Hey everyone!
I hope you are enjoying your summer and are taking a well deserved break from the daily hustle and bustle of a college student.

PHENND is launching a pilot blog this summer targeted for College students who are interested and devoted to helping Philadelphia public school students succeed. The blog will include, updates on what is going on with the District, fun summer activities, professional tips for future internships, events regarding learning/kids/education, and volunteer opportunities. We hope to in the future include feedback and experiences of young adults working in Philadelphia Schools.

My name is Aine Sheehan, I am a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College majoring in Political Science. I am interested in college access initiatives and learning how K-12 students benefit from strong relationships with college students through service learning, volunteering, and mentoring. I am interning with PHENND this summer and will be the one responsible for this project. I will be asking for  feedback and contributions from young people in each post. Our goal is that eventually this becomes a collaborative effort and develop a strong following of students who are active volunteers and forces in Philadelphia schools.

Thank you and have a fun summer! (See the end of the post for other activities and events!)

Future Superintendents for Philadelphia?

Philadelphia’s two finalists for superintendent answered questions earlier this week from community members about what they hope to achieve if hired by the School Reform Commission. Both events were open to the public and held at 440 Broad Street.

I was interested in learning more about the superintendent search because I believe it gives a good glimpse of  what I am learning to be the complex system of Philadelphia education. I also thought students who work in Philadelphia schools might be interested in learning more about who might be making the decisions about the schools they work in during the school year.

Check out the information below. As young people working in Philly schools, I would like to know what you think about these candidates, and how you think they will impact the schools you work with on a day-to-day basis? Can they handle the needs of Philadelphia?

The Candidates

I could not attend the forums in person, but they were streamed live through a Ustream channel set up by the District and broadcast on PS-TV, making the process accessible to people interested who could not attend. The candidates in question are Pedro Martinez of Clark County, Nevada (which includes Las Vegas)  and William Hite of Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Pedro Martinez is currently the deputy superintendent of Clark County, home to 311,000 students. He has no previous teaching experience and comes from an accounting background. He is 42 years old,  was born in Mexico, grew up in Chicago, and is the first in his family to graduate high school. He worked under now U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Chicago as the Chief Financial officer of Chicago Public Schools and  dealt with budget deficits said to be caused by lack of state support, as reported by The Inquirer. Martinez is also up for superintendent in Washoe County, Nevada (Reno).

Part of his platform as deputy superintendent in Clark County, Martinez led a reorganization plan grouping schools into performance zones, including an “autonomous zone” for  high performing schools and a “turnaround zone” for consistently low performing schools. He also focused on increasing graduation rates and worked on improving student achievement rates through introducing Common Core Standards district wide and tracking student improvement through programs like the Nevada Growth Model.

During the questioning , Martinez answered all the questions he was allotted, going over the 8:30 suggested end time by about 20 minutes. He stressed his dedication to work with families and the community in order to give students the education they deserve. He mentioned trying to implement a tracking system for students to measure their progress throughout their school career (like the one on Nevada) so that teachers know where students should be academically and parents can check their child’s progress compared to other students in the same grade.

He stresses that whatever plan comes forth for the district if he is hired will be his and the SRC’s plan, saying “It is not his or their plan but our plan”.  Martinez is not worried about the $300 million budget deficit in Philadelphia, having faced similar shortfalls when working in Chicago and Nevada.

He countered accusations of not having a teacher background by saying that as deputy superintendent in Clark county he has been in hundreds of schools and thousands of classrooms and has talked to principals and teachers on numerous occasions about what they think works best.

The second person up for the position is William Hite, who is the current Superintendent of Prince George’s County Maryland and serves 135,000 students. Hite has been in Prince George’s County since 2006, when he was hired as deputy superintendent and has held the position of Superintendent since 2009. As deputy superintendent, he oversaw district reorganization plans that decentralized resources to regional school zones to reduce costs and give more autonomy to high performing schools. As superintendent, he focused on strengthening the principal leadership pipeline, oversaw the implementation or the district’s pay-for-performance program, and on the school level extended the school day for middle schools and reorganized the structure of high schools for best performance. He is 52 years old, has a twitter account, and is a father of two children.

