Lafayette Campus News (www.lafayette.edu), September 4, 2007 — Nathan Parker ’08 (Milford, N.H.) is a biology major. He served as this year’s associate director of the Pre-Orientation Community Service Program which took place Aug. 19-22. Run by the Landis Community Outreach Center, the program involved 31 first-year students and 20 returning students in service activities throughout the Easton community. The following is a first-person account of Parker’s experiences.

POSP 2007 was an enormous success. What is POSP, you ask? It’s the Pre-Orientation Service Program. It’s a chance for incoming first-year students to become acquainted with the Easton area, a city with many needs that we as Lafayette students can help address.

Between Aug. 19 and 22, 30 first-year students and 20 returning students took part in several service activities throughout the community. Whether it was working with elderly Eastonians at the Easton Area Senior Center, beautifying the West Ward, or running a summer camp for young children in Easton or Phillipsburg, each participant in POSP made their first impact on our surrounding community a positive one.

At the Senior Center, first-years and project leaders organized games, discussions, and created murals. Participants in this year’s new West Ward Community Partnership helped landscape outside of buildings on Northampton Street and painted a daycare. The Firth Youth Center in Phillipsburg hosted students who helped mentor youths during the last week of the Center’s summer camp. As an extension of the Kids in the Community (KIC) program run through the Landis Community Outreach Center during the school year, a large group of first-years and staff organized their own day camp for Easton kids and teens who may otherwise miss out on the fun summertime activities many of us took for granted growing up.

My thanks and admiration goes out to the many returning Lafayette students and staff who contributed to the success of POSP 2007. Joanna Norelli ’08, the Project’s executive director, did a fantastic job directing the entire program. Her commitment to the youth of Easton never ceases to amaze me. The Landis Community Outreach Center professional staff, consisting of Bonnie Winfield and Amber Zuber, held the program together with their commitments to Easton and Lafayette Outreach.

Nancy Parker ’09, the program’s First-Year Student Director, did a great job easing the first-years into their lives in Easton and at Lafayette. Director of Kids in the Community (KIC) Camp Allison Summer ’09 and her assistant directors Elizabeth Matecki ’10, Chris LaTempa ’10, and Caroline Richardson ’10 coordinated an unbelievable week of projects and activities for the 50-plus Easton youths involved in the three-day camp. The KIC Camp staff, consisting of Jared Kreiger ’09, Jenna Nelson ’09, Sarah Redden ’09, Jeremy Saxe ’09, Caroline Szczepanski ’09, Julie Sorkin ’09, Ian Stone ’10, and Janelle Thompson ’10, formed an irreplaceable corps of dedicated mentors to both first-year students and Easton youths.

Kathleen Reddington ’08, in coordination with Gary Bersch, director of the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership, put together a week of wonderful service opportunities for first-year students in Easton’s frequently overlooked West Ward. Stefanie Mircovich ’10 crossed the bridge to Phillipsburg, N.J., and coordinated a partnership between first-years and the youths at the Firth Youth Center. Last but not least (there is no least at POSP), Emily Bernzott ’10 and her assistant director Alan Raisman ’10 involved the elders of Easton in our outreach efforts through their coordination of a project for first-years at the Easton Area Senior Center.

I wish I had the space to thank each and every one of the 30 first-year students who volunteered the last week of their last summer before college to start serving the Easton community, but I am sure that each one of them is grateful for the opportunities they had during POSP to see how they can become involved in the Easton community throughout their four years at Lafayette. Rest assured, the Lafayette student body has a solid group of volunteers and leaders coming up through the ranks who made a difference in the Easton community.