here is a community on the outskirts of Port au Prince, Haiti, that is called the City of God. Despite its lofty name, it is not a place the tourists visit.

Haiti is one of the most densely populated nations in the world. It is so poor that "its economic and social indicators compare unfavorably with those of many sub-Saharan African countries and are far lower than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean," according to the World Bank Group. Life expectancy is just over 50, slightly higher than it was in the United States in 1900, when antibiotics and the cures for a host of diseases, including tuberculosis and polio, were still decades in the future.

Fully 80 percent of Haitians live in abject poverty. And home for many of them is the City of God.

"They have . . . nothing," says Rob Boncoddo '04 (CLAS) of Monroe, Conn., pausing as he searches for words to describe what he observed there during a trip in December. "They live in huts so small that they have to take turns sleeping. They drink incredibly dirty water."

And they make for a brisk business at Mother Theresa's Home for the Dying, where people succumb to AIDS, tuberculosis and malnutrition daily. Remarkably, what they do not succumb to, Boncoddo says, is hopelessness. This paradox is one of the things he remembers most vividly about his second trip to the Western Hemisphere's most-impoverished nation.

"The Haitians have such faith," he says, "such hope that things will turn around. Everywhere we went we met people who told us they think things will improve. It's the message they wanted us to bring home with us."

Boncoddo was in Haiti as one of two UConn student leaders of what is called an "immersion experience." Six undergraduates accompanied them on the trip.

The purpose of the trip, part of a slate of UConn programs collectively referred to as Community Outreach, was to expose students to the world of communities around them. It is about broadening the scope of experience - the essence of education - and opening students' eyes.

In Haiti, Boncoddo and his fellow students were not, for instance, subjected relentlessly to squalor. Like many of the world's poorest nations, Haiti is a study in contrasts and it is often in the contrasts (and similarities) between cultures that the best learning occurs. Although the students visited Haitian hospices, orphanages, and a home for children with AIDS, they also dined at a fine restaurant and spent a day at a beautiful tropical beach.

Jessica Loughlin, an undergraduate student, volunteers at Natchaug Elementary School in Willimantic.

Closer to home, Boncoddo is the student coordinator for a program called Mansfield Middle School Tutors.

It is one of a number of activities run by the Office of Community Outreach, part of the Department of Campus Activities, that offers students opportunities to engage in service activities that enhance the quality of life for others in the community while enriching and expanding the learning experience at UConn. About 40 students in the program regularly help a group of Mansfield youngsters each week. "I really like what I'm doing," he says. "I feel very lucky to be involved with these kids. We all get rewarded by seeing them make progress."

Boncoddo is one of hundreds of students each semester who participate in a wide range of "service-learning" programs that give them opportunities to make a contribution to community organizations across Connecticut and broaden their experiential base simultaneously.

"What many students come to realize is that a formal classroom education is only one part of their college experience. They find that they can engage in an enriched and total educational experience both inside and outside of the classroom," says Vicky Triponey, UConn's vice chancellor for student affairs. "They experience many other kinds of learning and, in the process, they discover that they truly can make a difference in the lives of others and give back in a positive way to the larger community through volunteer service."

Whether it is a group of soccer players collecting toys for disadvantaged children or the softball team adopting a family to help make their holiday season by collecting gifts on a wish list, students collectively or individually find activities they can participate in to make a difference.

"Students become involved with Community Outreach for a lot of reasons," says Program Advisor Monika Doshi. "Some become involved for altruistic reasons. Some are testing potential careers. For some students it's a class requirement. Others are looking for work/study opportunities."

Regardless of their reasons for getting involved with community service, for many of the students the experience is significant, even life-changing. And that, Doshi asserts, is one of the best definitions of a meaningful education.

Students from the Schools of Law and Business work with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. Above, Catherine Krogh, a fourth semester law student at the VITA program at Sanchez School in Hartford.

Carrie Malcolm, a junior from Middlefield, Conn., is a good example. When Malcolm enrolled at UConn, in 2001, she was a political science major. She intended to embark upon a career in law. And then she signed on to tutor young children in a program sponsored by the Willimantic Housing Authority.

