A 'Privileged' View of Poverty

This summer, 80 high school students from across the country are participating in a pilot project at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, which will allow them "to experience first-hand the effects of poverty and urban decay" in Baltimore. "The students study social issues in the center's leadership program at the Peabody Institute in Mount Vernon, then take to the streets, where those issues are brought to life....As part of their field study, the students have been helping with service projects in city neighborhoods." At $2500 a pop, the three-week program targets "privileged" students, in efforts to broaden their outlooks on social issues and to seed a sense of duty to help improve deteriorating neighborhoods.