PHENND welcomes a new cohort of AmeriCorps VISTAs

Posted by on August 31, 2017

By Caitlin Fritz

The summer here at PHENND never seems to slow down, as we have been busy onboarding a new cohort of AmeriCorps VISTAs as School Community Partnerships Coordinators for the 2017-18 school year. Our VISTAs work to improve and expand the infrastructure for community partnerships, both at the local school level and across the School District of Philadelphia. Sixteen VISTAs are placed in 16 Philadelphia schools, while four more are placed in offices at the School District central administration. This year’s cohort comes from around the country, hailing from states such as Virginia, California, and Kansas. However, we have a significant number of native Philadelphians as well. To learn more about our new group of VISTAs you can read their biographies here: https://phennd.org/about/staff/

We still have one open position for this upcoming school year at the John Hancock Demonstration Middle School – General J. Harry LaBrum Campus in Northeast Philadelphia. https://phennd.org/update/vista-school-community-partnership-coordinators/

Saying hello to a new cohort of VISTAs also means saying goodbye to our outgoing VISTAs. While some will be continuing with a second year of service, many will be moving on to the next steps in their education or careers. Some will begin graduate or medical school this fall, while others are taking positions at local nonprofits. Two of our outgoing VISTAs are moving to the new position of Assistant Program Coordinator for Community Partnerships. This position, new in the School District of Philadelphia, is an exciting development in the sustainability of PHENND’s work and is a product of the hard work of the district’s Office of Strategic Partnerships. We wish all of our outgoing VISTAs the best in their next endeavors.