How does a littered vacant lot affect the well being of a community? Does beautification of the community impact on the community's sense of pride and ownership?

     These questions were recently addressed at a camp program that combined resources for environmental exploration with academic enrichment.

     Students from the Philadelphia area teamed up and completed the five-week summer camp sponsored by the National School and Community Corps (NSCC) and held at Robert Vaux Middle School, at 23rd and Master Streets.

     NSCC aims to support the development and educational achievement of children and youth, with the involvement of families and the community, particularly during non-school hours and the summer. It collaborates with local businesses, agencies, and organizations in support of students.

     The program began in June and ended last week. Operations Manager Jason Weems, described the students' experiences:

     "In the morning, they've been outside in the lot actually transforming the vacant lot into a garden park area," he said. "Outside is a completed mosaic wall that the students designed themselves. It took about 10 days."

     He described the program as an environmental summer camp designed to "bring a certain awareness to environmental issues, as well as make the students aware of the environmental careers that are available to them."

     Todd Bernstein, director of the Citizenship Project, an organization that has worked with the NSCC, noted that the program works in partnership with Youthworks, and from a grant that allowed it to pay 14-year-old students for 20 hours per week of work.

     "The other major component of the students present here is not only do they get paid minimum wages for 20 hours per week, but they also receive a service learning requirement," he said. "The service learning will be required across the Philadelphia School District as of this year. Basically, the service learning requirement is an academic perspective of a community activity."

Weems said service learning is now a requirement for students in fourth, eighth and twelfth grades.

     "One of our selling points at NSCC is service learning,: Weems said. "We also have literacy, arts and socialized recess components. We're in about 30 schools throughout the city. The students are coming from high schools in the community."

     Aside from being an environmental camp, "another component to our program is job readiness," he added. "We're preparing these children for the job market and careers. Some components of that would be professionalism, teamwork and time management."

     "They have knocked down all of the weeds, collecting all the trash and debris in this vacant city lot," he said of the students. "They then piled it up and had someone come and take it away.

     "After that, they made it into a part area," he said. "You see a patio and pathway made of recycled bricks designed and developed by the students.

      "You also see the mosaic wall that was designed and developed by the students, "Weems said. "The theme for the mosaic is a reflection of the community. We have mirrors in the mosaic wall, so it's a nice reflection of the individuals."

     Weems commented on the hard work of the youth: "They've made a lot of accomplishments. They worked hard, they sweated, they pushed their limits, and they learned how to work together.

     "In the afternoon, after we have lunch in our cafeteria, we bring them into the classroom and go over all the academic perspectives of the program," Weems said. "For example, we've had a job readiness workshop. We've had a professionalism workshop. Students this past Friday visited Temple University. Temple talked to them about the various environmental majors they have to offer, and did a geology workshop with them."

     "The students have done workshops on recycling and environmental habitats," Weems said. "Every field trip we attend on Fridays is dealing with an environmental topic.

     "Also, we have them write in their journals everyday," he said. "The students also did a survey of the community to find out the reactionary response from this community, and how they felt about an urban lot being developed into a garden park-type area.

     "They also worked on business letters," Weems continued, "which taught them how to write a descriptive letter. Some of the students chose to write to businesses, some to Mayor Street. The letter told who they are, what they're doing and what they wanted. If they were asking for money, that's what they said."

     One of the students attending the NSCC amp is an intelligent young 14-year-old budding artist named Paris Davis. A student at William Penn High School, the articulate Davis will be entering the 10th grade in September.

     "I was always interested in art since I was a small child," Paris revealed. "I was probably about four years old. I just had an urge to draw. Each picture inspired me to draw more and more."

      He said, "I'm trying to stress the importance of people taking care of their community and the adults taking initiative and doing the work so it can be passed down so their children can do the same. I'm also stressing the importance of environmental cleanliness."

     Part of a family that includes two brothers and five sisters, and very supportive parents. "My parents think what I'm doing is a good idea."

     Paris was originally informed about the NSCC from his sister. He and his mother made a phone call, and he eventually signed up.

    "I enjoyed the program," Paris said, "because I took part in something. I could have stayed home and done nothing, but there are more important things and I had to make the sacrifice. That's why I am here."

     "Paris is a deep thinker," Weems stated. "He has a very unique perspective on how this project has been going and different things they've been learning. We're very proud of him. Paris is truly an artist. He has a very creative outlook on life. He's a very in-depth type person."

     NSCC member Doris Whitfield acknowledged the contribution of Robert Vaux Middle School personnel to the summer camp. "If it wasn't for Mr. Adams, Ms. O'Toole, Ms. Lewis, and Ms. Wilkerson, there would be no NSCC here at Vaux. Youthworks is invited to be here at the school because of these people. They're the nucleus and the chain that keeps this going at Vaux."

     Organizations working with NSCC are Penn State University, Philadelphia Youth Network, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Wagner Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences.

     The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation of Princeton, NJ administers the NSCC. The NSCC Princeton and city-based staff use centralized procedures and policies that maintain program quality, integrity and continuity at all sites.

      "I've been involved in urban education for more than 20 years and this program was designed to get around some of the barriers that sort of led to a lot of failures and partial successes," Marty Friedman, executive director and founder of NSCC, explained. "It was created by a group of people who were frustrated trying to make significant changes in urban schools. This represented a different way to go about it."

     NSCC, founded in 1994, is an AmeriCorps national service program, and is entering its seventh year of operating in Philadelphia schools.

     "After seven years in Philadelphia we have really found a way to work with schools, community, students and parents to create some very rich opportunities for young people that otherwise they would not have," Friedman said. "It's very gratifying to be able to do that because the needs are so great."