Denison students fighting poverty in Newark

NEWARK — The eightmile drive from Newark to Granville was always haunting for Kellon Patey.

Every time he drove back to his campus home at Denison University after volunteering with the Newark Think Tank on Poverty, Patey couldn’t shake the feeling that he was leaving something important behind.

Driving up the hill to campus, looking over the manicured landscapes and historic buildings, Patey said he felt a tension between simply doing community service and living a life of service.

“I kept thinking how much this community has to teach us,” he said.

Patey, 21, of Nashville, Tennessee, also kept thinking about the organizations he volunteers with and their shoestring budgets. Many nonprofit groups without dedicated offices have to meet in public spaces like libraries and churches. But those place are often overbooked because of high demand.

There had to be a better way to help, thought Patey, a senior studying English.

“We should be working there, we should live there and actually be residents, not just people busing in for two hours to do a service project and then leave at the end of the day,” he said.

So he and a few like-minded From left, Amber Deleon, Kellon Patey, Taylor Shook and Andrew Boyle, all Denison University students, sit at the dining room table at the Hull House in Newark. The students decided to live off campus this year to fully engage themselves in working with local non-profit groups fighting poverty. friends — Taylor Shook, 20, of Hilliard; Andrew Boyle, 21, of Shaker Heights near Cleveland; and Amber Deleon, 21, of Miami decided to ditch campus this year and live in Newark in a Hull House.

The first Hull Houses were created at the turn of the 20th century on Chicago’s West Side. They were originally created to provide social and educational opportunities for the city’s working-class people and new immigrants.

Inspired by the Hull House’s mission, the Denison students’

original plan was to buy and live in an old church that they would renovate into a community center focused on fighting poverty through systemic change. That plan, however, was tabled because of how hectic balancing construction, classes and community outreach would be, said Shook, a junior studying journalism.

So for now, the group lives in a single-family home on Newark’s Northeast side. Their main focus, Patey said, has been getting involved in groups that are already

working to fight poverty, being available however they can. They also want to find their place in Newark — without pushing any agenda of their own.

A calendar hangs on the Hull House’s dining room wall, a variety of events and meetings written in for any given day. In their first month at the Hull House, the crew volunteered more than 65 hours with local nonprofit groups doing everything from handing out lunches to the homeless to attending city council meetings.

Between being full-time students, group members are active in several Newark nonprofit groups, including the Newark Think Tank on Poverty and the Newark Homeless Outreach, said Boyle, a senior studying journalism.

A subcommittee of the think tank meets weekly at the Hull House’s dining room table, and the homeless outreach stores some of its materials at the home. The students also volunteer at the group’s Saturday morning outreach event, which meets just down the street from the Hull House. When Trish Perry, the homeless outreach’s organizer, mentioned a need for an RV to carry supplies, Patey said the Hull House could help write grant proposals.

“It’s nice when you’re dealing with people who understand what you’re trying to do,” Perry said.

Lesha Farias, founder of the Newark Think Tank on Poverty, said she thinks the Hull House provides a muchneeded opportunity for college students to be active in their communities.

“They’re really spearheading something that would enhance their education,” Farias said. “You can be involved in the local community and really be involved with change.”