Created 15 years ago, Project Academic Advancement is an after school program whose participants are primarily Hispanic. Some 35 youngsters are enrolled in the program and meet regularly with tutors from UConn. Many of the participating students Malcolm met on her first afternoon in Willimantic could not speak English. Helping them learn, she says, changed her life.

"When I met the kids and started working with them, I soon realized I could have a significant impact on their lives, working with them one-on-one," she recalls. "Up to that point in my life I had never encountered children as disadvantaged. They would be so happy to see us when we would arrive. And you could see in their faces that they were sad when we left."

By the end of her second semester, Malcolm's career plans had undergone a striking revision. Today she is a Human Development and Family Studies major. Currently she is spending a semester at the Salvation Army's Marshall House, a Hartford shelter for children in foster care. She wants to become a social worker. She wants to help children.

It is not only UConn students who benefit from community service, however. More than 70 percent of the youngsters who have enrolled in Project Academic Advancement during the last 15 years have completed high school and are working productively, says Lorri Vilorio, the program's director. Twenty percent of the students, in defiance of the poverty in which they grew up, have gone on to college.

"We could not have had this program without the support of the UConn student tutors," says Vilorio. "They were essential."

Another successful outreach program is the South Park Inn Homeless Shelter Medical Clinic, a student-managed and staffed facility serving Hartford's homeless population since 1987. Dental and medical student volunteers keep the clinic doors open two days a week, funding operations with an annual road race and support from benefactors. More than 750 patients receive care each year.

"It's a real-world experience that lets us do more and more as we become more comfortable," says David Shapiro, a surgical resident at the UConn Health Center who worked at South Park Inn as a student at the School of Medicine.

For participating students and community organizations, alike, the programs such as this one and those sponsored by Community Outreach are a success story building enduring bridges between the University and the communities around it. On both sides of those bridges pre-existing notions about other cultures are routinely shattered.

"Before I got involved with Community Outreach I had never worked with disabled people," says Paul Pisano, a junior physical therapy major from Tom's River, N.J., who coordinates a program called Campus Connections. The student volunteers in Pisano's program meet regularly with a group of people, primarily adults, from the Easter Seals Center in Willimantic. Many of them are mentally challenged. Often they require wheelchairs. About half are not verbal.

Pisano and his peers meet their disabled companions in the Student Union and spend time with them doing crafts, directing a physical activity, and getting to know and understand them. "I was nervous when I first got involved with Campus Connections," says Pisano, an All-American track and field athlete who holds UConn's javelin record. "But then I got to know the people from Easter Seals and really understand them and their needs. Now I always look forward to meeting them. It is the highlight of my day.

I always feel more hopeful after working with them."

It is an essential message of Community Outreach. Hope, as Rob Boncoddo will quickly tell you, is a hallmark of any community - even those in the darkest corners of the world.

Plunging into an Urban Experience
By Kimberly Perkins '03 (SFS)
A group of 12 student volunteers met each week from October to December to learn about one another and areas of Washington, D.C., where we would be volunteering in an Urban Plunge during last January's semester break. However I was still surprised by the reality of the exhausting 12 to 17 hour days that we experienced.

On our second night, after a day of delivering food to terminally ill patients, six of us spent the night as chaperones in a shelter for women recovering from substance abuse. Many of these women were old enough to be our mothers, but here we were reversing the roles telling them when it was time to go to bed. I was always taught to respect my elders and listen to them. That night I had many questions. What if they did not listen? What if they became angry? But everything went smoothly.

Another night two homeless men from the National Coalition for the Homeless talked to us about what led to their situation. Both men were raised in middle class families but ended up on the streets. One could not read and unknowingly signed fraudulent contracts when selling his house, which cost him his home and thousands of dollars. The other was working until he had a mild stroke and ran out of money because he did not have health insurance.

As they spoke about the two years they have lived on the streets, I realized how unpredictable life is. It scared and upset me. My heart ached to see the suffering of these two good-hearted, intelligent, selfless men.

These stories only scratch the surface of emotions during that week in a city that is associated with power and prosperity. We saw endless poverty.

I have thought each day about what we experienced in Washington and how lucky I am to have a caring and loving family. The other students in our group helped me through the intensity of that week. With their help and support it was a great learning experience and reinforced my decision as a Human Development and Family Studies major to have a career helping young people so they will not experience the hardships I saw first hand.