Community Outreach Scholarships
Attract New Students to Extension

John Hallowell and Ed Gurley have much in common. Both are counselors in the men's unit at the Pine Street Inn, New England's largest homeless shelter. Both spend their Thursday evenings polishing phrases and paragraphs in EXPO E-35 The Essay in the Enders Building on the Harvard medical campus. And both are passionate students of Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, two of last century's master commentators on the human condition.

Yet much distinguishes John Hallowell from Ed Gurley. John is the instructor of EXPO E-35 (a 17-year veteran teacher at Harvard Extension School), a published author, and a longtime friend of Angela Lansbury, Gore Vidal, and the late Andy Warhol. Ed, who never completed high school, is one of 19 students in Hallowell's Extension School writing workshop and the first recipient of a Harvard Extension School scholarship for guests and employees of the Pine Street Inn. The Pine Street Inn counselors, like John Hallowell, helped Ed escape a life on Boston's streets and find work in the kitchen, as a custodian, and finally as a counselor at the Pine Street Inn. Ed got into the habit of saving 30 percent of his earnings for transitional room and board at Pine Street and later transferred his new financial skills to paying his own rent on the outside.

The Pine Street connection is a recent addition to Harvard Extension School's ongoing outreach efforts in Cambridge and Boston. Ed Gurley is joined this term by more than a hundred students from high schools in greater Boston--part of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin and Lowell Scholarship programs--and by 22 scholarship students in the adult literacy and English proficiency programs of the Institute for English Language Programs. Of these, 11 are non-native English speakers from the Harvard Facilities Maintenance and Dining Services staffs; six are recent immigrants referred by the Community Learning Center of Cambridge; and three are political refugees from Burundi, mainland China, and Myanmar (Burma). "Through these scholarships, we offer instruction to a wide range of qualified, nontraditional students, including recent immigrants, victims of political violence, economically disadvantaged persons, and the homeless in Cambridge and Boston," said Dr. Chris Queen, Dean of Students and Director of Community Relations.

People say you can't leave homelessness,
but I know you can. - Ed Gurley

Pierre Nsengiyumua, 24, left Burundi last summer in the midst of the civil war that left 14 of his 15 closest friends dead. Since fleeing his country, Pierre has had no word from his family. Now living with a host family in Boston, he works the night shift at a biotechnology company in order to take Institute for English Language Programs (IEL) classes at Harvard Extension School during the day. His counselor at the Log School Settlement House in Dorchester wrote recently to thank Dr. Lilith Haynes, Program Administrator of IEL, for Pierre's scholarship, adding, "I am confident that he will take advantage of the learning opportunities there." Other scholarship students in the adult literacy and English proficiency programs of IEL--both Harvard employees and community residents--have immigrated from far and wide: Brazil, China, Colombia, Eritrea, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Myanmar, Portugal, Syria, and Vietnam. Each has a story to tell. Silvana Silva, a seamstress from Brazil who works for Dining Services at the Radcliffe Quad, aspires to speak "English without an accent" to be more effective in her job. Amy Ohnmar, who fled Myanmar with her father, leaving her mother and sisters behind, dreams of college and an accounting career with enough income to bring her family to America and to allow her aging father to retire from heavy factory labor. After 18 months in the United States, Brazilian Raquel Gonzalez found she could not communicate with the doctor when she was sick. "And I felt so isolated, with very few friends who spoke my language. Finally, I am learning English and meeting many wonderful people in my class at Harvard Extension School."

Back at the Pine Street Inn, Ed Gurley is reading from the first essay he submitted to EXPO E-10 Fundamentals of Composition last September: "People say you can't leave homelessness, but I know that you can." In 1996 Ed was offered a job as counselor at the Pine Street Inn. Today, as he shows a visitor around the facility, many of the guests greet him respectfully as he walks by. Gurley's selection for the Harvard Extension School scholarship may be credited to his own determination and the great expectations of his mentor, John Hallowell. Today Hallo- well's praise comes in comments at the end of a writing assignment. "This is a powerful essay. Thank you for writing so honestly of your experience, strength, and hope. You have worked hard and well."

The next step in Ed's educational journey is the GED, the high school equivalency diploma. After that? Counseling in a homeless shelter seems best. "I just want to help others who have gone through what I did," says Gurley.

To sum up his life, Ed cites the opening lines of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"; while John, reflecting on his teaching at Extension, recalls the last words of Sydney Carton, the homeless wretch in Dickens' Tale: "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done before."