year, our senior year.  We’d like to see it survive and be sustainable through our year as well as continue onto the future. 

What attracted you to this program?
Riaz: For me, personally, when I was in high school one of my biggest involvements was working with kids.  I was a religious education teacher and it gave me the opportunity to spend time with kids, be a mentor in that setting.  Coming here, there was no mosque nearby for this opportunity to happen.  And so, I had heard about the Swearer Center and I just wanted to get involved in whatever way I could.  This program stood out to me because it gave me the opportunity to do exactly what I did in high school – maybe in a more informal environment – but to me, having that lasting impact was important. 

Peter: When I was in high school I never really found the opportunity that I wanted have, to actually have a relationship with someone in a volunteer environment.  I took part in some things like soup kitchens in churches near my house.  But, I was never involved directly with someone and that was very important to me.  When I came to Brown, I wanted to have the opportunity to step out of this environment, which is very insulated and very quickly only think about yourself, only think about looking at the people around me who are very smart, how do I size up compared to them, they seem to have a lot of ambition, you know you can get so caught up with that and forget about this whole community that is Providence that we’re all definitely an important part of.  The John Hope Mentoring Program, I could see it as a way to step off the hill and actually start interacting with the community, which seemed like something really missing in my life. 

As Brown students and as young adults why do you think it’s important or relevant today to mentor younger people and younger students in your neighboring communities? 
  Riaz: As Brown students, I think we’re very fortunate to have the resources we have.  I think that if the most you can do with your education and what you acquire at your four years at Brown and whatever else you pursue afterwards, can contribute in some way to the betterment of other people is a great precedent to set for the rest of your life.  You know if you’re getting all this Ivy League knowledge and keep it to yourself, I don’t think it’s really benefiting anyone but yourself.  I think for that reason it’s important to share what you’re learning as well as share and contribute in whatever way you can to others who may be able to benefit from you.

Peter:  This is a formative period in our lives being in college.  It’s just as, if not more formative, for those kids at the after school program.  The ability to have that conversation between socioeconomic classes is incredibly valuable because you gain a familiarity with those people.  You start to see that it’s not just a big group of people living in a city, and that there are people there.  What the kids gain is that people at Brown as just as approachable as their friends down the street.  Having that sort of intercourse is so important.  Both parties gain a lot about the way they see humanity in general.  From it, I think you can gain a more open attitude about people. 
 
Riaz: Yeah, the relationship between Brown mentor and John Hope kid is very mutually beneficial.  We learn a lot from the kids and they learn a lot from us.  Peter and I are both Engineering students, and at least for me, most of my humanities education comes from my work with the community.  To be able to have that outlet and be with people from different backgrounds, and coming from suburban Virginia, this is my first real exposure to the inner city.  And so I feel very fortunate to have that two-way exchange. 

What have you learned from your experience with this program? 
Riaz: I’ve learned that words can have a huge impact.  I remember speaking to my mentee about the value of getting homework done and the value of doing well in school to the ability to get into college.  Every time she sees me now, she’s sure to tell me how well she’s doing in school! He remembers the words I say.  We’re fortunate enough to be role models and that’s obviously something we don’t take lightly.  So I think we should definitely think about the messages we convey to them, through our words and our actions. 

Peter:  I think I’ve gained a deeper appreciation to how one, how difficult it is to deal with kids sometimes.  And also, just how beautiful it can be just to see them grow.  I’ve seen my mentee grow from 8 to 11.  And that’s a huge thing for me because I’ve never seen a child grow in the way that they slightly change due to what they experience everyday – be it through the after school program, or at school, or at home.  That’s given me an appreciation for how much you can impact that person, just by being there for a short time.  You can really transfer something positive and show someone that you care about them.  That’s been very valuable to me. 

What would you say, or how would you encourage other college students, to devote time during their college years to volunteering in Providence?
Riaz: To an extent, it has to come from an innate sense of responsibility and I think a lot of people already have that.  A lot of them have good intentions and I guess it’s just about assuring them that it’s okay to express those intentions.  It’s not easy convincing people that this is what they should or could do with their time.  So I think it comes down to harnessing the good intentions of people and then combining them with whatever interest they have. 

Peter: When you’re in this kind of rigorous academic environment, you gain a lot of skills and you have a lot of ability to transfer some important qualities to younger people.  And so, if you harness those skills and those opportunities that you’ve been given, it gives you the ability to do good work and do work that you can proud of rather than just making the buck.  If you don’t have that, what do you have? During this period of our lives, realizing that doing good work and taking some chances, looking beyond the academic sphere, and reaching out into the community is a good thing. 

Do you believe, especially as Engineering students, that your experience working as mentors to John Hope kids, to Providence kids, has anyway influenced what you’re planning to do after you graduate?
Peter: I’ve always had a profound appreciation for the environment that people in the urban environment experience on a daily basis.  I’m studying structural engineering so I’m studying how buildings come together – who are the people that are involved in that, what are the components of the building – and what I’ve taken away from my volunteering is how can we create these environments so that they can be more affordable, so that people can have access to a healthy, affordable workplace, or home.  Gaining an appreciation for the people that are living in the urban environment is a huge component of that because you get to understand what people want out of their communities.

Riaz: I’m a biomedical engineer.  I think this experience has geared the fulfillment of my life goals towards a more humanitarian purpose.  I’ve thought about non-profit work.  I definitely feel like my goals have shifted a lot.  I want to do something that will better the lives of other people.  I see myself going in the medical route, eventually I would like to gear my work towards developing countries, or some place where I can contribute in a significant way.

For more information on the John Hope Mentoring Program, visit their website.

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