Last weekend, Dawson and I had the opportunity to represent Elon at the 2015 Project Pericles National Conference in New York City. Project Pericles is the national umbrella organization for Periclean Scholars, and two students from each Periclean campus (along with many advisors) were present.
The conference was hosted by The New School in Brooklyn, and ran all day Thursday and Friday. An annual event, the conference included panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions centered on civic engagement and creating social change. The final round of the Debating for Democracy Letter to an Elected Official competition was also held, during which the 5 final teams presented their case to a panel of
judges and the winning team (Rhodes College) was selected. This competition is how we were originally connected with the conference, as Dawson and I wrote and submitted a letter about foreign aid accountability and transparency over Winter Term in our course taught by Dr. Arcaro, SOC 370.
We stayed at the Seafarer’s International House (which was just a short walk from The New School conference location) and roomed with a student from another college. This gave us the opportunity to meet some great students and learn about how Periclean operates at other universities. One of the major differences we noticed was the structure of the program, which was much more centered around community service at many of the other universities.
We participated in four 1 ½ hour panels over the course of the conference, which included the following: Social Action Panel; Media and Millennials Panel (featuring a journalist from the Washington Post as well
as Ben Smith, Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed); Climate Change Panel (featuring several scientific experts, the founder of ioby.org, and a representative from the U.N); and a panel about the Role of Non-Profits in our Democracy, which featured leaders of several prominent NYC-based non-profits.
The panels were undoubtedly one of our favorite parts of the conference, as we were able to hear form experts in a variety of fields that were so passionate about their work. After the climate change panel I had the chance to speak with Erin Barnes, who is the founder of ioby.org—a crowd resourcing organization that empowers individuals to pool resources in order to make lasting change in their local communities. “Ioby” stands for “in our back yards,” and was founded with the idea of changing the world one community at a time. We thought this organization was really cool and could be a great resource for Periclean or other community projects.
On Friday the conference ended at 2:00pm, after which we split into small groups to visit one of 5 nonprofit organizations around NYC:
- College and Community Fellowship – http://www.collegeandcommunity.org
Community Voices Heard – http://www.cvhaction.org - Harlem Grown – http://harlemgrown.org
- Museum at Eldridge Street – http://www.eldridgestreet.org
- Friends of the Highline – http://www.thehighline.org
Inside the Harlem Grown greenhouse
Dawson and I chose to visit Harlem Grown, which is an awesome organization that empowers kids to grow their own food through urban farming, while emphasizing healthy eating and leadership development. The program leases several small plots of land around Harlem from the city, which it then converts into vegetable gardens that the kids are responsible for cultivating after school. In the winter, the kids meet at the Harlem Grown headquarters (inside), where they learn about nutrition, budgeting, and planning their gardens. Tony Hillery, who is the founder/director of Harlem Grown, led us from The New School to Harlem and showed us the entire operation–from the greenhouse, to the gardens, to the organization’s new headquarters several blocks away. It was a really informative experience and Mr. Hillary was one of the most passionate people I have ever met. Check out the website to learn more!
The school across the street from Harlem Grown.
Also: it poured snow all day long on Friday while we hiked around NYC, and we had 5 inches of 
accumulation by 7:00pm. It was a very cold (and eventful!) welcome to the first day of spring! 
We left NYC early on Saturday morning after a whirlwind trip, but it was a positive experience and a great opportunity to learn more about Project Pericles and civic engagement at large. Please reach out if you have any questions or if you might be interested in attending next year’s conference…we’d love to share our experience with you more!
Snowy NYC
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