Hite has a background as an educator and has served as either a deputy superintendent or superintendent for the last six years. Prince George’s County, where he is currently superintendent, is a high poverty suburb of Washington D.C. and is showing a fair amount of success for a system that still needs improvement.

He is focused on starting a “listening campaign” in order to engage families students, and the community in seeing the changes they want in their schools. He commented on all the plans that the district has put forth saying, “they all seem sort of disconnected”  and he would hope to change that problem, wanting to come up with a plan that will unify all those plans.

Both candidates seem to be inline with the current plans for reorganization put forth by Penny Nixon to decentralize the district and give principals in schools performing well more autonomy over their schools. Nixon’s plan also calls for Principal Leadership Team system in order  to get Principals from a variety of different Philadelphia Schools(k-12) together and find solutions to problems in their schools. There is also an emphasis on creating partnerships with other community organizations, which some schools have already in place. The two candidates seem to have experience in decentralization and creating systems where high performing schools are rewarded for their performance.

Interpreting the Candidates
I’m not sure what to think about Martinez yet. He seems to have all the right answers, bringing it back to the “children” and family support. But I wasn’t fully convinced . His answers seemed kind of lofty and full of rhetoric, not showing solid solutions and plans that he could enact. Community members asked questions about specifics, but he didn’t give them. Maybe this is just the “political game” he has to play to get the job, but it  seems like I see the same kind of talk in all kinds of town hall like settings, as seen in political debates large and small.

I will give him credit on keeping calm and giving everyone who asked a question the respect and poise they deserved. He held his own in that room, no matter what his answers were.

I wasn’t able to watch the live stream of community members asking Hite questions, so I am forming my reaction from articles and radio broadcasts that I heard the day after the event.

Hite  seems to be very much loved by Prince George’s County, with Prince George’s County Education Association releasing a statement about how they would be disappointed if he left. There seems to be a disconnect between his success in Maryland and his possible future in Philadelphia. He seems to have a good support team where he is currently, and is able to get things done. It seems odd, to me, that he would leave a district where success looks to be possible, and start all over again in Philadelphia.

The question I have is if these candidates, if they are appointed, going to actually be proponents for real reform in Philadelphia and demand results that matter?

With Philadelphia’s turbulent history of unsuccessful superintendents, the odds are stacked against whoever is chosen to run the District, if only because everyone watching in Philadelphia is watching this process waiting for the next shoe to drop, and questioning every move the future superintendent makes.

Learned Out? Relax at One of These Events!

Super Scooper All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Festival

When? Sun, July 1, 12pm – 5pm

Where? Walnut West Parking Lot, at Columbus Blvd. and Walnut Street (map)

Description: All. You. Can. Eat. Ice. Cream. We could go on, but we think we’ve made our point.  $7 (proceeds go to Joshua Kahan Fund, fighting to cure pediatric cancer.)
Visit the website for complete event details.

Mural Arts Paint Day

When? Tue, July 3, 2pm – 5pm

Where? Independence Mall at Independence National Historical Park (map)

Description: Join the Mural Arts crew and help them paint the newest addition to the city’s mural collections- a design honoring ever sassy and fabulous local superstars The Roots.
FREE
Visit the website for complete event details.

