Pomona College hosted a dedication ceremony for the Draper Center for Community Partnerships Thursday night in the Smith Campus Center,following the receipt of an
from alumnus Ranney Draper PO ’60 and his family.
The mission of the center, previously known as the Hart volunteer and the Office of Community and Multicultural Programs, is “to foster mutually beneficial exchanges among community members, students, faculty, and staff in order to support educational outreach initiatives, community-based research and learning, and other community engagement activities.”
Its existing programs include Alternabreak; Pomona Partners, in which Pomona students provide weekly afterschool activities at Fremont Middle School in the city of Pomona; and the Pomona Academy for Youth Success (PAYS), a free summer college prep program for local high school students.
The dedication ceremony consisted of an invitation-only dinner attended by students and faculty, a lecture by John Payton PO ’73, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and a public reception.
Payton’s lecture, “Community as a Key to Democracy,” was preceded by introductions from President of Pomona College David Oxtoby and Director of the Draper Center Maria Tucker, as well as remarks from Draper.