Michael H. Brown '83-'84 jokes that he and Alan A. Khazei '83 were roommates from the morning they moved into Grays Hall until the day of Brown's wedding.

But when they were separated for the first time in years, the two didn't have to go far to see each other during the day--just down the hall at their executive offices at City Year, the national public service program they founded together in 1988.

Since its founding, Brown and Khazei's youth service corps has grown from a summer pilot program of fewer than 100 volunteers to almost 1,000 volunteers at 10 sites across the country. City Year has attracted more than $40 million in private funding since 1988.

The teams of red-jacketed young people, who spend a year doing anything from constructing playgrounds to aiding the elderly, have served as the model for the Clinton administration's AmeriCorps public service program.

That success, in part, is due to Harvard. Its resources not only inspired Brown and Khazei to devote their lives to City Year, but the University's alumni network has helped the service organization thrive.

Indeed it was during the roommates' late-night discussions about General Education 105, "The Literature of Social Reflection," that helped Brown and Khazei discover their shared passion for equality and public service.

With those leanings in the back of his head, Brown says he was so moved by a speech given by then-Harvard President Derek C. Bok that he delayed his junior year in Cambridge to spend a year working for U.S. Representative Leon Panetta (D-Calif.) on Capitol Hill.

He says he found his calling while working on legislation to study the prospects of a national public service program. Trading ideas and hopes with Khazei--who was still in Cambridge--every night by phone, Brown says it was during that year that he came to understand the power of service to "focus and mature you."

"You really appreciate the opportunity to study full-time when you take time off," Brown says.