Seniors are awarded Stride Rite fellowships

While many Harvard graduates will seek their fortunes around the world, three of their classmates will remain in Boston next year living on $25,000 fellowships and pursuing community-based public service work.

The three graduating seniors – Joseph Garland of Deer Isle, Maine; Amy Leung of Quincy; and Ari Lipman of Chevy Chase, Md. – received the Stride Rite Charitable Foundation Public Service Post Graduate Fellowships on May 8 in a ceremony at Phillips Brooks House.

The fellowships will enable the graduates to spend the next year implementing programs they’ve developed for three local grass-roots and advocacy organizations.

The awards are part of the Stride Rite Community Service Program at Harvard, established jointly by the foundation and the University in 1983 to encourage students to pursue public service and teaching careers.

Garland, who has worked extensively with middle school youth in Mission Hill and Dorchester – especially young refugees – will join Parents United for Child Care and seek to expand and improve after-school programming for middle school youth in Boston. He plans to develop services that specifically meet the needs of Boston’s refugee youth.

Leung, who serves as a counselor for the Chinatown After-School Program and for three years directed the Chinatown Adventure Summer Program, a day camp serving more than 70 Chinatown youngsters, will work with the Chinese Progressive Association.

She will focus on community advocacy and empowerment projects, as well as serving as a full-time staff person for the Chinese Youth Initiative. The program is designed to help local youth address issues of identity, encourage community involvement, and develop leadership skills.

Lipman, who directed the University Lutheran Shelter as an undergraduate at Harvard, will work for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, a group that advocates for more affordable housing. He will be working on the group’s new Housing Campaign initiatives, including a doubling of local spending on affordable housing and construction of new housing units. He also will work with area universities to increase their support of affordable housing stock. He already is involved with a coalition of students and community members negotiating with Harvard to increase its community housing investment, particularly in the Allston/Brighton area.