The Buttenwieser Public Service Academy (BPSA) offers Harvard undergraduates the opportunity to enhance their leadership and management skills through a series of trainings and workshops. It is all about helping people and programs grow. Each fun and interactive session provides tools that are useful to individual leaders and volunteers, and help them provide higher quality programming.
Trainings and resources are available to all student affiliates of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) and the DSO-Affiliated Groups, as well as all other Harvard undergraduates, community partners, etc. Additional resources are available for leaders who want help creating quality, program-specific workshops. Please note that if you are a student organization that manages, supervises and trains its own volunteers, finances and community engagement, you must provide training for leadership and all volunteers.
The Buttenwieser Public Service Academy is named in recognition of Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser’s long-time support of Public Service at Harvard. The Buttenwieser Public Service Academy has supported student trainings for over 20 years on campus.
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Varsha Ghosh, Director of Student Engagement & Leadership, vghosh@fas.harvard.edu.
If you have questions about specific trainings, please contact Rebecca Janfaza, PBHA Student Development Chair, at sdc@pbha.org.
Spring 2024 Training Topics - click to RSVP.
- Tutor Certificate (mandatory for all new PBHA & all tutoring programs) - Feb 4th
- Mentor Certificate (mandatory for all new PBHA & mentor programs) - Feb 4th
- Program Management Certificate and After-School Leadership Intensive (skills for current and future leaders; mandatory for all new PBHA/DSO apprproate program directors) - weekly Wednesday evenings starting 2/7 from 7-8:30pm
- Advocacy and Organizing (skills for current and future leaders of advocacy/policy/movement efforts) - TBD
- Train the Trainer (presentation and training design skills - become a member of the paid student Trainer Corps!) - TBD
- Working with the Elderly 101 (strongly recommended for all PBHA and PSN volunteers who work with the elderly) - Feb 10th
- Teaching ESL Certificate (for volunteers teaching ESL to adult learners) - Feb 10th
Other Workshops Not Currently Offered:
- By request: Special Needs Youth Work Training (strongly recommended for all PBHA and DSO-Affiliated volunteers who work with the youth with special needs), Behavior Management, Cultural Competence in entering Communities, and more! Contact us.
Be sure to check back regularly for new trainings and dates.
 | training_spring_2024_psa_schedule.pdf | 275 KB |