working for worcester, part of his new non-profit was born. about 700 fellow college students from ten schools joined him in an effort 1,100 strong this year including corporate volunteers for an annual day of community service. >> i think it's awesome that they're cleaning up the park, adding more things for the kids to do, a better place for the kids to go. >> reporter: reppucci and his team spent much of the school year raising money and recruiting bodies for the big day. >> breaking down the gates of colleges, getting people off their campuses, and getting engaged in their community. >> when we first started, we thought we'll put some basketball hoops up at a school. and here we're building a $14,000 playground in a day. this is awesome that the kids got involved. >> reporter: though leaving town soon, the work he started will go on. >> how exciting the city is to work with the college kids in this way is something we're proud of and we're confident that it can be sustained. >> reporter: making the grade on and off campus. ron mott, nbc ne

sadly as in every community in our country, too many of our children go to bed hungry in worcester. donna has made it her mission to feed them, to reach them first thing in the morning with a nutritious school breakfast and throughout the day with school snacks, school lunch, after-school meal programs, and summer meals, too. school by school, classroom by classroom, child by child. the magnitude of her impact on the lives of thousands of children inspires me. and it inspires all of us, and i'm delighted to congratulate donna on this much deserved recognition. finally, mr. speaker, i would say to my colleagues, let us learn from donna's example and replicate what works all over this country. and let us be inspired by those who work to end hunger in our country and make that our mission as well. we could end hunger now. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north dakota, r. cramer, for five minutes. mr. cramer: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, in newtown, north dakota, right in the hot of t

it was worcester tech in worcester, massachusetts. a couple of years ago, it was a failing school. huge issues, huge dropout rates. they have done many, many things to engage students in their own learning. they have a full-fledged clinic where young people are taking care of animals -- full-fledged veterinary clinic. i have an auto body shop, a culinary program, a fully functioning credit union where students work there and get paid to do that. the school has become this amazing community asset. not surprisingly, dropout rates, which were a huge issue, have almost disappeared. graduation rates have soared. we want to see more high schools thinking about how they link what students are learning during the school day to the real world. though students at worcester tech and other similar students -- other similar schools know why they are coming to school every day. >> the republican -- or the ryan budget cuts pell grants -- pell grants by eliminating mandatory money and reducing funding to the non-discretionary funding. experts believe this would potentially cut millions of students

i get e-mails every day, six in the last 24 hours from emory, college of worcester, luxuries they provide selling them almost as resorts. do they need them? >> that's exactly what they do and they've been doing this for quite a while and in fact back in the '80s and '90s they used to jack up the tuition just to be one of the most expensive universities in america because that attracted the certain type of student who went for luxury good. they called it the chivas regal syndrome after the brand of scotch. people looked at going to college as a luxury good and they deliberately look for these sorts of things. >> paying this extravagant tuition, high price equals quality? the former george washington university president who talked about this that part of his strategy. >> very open about it. >> to make gw a top tier school was these gigantic tuition hikes because that was more prestigious. shouldn't they be keeping costs dowj? >> what's failing to -- down? >> what's failing to happen, i should say, when colleges tried to raise tuition in quebec, in canada two years ago, they had students ou

guest: steve, you foe know, i housing projects of worcester, massachusetts.o one's going to lecture me on class.dle and certainly not -- well, let .e leave it there the economy today is in bad shape. that.'s questioning the real issue is how much worse been.ld have the counterfactual that we can't prove but history will prove right. i did not sayt -- everything that was done was great and things are fine. normally portrayed as a very big critic. haveconomy's bad it would been worse it would have been much, much worse without the stimulus. muchuld have been much, worse without fan any and fred -- fannie and freddie backstopping the mortgages. could it have been done better? of course. view that president clinton and secretary geithner this economyle for is just a gross -- it's just irresponsible. dennis, you have to explain why this is the worst recovery from a recession since depression. it's not worse -- guest: because -- guest: it's not worse than the reagan years. worse. guest: i don't get as offended as the caller, but one of the the best ways to have a t