As a teenager, Cornell University interim President Hunter Rawlings recalls he would have laughed at the thought of birding. Today he is an avid birder.

"I have discovered birding in a big way," and it's "not a laughable matter," said Rawlings at the Ithaca Public Education Initiative's (IPEI) 10th Anniversary Celebration, April 3, at Ithaca High School. And that's why he is particularly enthusiastic about local students becoming interested in ornithology through IPEI.

IPEI is a community-based organization that works to strengthen the Ithaca City School District through community involvement. One of its main goals is to connect local schools with the human and financial resources of the community, three of them the area's institutions of higher education. That's why Rawlings and two other college presidents -- Ithaca College (IC) President Peggy Williams and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) President Carl Haynes -- gathered with 200 parents, teachers and advocates of public education to celebrate IPEI's decade of achievements.

Cornell, noted Rawlings, is a community partner in several teacher grants and offers several programs to local students, such as the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art's Chemistry of Art course and a ceramics program at Willard Straight Hall, and that many professors volunteer to teach special topics in their areas of expertise in local classrooms.

He was most excited about IPEI's Kids Discover the Trail Program. Although the program is still in the pilot phase, IPEI plans for all preK- to fifth-grade students to take part in the curriculum-based learning opportunities available at eight Discovery Trail sites, three of which are located at Cornell: the Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell Plantations and the Johnson museum.

"We offer these sites with a great deal of confidence that they will make a difference in people's lives," he said.

IPEI also offers grants to teachers, students and schools (last year over $75,000 in grants were awarded), establishes mentoring initiatives and develops and implements student programs. For example, the DeWitt Scrubs Club enables 25 DeWitt Middle School students each semester to explore medical career opportunities at the Cayuga Medical Center.

Haynes and Williams also spoke of their colleges' involvement with IPEI and local schools. Haynes said that more than 4,000 high school students have benefited from TC3's dual-credit program, which allows high school students to earn both high school and TC3 credit for certain courses. Those numbers have made TC3 the No. 1 provider of dual-credit programs in the state of New York. Williams said that although IC is not known as a teacher college, it prepares hundreds of teachers each year. IC students also bring music programs into the schools and tutor area children.

IPEI President Terry Byrnes, who opened and closed the program, said she was enthusiastic about the future of IPEI. She shared an e-mail she recently received from an area teacher who had received an IPEI grant. Byrnes summarized the teacher's remarks: "The effect of IPEI is like a pebble being thrown in a lake." The enthusiasm and help of IPEI has a ripple effect and "this effect is being felt on all shores."

Graduate student Christin Munsch is a writer intern at the Cornell News Service.