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When you think about what makes a city run you tend to think
about the bricks and mortar but one thing that's often missing
and people don't naturally think about is an ongoing
commitment by individuals to work on behalf of the public.
In 1978 when the foundation began the two Eli's - Ginsberg and Evans -
came up with a brilliant, brilliant way to realize this vision and it was called
the Revson Fellows Program.
Someone who has been chosen to be a Revson and who has gone through that program
was chosen because they had a commitment to and have actually invested in
the improvement of New York City.
I felt like I was good at what I did but I could be a whole lot better
and I was like making it up as I was going along so it seemed to me ideal
to be able to take a year off and try and improve my skills and my insights.
I was getting totally burnt-out.
I really needed to develop some additional organizing skills.
My work here is very local.
It's very community-oriented, but I really didn't understand the policies
that sort of caused the problems in the community level.
The Revson Fellowship has given me that time and that space
to kind of explore the big picture.
With the right kind of advisors in the Revson office you have
a gateway to this university.
You can do everything from art to journalism to, you know, political science
to public health, all kinds of things and there are just a handful of institutions
in the world that offer that opportunity.
So people are coming to the University both for an individual, contemplative
plan of study, and also to work as a group and feed off each other and then use that
moment where they can learn from each other
to go back into the City.
You know, the folks at the program and my classmates, they gave me confidence
again to go forward with the work.
The most immediate impact of becoming a Revson is that you join a huge network of other folks.
We believe that when you go through the program you actually are a teacher to the next generation
and over 30 years we now have almost 300 teachers.
We are all over and we connect to each other and we care about each other.
Every day I have an e-mail coming from the Revson e-mail lists.
There is a job here, there is des, one des, it's great to have 300 people
that they are helping you for free.
The impact of this program's been profound and I don't think New York would look the
same had there not been the cultivating and nurturing
of these extraordinarily passionate people who were given the chance
to really think and dream.
It gives social activists and people who are doing grassroots organizing
the opportunity to recharge their batteries, to pick up some skills, and renew their efforts
when they leave the program.
It's hard to live in New York City without feeling that you're trying
in some way to contribute to making it a better place to live and Revson gave me
some of the skills and some of the relationships that have made me more effective
and I'm very grateful.
It has had a large ripple effect across the City and its institutions.
That's certainly what people tell me.
I know the Revson Foundation helps the Revson Fellows.
We just try to cater to the ways in which people
want to help the City, and as that changes, so does the fellowship change.
So we're never bored over here.
It's always an exciting place to be.