Although Secondine became involved with public service early during his time at Harvard, North House resident Samia Mora '92 waited until the summer after her sophomore summer before becoming actively involved.

As a counselor for the Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment (RYSE) program, Mora taught English to Vietnamese refugees living in Dorchester, Chelsea and Brighton. She took students on field trips to libraries, museums and colleges. She taught them how to use a wordprocessor and required each to write their life story.

By the end of the summer, she says she was hooked on community service.

"There is a lot of work to be done," Mora says, "and public service gives you the opportunity to create something useful, not just something to appease your own conscience."

Mora describes her experiences that summer as a volunteer and the following summer as RYSE director as "the best learning experience [she has] had at Harvard."

Next year, she will work on a public health program in Lebanon, with the Lebanese Family Planning Association. the Stride-Rite winner says she will talk about proper health care with people in the worst affected areas of the country, and that she will volunteer in health clinics in the villages.

The public service careers of Mora, Secondine and Holdt are indicative of recent trends among Harvard students, according to Gail L. Epstein, director of public service programs for Harvard College. She says that current undergraduates are more committed and involved in the programs than their predecessors.

"There has been a slight increase in numbers," Epstein says "but more importantly, students take the quality of what they do more seriously, thinking about the community implications of their programs."

LeHuyen T. Pham '92, and Echoing Green grant recipient, says that for most, Harvard students involved in public service are interested not in padding their resumes but in making significant contributions to the lives of their fellow human beings. She says they consider public service to be their lives rather than just a part of them during their undergraduate years.

"It's not just three or four hours that you spend with kids, it's not a separate part of you life, but a way to lead your life," Pham says.