Party on the Parkway and 4th of July Jam

When? Wed, July 4, 12pm – 11pm

Where? Benjamin Franklin Parkway (map)

Description: Celebrate the 4th of July in America’s most historic city, with blocks and blocks of exciting and educational activities, games, entertainment and food for the whole family, followed by “the Largest Free Concert in America” with music from The Roots, Joe Jonas, Queen Latifah, and more. And then when you think there couldn’t possibly be any  more coming, the fireworks start.
Visit the website for complete event details

Philly Roller Girls Roller Derby Double Header

When? Wed, July 11, 6:00pm – 9:30pm

Where? The Liacouras Center (map)

Description? Re-live the days of “Whip It” with local roller derby team Philly Roller Girls and watch as the Philthy Britches challenge the Heavy Metal Hookers (these are legitimate, we swear). Expect a lot of girl power.
$10 Gen. Admission
Visit the website for complete event details

The writing of other students will also be a regular feature in Aine’s (Bryn Mawr, 2015) posts as well as the K-16 Newsletter on a regular basis.

*Karla (LaSalle, 2015) is in the back corner, helping Ciera Boyce (West Chester, 2015) and Alex McNeil (Temple, 2012) to facilitate a discussion on diversity in college for Next Steps with students from Lincoln and Fels high schools.

Once Upon a Time I Lost a Dream

By Karla Delgado

There have been many difficult situations in my life. However, the most difficult decision I ever had to make was giving up my dream school due to financial difficulties. I was a queen and had finally found my castle, Arcadia University, but my reign would be short-lived. I was dethroned very soon.

I remember the day I got accepted to my dream school. I could not believe it. It felt like all the hard work I had put in for two whole years had finally paid off. After working so hard for months I received the letter stating that I was accepted to the Gateway program at my dream school. I cried and smiled. No one could have been happier than I was.

Part of my pride and happiness came because no one had believed in me. I clearly remember when I told my counselor that I was finally in. She gave me a nasty look and asked if I was sure. I replied that I was sure and showed her the letter. Her next remark was, “How are you going to pay for it?” I did not know what to do so I applied for a Sallie Mae loan. I did not care if I was going to be in debt for years, I was going to Arcadia University.

When another useless counselor asked me about Arcadia University and I mentioned the loan I was hoping to get from Sallie Mae he told me those were the worst people to ask for money. I looked at him in shock, after not helping me he criticized me.  How in the world was I supposed to know that? I thought I was in for sure and now money was all everyone was talking about.

After about two months, I had my final visit to Arcadia University. My mother and sister were there, they were so pleased with my choice. It was during my financial aid consultation that my dream came crashing down. What I was likely to get as financial aid was twenty thousand dollars. The school would cost about forty-five thousand dollars, including room and board. So my mom started crying because at that moment she knew we had no way to afford that and they would never get a loan for that much money approved. I tried to take it well but I felt like giving up.

After a time of deep thought I thought I was going to give up for sure, but one of the few excellent teachers I still had helped me. I was told that La Salle University could take me. La Salle being a private school, just like I wanted, seemed good. It was when I discovered the BUSCA program that I realized the only way I was going to afford La Salle was through it.

I still think about Arcadia University, but my mother always says that things happen for a reason. Maybe as hard as it might be I was never meant to be at my dream school. I feel like my place is at La Salle and I know I will do great things. The most valuable lesson I got from this horrible experience was to never give up. Even if the odds are against you go for it and dream. There are many twists and turns but I know that dreams do come true.

Q&A with Karla

Q: What are the qualities of the teachers and adult mentors that helped you with this process?  What work did you do to build those relationships?

A: The teachers and mentors who helped me through the process were very dedicated individuals, who would go above and beyond for their students. These teachers often had similar stories to mine and knew how important having support is. To these teachers I was much more than another student. I was a friend, and often they would see me as one of their children. They could see that excitement I had whenever I talked about college and they knew I had no way to make it happen if I was alone.

One of the most supportive teachers I had was my American history teacher. He shared his higher education story with me. Once he revealed to me that he was from the Kensington neighborhood, I felt a spark of hope. Not only was he from the neighborhood, he attended community college for two years but then attended Temple University where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in education and history. Today, he lives with his wife and son in a beautiful home in New Jersey. I will always remember when he told me that with education I will make my dreams come true, and leave the neighborhood just like he did. It is words like that which make students keep going.

