CORRECTION APPENDED

The Summer Urban Program (SUP), a collaborative effort between Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) and the Boston Youth Fund, was recognized as a finalist for Massachusetts’ Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration last night.

SUP consists of summer camps staffed by Harvard undergraduates and local students that aim to provide safe and constructive out-of-school activities for low-income children.

Though SUP did not ultimately win the $10,000 award at yesterday’s ceremony at University of Massachusetts-Boston, PBHA President Angelico N.A. Razon ’08 said that he was happy that PBHA was even considered for the prize.

“It’s meaningful just to be nominated...because it demonstrates how PBHA strives to be community-based,” Razon said. “It really speaks to the quality of the Summer Urban Program and all of PBHA’s programs.”

In the end, the Carter Partnership Award went to “School Readiness for All,” a Roxbury preschool education initiative spearheaded by national non-profit Jumpstart in collaboration with Northeastern University, Suffolk University, and Wheelock College.

According to PBHA Executive Director Gene A. Corbin, SUP seeks to offer a place for young children to participate in constructive activities. In addition, he said, SUP provides summer employment and training for its high school staffers.

“Our leaders challenge [the high school students] to be leaders in their neighborhoods. A lot of them will come back as senior staff and then even become directors and board members,” Corbin said.

SUP serves over 850 first-through-sixth graders at 10 sites throughout Boston and Cambridge.

Nicole K. Young, a sophomore at Regis College and director of South Boston Outreach—a SUP summer camp program—said that she would not be where she is today if it were not for her involvement with SUP as a camper, junior director, and director.

“I actually stayed in Massachusetts and Boston for college so that I could be a part of SUP,” Young said. “It’s a place where people can feel great about what they can accomplish.

Organized by Massachusetts Campus Compact, a higher education organization representing 65 college and university presidents in the Bay State, the Massachusetts Carter Partnership Award recognizes successful collaborations between colleges or universities and community groups that work to resolve critical problems within communities.

CORRECTION: The print version of the April 10 news article "PBHA Receives Carter Award" carried an incorrect headline. PBHA was a finalist for the award, but did not receive it.