Anchor's speech pushes service

John Quinones, an ABC news anchor who grew up in San Antonio, stressed the importance of people engaging their communities and lending a helping hand to others at a book signing Wednesday.

Quinones, who has worked for ABC since 1982, was invited to Austin by the Texas Campus Contact, a nonprofit organization that promotes civic service in higher education.

Quinones, who said he can relate to the struggles of underprivileged youths, told a crowd of 20 that civic engagement increases the overall chance for success.

Katie Hardgrove, the AmeriCorps Vista leader for the nonprofit, said the organization works toward getting more minorities into higher learning institutions and successfully completing their educations.

“We are closing the gaps between higher education inequity,” Hardgrove said. “Quinones is an example of somebody who knows about service learning.”

The organization will host a gala Thursday featuring a silent auction, book signing, a dinner and a keynote speech delivered by Quinones. Money raised at the event will go to the nonprofit to further fund their service-learning programs.

Quinones, a New York-based journalist, works primarily as a correspondent for “Primetime” and “20/20.” Most recently, he has worked on an undercover series called “What Would You Do?” that tests human behavior by creating scenarios and filming people’s reactions with hidden cameras.

His book, “Heroes Among Us,” details what he saw while filming the series. He wrote about the people who did not help the actors who were seemingly in need and the few who became heroes, in his opinion, by lending a hand.

He cited an instance when his team hired an actor to dress as a homeless man and pass out in a pedestrian-heavy walkway in New York. More than 80 people passed by without offering help before a woman, homeless and partially blind, stopped and waited until the police were called. At this point, Quinones and his team came out and explained the show.

“We are showing a side of humanity you couldn’t see in normal circumstances,” he said.

Shernaz Garcia, an associate professor of education focusing on multicultural special education, said service programs share the ultimate goal of getting people involved in and more connected with their communities. She said many minority students lack motivation because they cannot connect their education to their own lives.

“Service is a way to link their community to what they are learning in school and what they are learning in life,” Garcia said. “It makes it more personally meaningful.”

Quinones said the lack of immediate response by bystanders in his show reveals the need for more civic engagement and service-learning education.

“Education, in my opinion, is the only way out of poverty,” Quinones said. “If I can make it to network television, anything is possible in this country.”

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