Q: After making it through your freshman year of college, what is one goal you have for your next year of college?

A: After making it through my freshman year at La Salle University, being in the Dean’s list and sharing my passion for writing with others my goals for next year are to do even better. I want to get over a lot of my insecurities such as mathematics and public speaking, and expose my true potential. I want to learn as much as possible in all of my classes, because to be a great teacher one must be an amazing student.

Q: Would you recommend that high school and college students do service opportunities? Why?

A: I would highly recommend high school and college students to get involved in service opportunities. I can assure that anyone who is involved in service opportunities is bound to learn about themselves. I learned a lot about myself during my time at Marin being an AVID tutor. Most importantly, I learned that when someone similar to you tells you their story, you will listen. I told my students at Marin that they should never let anyone limit their options or tell them their dreams are not possible, and maybe at the time it did not make absolute sense but one day it will. Working with them made me realize how crucial having that circle of support from teachers and mentors really was, and continues to be. The biggest lesson I learned this past year was that, it does not matter where you are from what does matter is where you are going.

]]> https://phennd.org/update/rising-sons-an-interview-with-founder-alex-peay/ Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:41:02 +0000 http://updates.phennd.org/?p=20005 By Alex Peay and Liz Shriver

Rising Sons is a growing nonprofit based in Philadelphia that focuses on the development of underprivileged young men ages 18-28 to become highly qualified for competitive jobs at young ages through personal and professional development as they give back to their communities through civic engagement.

Rising Sons began on February 12th, 2007 as a small discussion group within the Black and Latino male population on the campus of Ursinus College.   It was created to address the lack of support and unity among underprivileged minorities at Ursinus College.   The intention was to build leaders, begin an open sense of community, promote “brotherhood”, enhance social and professional skills and expound upon one’s perspective of self-worth and capability. We pursued community service, campus events, fundraisers, and collective academic success as means of supporting each other and affecting our environment in ways that favored our needs and desires.

As the group began to develop and acquire more members, the focus also began to change. The members saw the potential of the group to be a positive force in the community and began to develop outreach programs such as feeding the homeless in Center City, Philadelphia, clothing and canned food drives, and sponsoring a holiday extravaganza for young children residing in nearby impoverished neighborhoods.” http://www.risingsons.org/about/history

Since this original project, Rising Sons has moved to a civic engagement model that focuses primarily on developing the leadership and career readiness skills of the young people they work with.I interviewed Alex Peay to learn more about the development of this project and the potential for other university students to become involved.

Q: What was the catalyst for starting Rising Sons at Ursinus?

A: Before the creation of Rising Sons, my dream was to become a corporate attorney. After a racial incident on campus which targeted minority students, Alex gathered a few minority male students to spark discussions and the creation of a group on campus to address these issues. Involvement with civic engagement and volunteering was a initial component. Originally we started an event called “Get Fresh Fridays” where we would dress up and eat dinner together, hold canned and cloth drives, volunteered with homeless people in Center City and called the program Rising Sons. Then, I started thinking, “What could happen if we brought Rising Sons to Philadelphia [K-12] students”. I decided to do City Year instead of Law School. So we started to do Rising Sons through various of community organizations and public schools to begin our work with youth and word of mouth.

Q: What are the different components of Rising Sons and how have you expanded in Philadelphia?

A: We do community service as an organization, we do school based projects, we hold fundraisers and outreach initiatives in schools and community organizations. We moved Rising Sons to Philadelphia because I had an internship with Senator Casey and because we had connections and support in the city government. I just started networking and building.  A lot of our members are from City Year so they work in after-school programs and they have helped develop a mentorship program. In after-school we focus on sports, mentorship, computer technology and performing arts.

We are currently partnered with Andrew Jackson Elementary School, Overbrook High School, South Philly High school, Edison High School and the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology (PCAT). At PCAT we hold our performance arts group. That space is great because of the resources they have. This year we have five members working at PCAT on music production in their studio.

