Drexel and PHENND Host the 4th Annual Service Leaders Summit

Keynote speaker, Catie Wolfgang, the Chief Service Officer for Philadelphia, inspired students to become involved in service on the city-wide level. Students from area colleges attended along with City Year Corps members and local non-profit leaders. I followed the students who went to sessions that were focused on education issues in Philadelphia.

The first session focused on education issues and student organizing was facilitated by Temple’s Project EDU (Education for the Development of Unity). All attendees to this session were AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) tutors, who work in public middle schools that are part of the GEAR UP (college readiness) program run by the School District of Philadelphia. (PHENND helps match college student AVID tutors with participating schools.)  In this session students learned the best ways to promote the work that they do and how to expand it on their campuses. Project EDU is unique in that it is a conglomerate of several “education” focused student-led groups on Temple’s campus. They encompass groups that allow for short- and long-term commitments and that do both direct and indirect service. One of the biggest issues raised in this session was how to get volunteers to commit their time on a consistent basis while still allowing for flexible programs that take in to account the inevitability of “unreliable” volunteers and busy college students. They also helped student leaders understand how to make their program or project “stand out” against the many volunteer opportunities available on college campuses.

(“Organizing College Students and Making Connections for Service”)
The second session focused on education was run by PhillyGoes2College, an initiative of the Mayor’s Office of Education, which focuses on college attainment through city-wide FAFSA workshops, college essay writing workshops and training adults who mentor youth. These trainings help caring adults become “Graduation Coaches.” Through this training they gain the knowledge and tools they need to help young people prepare for college. In this session students explored their own paths to college and gave concrete feedback regarding the gaps in their own education about financial aid, scholarships, and in selecting a school that caters directly to a potential career path.

“Presenting at the Service Leadership Conference at Drexel University this past weekend was a wonderful opportunity for two of the college students we work with, Akilah Abdul-Rahman (Bryn Mawr College) and Jessie Spellman (University of Pennsylvania), to share their experiences, and for us to hear about the great work other students are engaged in.  Our workshop was attended by a wide range of individuals including college access professionals, college students, City Year members, and high school seniors from Parkway West who are involved in the AVID tutoring program at a nearby middle school. This great mix of people allowed us to have a productive conversation about the supports students need when they are applying to college. Everyone had great points to contribute and it was particularly helpful to hear the perspective of the students from Parkway West, who are both in the midst of the college application process themselves and acting as tutors for younger students.”  -Shandra Bernath-Plaisted

The last education-focused session of the day was a reflection session that centered around service-learning courses that work in Philadelphia schools generally and the AVID tutoring program specifically. This session allowed tutors from different colleges, and who serve in different neighborhoods around Philadelphia to discuss the challenges and successes of the program as they experienced it. Students from Bryn Mawr College and Parkway West High School co-facilitated the discussion. This session highlighted how essential it is for students participating in service-learning courses to have time to reflect and to also have time to work out solutions to persistent issues such as creating long-term projects despite a short-term commitment (one semester) and generating student investment in the project if they are required to participate for a grade.