PBHA Creates Public Service Czar

In an effort to provide more guidance for student community service groups—and to give a graduating senior non-profit experience at the management level—the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) announced the creation of a “public service czar” position Monday.

The position, funded through the Harvard Club of Boston, will go to former PBHA President Angelico N. A. Razon ’08 in its first year.

Gene Corbin, the executive director of PBHA, said that the job will help fill the void in pre-professional experience for students looking for careers in the non-profit world.

“In non-profit management, those professions don’t have as many resources to recruit students and to develop leadership skills,” Corbin said. “We were trying to create a position that will allow a graduating senior to further their knowledge, skills, and networking in order to elevate themselves to gain a top position or start their own non-profit.”

The public service czar will work closely with Corbin and the student heads of PBHA to acquire skills in eight areas—from financial planning to public relations—that Corbin said are key to running a non-profit.

Razon—who was president of PBHA when the idea of a public service czar was first proposed and who was involved with finding the initial funding for the position—said that while his work next year will free up other staffers to work on other projects, his primary motivation is to get high-level experience in the non-profit world.

“The whole point is that it’s supposed to be an educational experience,” Razon said. “While it’s nice that PBHA is letting me do these things, they want to challenge me to do things that are useful to me.”

In addition to the focus on providing experience to a graduating senior, the public service czar will also serve as a liaison between PBHA and the public service tutors in the upperclass Houses. He will also participate in community service planning for the Harvard Club of Boston.

A biochemical sciences concentrator with a certificate in health policy, Razon said he plans to apply to medical school after his one-year stint at PBHA and eventually to work in a community-based health setting.

—Staff writer Nathan C. Strauss can be reached at strauss@fas.harvard.edu.