Q: Why did you decide to target K-12 students instead of focusing on college students?

A: We realized how much mentorship and having these discussions meant to us in college and that this could have a huge impact on younger students and on young men who did not attend college. Now our mission is to prepare young men for professional fields and to ensure that these men are highly qualified for professional jobs.

Our membership consists of: College students, recent graduates and young men interested in college who are out of school. Our members serve younger students and through this framework of civic engagement and leadership our members gain skills through civic engagement. For example we gave one of our members the job of running a technology program at Edison high school. He, in turn, was able to obtain a position at Boys and Girls club as an IT specialist.

So it’s an alternative model of consistent professional development for young men age 18 to 28. Each member is able to be a mentor as well as receive guidance and mentorship themselves.  The biggest thing is having our older members take on roles as managers.  We have a team that manages volunteers and that gives them strong experiences.  All of the projects we do build skills that they can use in the future and take ownership over new ideas.

Q: What feedback have you received so far from students, parents and teachers?

A: We finished our after-school program last week and the students were not happy. We’re going to be working with our group on the weekends throughout the summer. Parents and teachers and principals have all been really all so happy about this project.

We use our own curriculum and build from our own experiences. Our basic model is that each month we’re going to address a certain issue. And after discussion then we’ll put together a service-project that will address the issue.

Q: What are your goals and next steps for Rising Sons?

A: My goal is to gain more exposure, to do more networking events.  We’re building a relationship with Drexel now with the school of health, which is stationed on 15th and Vine and is part of their student success center and we’re going to do a program called Co-Rise.

I don’t remember what this is: Co-rise allows college students to gain experience in potential careers of their interests through our organization. This program allows college students to work in our administration, running after school programs. volunteer in our community service projects, and or help promote togetherness on their campus through our on-campus model.

Learn more at: http://www.risingsons.org/

The K-16 Partnerships Network has been running regularly since January, 2011. In our second annual conference we strove to review the work accomplished, set new goals for the upcoming year and provide participants with new, relevant information to their work.

This year’s participants included non-profits in many different social service and college access arenas, college and university faculty, college and university staff, college students, school district personnel, teachers and high school students. There were many highlights on both days.

The K-16 Partnerships Network looks forward to working hard in the upcoming year to continue to build strong, mutually beneficial partnerships for schools and university partners. If you would like to sign up directly for a committee and haven’t done so yet, please do so here: K-16 Network Directory

Wednesday June 6^th

Wednesday featured our keynote speaker, Mr. Nick Torres, who brought up critical issues and information regarding college attainment for low-income and first generation students. He informed the audience about the development of the I-Lead program and how IHEs may participate in low-residency higher education programs.

In the session Creating K-16 Pipelines to Job in Philadelphia, excellent information was provided to participants regarding school-industry partnerships. Each presenter reviewed their respective programs and how they are working to improve connections between high schools and future employers in various fields.

Presenters included: Alyssa Cherkin, Director of the Deloitte Education Collaborative at Deloitte Services LP and member of the Greater Philadelphia Corporate Volunteer Council, Alison Acevido, Health Academies ER Project Coordinator and Dr. Michael Daley, Founder and coordinator of SYSTEMS Program in New Hope-Solesbury High School.

In the session Benefits of Alternative Fieldwork Placements for Education Majors, information on how to partner with pre-service teachers from a non-profit and school perspective was presented by seasoned service-learning and community partnership professionals.

Presenters included: Janice Steinberg, K-12 service-learning specialist, Alex McNeil, founder of Temple Project EDU, Alex Keene, AVID tutor leader and English teacher, Dr. Joyce Munroe, Associate Dean of the College of Education at West Chester University and Cindy Bellivou, Assistant professor in Psychological Studies in Education and long-time service-learning practitioner.

