Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Vol. CLIV, Issue 6
Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Letter to the Editor: Homeless youth article reflects merits of Whitman students’ projects

To the Editor,

The Pio‘s recent story about homeless youth in Walla Walla was powerful for a long list of reasons, including the way that it focused attention on an often overlooked demographic in our community.

For me, perhaps the most significant reason was because the story showed how the ability of local human service agencies to define, understand and analyze this group of young people came about because of a Whitman student’s 2007-2008 research project on the topic. As a result of that project, Walla Walla community leaders were then able to make long-term planning decisions based on real data, rather than simply relying on anecdotes and news stories.

Importantly, that data would probably not have been able to be developed without the participation of the Whitman student researcher.

Your story was a critical reminder of the fact that Whitman students’ academic skills and training can lead to real world outcomes that make a difference for real organizations and real people, in this case homeless kids.

I hope that The Pio continues to shine a light on these kinds of efforts where in-class work leads to off-campus involvement and improvement.

Noah Leavitt
Assistant Dean for Student Engagement

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