• The Heller Community: Agents of Change

The Heller Community: Agents of Change

We are a community committed to finding solutions to the world's most pressing social problems.  We are physicians and teachers; graphic artists and grant writers.  We are teachers, musicians, dancers and engineers.  We are activists, volunteers, accountants and waitresses.

One in five of our American students has a background in national service:  AmeriCorps State and National, City Year, Teach for America, AmeriCorps Vista, AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Conservation Corps) are all represented in the current class.  Over the last decade, our returned Peace Corps volunteers have served in over 55 countries around the world.

Over the years we have come from over 100 countries outside of the United States and from 43 American states.

Our ages range from 21 to 56 and the average age is 30.  63% are women; 37% are men.  27% of American students have self-identified as African American, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American.

Our ranks include Ford Fellows, Fulbright and World Bank Scholars and students sponsored by the Open Society Institute. Some of us have worked with Catholic Charities, Hillel, the Muslim Women's Association and the Red Crescent Society; others have worked with the United Nations, in refugee resettlement organizations, and with children's foster care agencies.  Our students have worked in their countries' Ministries of Health; Food & Agriculture; and Gender, Children & Community Development, and domestically in the Department of Corrections and in many hospitals and community health centers.

In other words, the Heller community is a reflection of the world, from the poorest rural village to the shiniest urban highrise, from every social and economic strata, all of us passionate and committed individuals working for social change.  And we invite you to get to know us - investigate our programs, read the research, listen to and learn from our faculty.  Join us.  We are all agents of change working together.