Additionally, action planning sessions for each committee in the K-16 Network yielded very exciting ideas to help each group move forward with new projects or continue to build on current ones.

Structure of the K-16 Partnerships Network

The K-16 Partnerships Network includes the College Access Committee, the Service-learning Committee, the Non-profit Partnerships Committee and affiliated group the Teacher Education Alliance. Each group works on unique projects throughout the year. The Network as a whole meets at least three times a year to address issues of overarching concern in partnering with Philadelphia schools.

Current Committee Projects include

College Access Committee

Mission: To collaborate between nonprofits, high schools, and colleges to think critically about “gaps” and needs in college access programming from a university-school partnerships perspective.

Actions: Creation of “Next Steps” to address the “summer gap” between high school and college. In May, college students from Philadelphia facilitated self-designed workshops for high school students from Lincoln, Fels and Sayre high schools about college life and were able to connect with students going to their schools in the fall.

Goals for 2012-2013: Continue to serve high school students and college students through Next Steps. Continue to build youth leadership and investment from college students and collaboration with on-campus offices (such as admissions and multicultural affairs) in college access work.

Non-Profit Partnerships Committee

Mission: Outlining where non-profits fit in with School and University partnerships and how to work as intermediaries for training and support.

Actions taken: Surveyed non-profits to see how they engage and support college students. Hosted K-16 Spring Forum featuring three panel sessions on nonprofit-university-school partnerships.

Goals for 2012-2013: Achieve stronger commitment from college students at organizations, create new training and support for college students working in schools and form unique, mutually beneficial partnerships. Identifying how non-profits fit in the K-16 Continuum, breaking down silos within universities, creating a “one stop shop” for information for non-profit partners, avoiding duplication of services, creating structures and procedures for schools to help us sustain partnerships.

Service-Learning Committee

Mission:  To provide training and technical assistance about service-learning for both K-12 schools and colleges and universities, with particular emphasis on how IHEs can do service-learning with schools as beneficiaries, as well as how IHEs can support K-12 service-learning.

Actions:  Two films were created, one with the Temple University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia (UCCP) and one with St. Josephs University student’s partnerships with schools.

Goals for 2012-2013: To continue filming more partnerships to focus on different training areas for service-learning professors who send students to Philadelphia schools. Bringing a speaker in the Fall that focuses on university or K-12 service-learning. Offer service-learning training to teachers in the District: Covering the “hot topics” in this arena, especially related to how service-learning can connect to core content.

Teacher Education Alliance

Mission: Providing a coherent and collaborative student teacher model for colleges and universities so that they can effectively learn and contribute to the school they are teaching in. To carry out best practices in developing teachers and institutions to support and thrive in Philadelphia schools.

Actions: Developed a proposal with Penny Nixon and Lori Shorr to do a pilot project which includes five institutions who will partner with five K-12 schools. Each institution that has education majors and pre-service teachers in these partner schools will work do develop closer institutional relationships with the schools and to share resources between teacher education programs.

For example: These partnerships will provide professional development for administrators (K-12 and Higher Ed), teachers and students. This network of institutions will support professional learning communities for each tier. TEA meetings have had representation from most Teacher Ed programs in the region. Meetings are to held share what the policies and procedures are across institutions, to increase information sharing and to work on collaborative projects.

Goals for 2012-2013: To continue to build strong relationships with the School District and represent all teacher education programs in the region that serve SDP.

*Contact Peshe Kurlioff (kuriloff@temple.edu) at Temple University for more information.

Thursday June 7th

On Thursday our youth leadership panel, which consisted of high-school students from Parkway Northwest Peace and Social Justice High School as well as two students from the College Access Committee brought energy and ideas to all attendees. This helped attendees to conclude the day with discussions of what our true potential as partners of public schools can be.

In the session How to Influence Service-Learning Statewide participants learned how to advocate for K-12 service-learning curriculum through the Pennsylvania Service Learning Alliance (PSLA). The PSLA provides training and technical support for teachers and administrators and advocates on the state level. The PSLA advocates for increased implementation of service-learning at K-12 schools in Pennsylvania. You can join here or go to the PSLA Website to begin receiving newsletters regarding opportunities and information on service-learning in Pennsylvania. Presenters Included: Hillary Kane, Director of PHENND and Karen Kaskey, Director of PenSERVE in the Governor’s Office of Citizen Service

In the session Youth Leadership and Service-Learning in K-12 members of the Parkway Northwest Youth Leadership Team spoke with participants regarding how and why to engage high-school students in service-learning and the importance of having a school-based center focused on community partnerships. The Student Community Development Center (SCDC) helps students help themselves connect to service and enrichment opportunities. Through the SCDC students connect to work that is local and global. For example, one member worked on a service-learning project with about human trafficking in The Sudan while another focused on why participating in sports can help students focus academically in Philadelphia.

Service-learning at Parkway Northwest is both in school and out of school. Student must complete 60 hours of service and enrichment during their four years. The center connects with local organizations in all different interest areas. The community is very willing to get involved with Parkway because of the attitude of the school. Students suggested that in service-learning, “Show don’t tell” and stated:

· If you put these programs in schools students will become more worldly, they’ll become more involved and they’ll want to learn.

· If you find something that a student is interested in (for example) gardening, then you can get them to build a community garden! (translate any interest in to a service-learning project) That way they are doing something that they want to do and they’ll also be doing service.

Presenters Included: Parkway Northwest Peace and Social Justice High School Leadership Team: Darious Hurst-Rodney, Anfernee Williams, Tennin Sissoko and Stephanie Strokis (coordinator) (Check out their 2011 year end review to get a better understanding of the variety of project Parkway students accomplish.)

The Youth Leadership Panel highlighted key issues and methods for addressing student engagement, how adult can increase participation and the reasons that they and other students have become leaders at their schools and in the city of Philadelphia. Presenters included college students, recent graduates and high school students who all participated in numerous leadership, service and civic engagement programs.  This session focused on the importance for peer education and that education reform can be youth led. Presenters included: Shandal Gibson, Penn State Schuylkill Zuri Stone, West Chester University, Darious Hurst-Rodney and Anfernee Williams, Parkway Northwest High School, Akilah Abdul-Rhaman, Bryn Mawr College.

Q&A Highlights
Q: What are the causes of major issues in the city?
A:  We need to focus on ethics not money. Budgets cuts are a question of ethics. Stop funding jails and start funding schools.

Q: What does a good leader look like?
A: If you can sing you can join the choir.
You have to get connected to more than one issue. I am focused now on learning about other issues that affect education such as homelessness. None of these issues are independent, we have to address everything and all of what we’re doing is part of the answer.

Q: How can adults help unleash potential?
A: When I am coming to a program or activity, most of the time what I need is someone to talk to me. Regardless of what you’re doing what budgets have been cut, stop and listen and find a solution and a way to work with me.

Q: What makes a successful service program?
A: Getting critical mass so that students feel its “okay to join”, Philadelphia is a city full of colleges. If you can frame the work you do as “social justice” then students will want to be a part of it.

We concluded the Institute by discussing proposed School District reform plans and setting goals for the entire Network based on that information.

Our goals included:

• Help create/maintain more avenues for universities to share a variety resources with K-12 schools.
• Clarify our role and that of other networks in enacting/building/strengthening partnerships with Philadelphia schools.
• Work to understand how we can address service/program gaps within Philadelphia schools for 2012-2013 (and beyond).
• Develop/maintain relationships with District and (increasingly) charter school administrators.
• Hold meetings that are “friendly” (time and location) for teachers.
• Continue large-scale events for collaboration and information exchange.
• Continue to build clear action plans for each committee.
• Serve as a collective voice for school-university partnerships.