In December, Philadelphia School District calendars are peppered with things to know: choir concerts, class parties, pajama days. But for a few hundred students in West Philadelphia, Dec. 12 and 13 were reserved for after-school book parties organized by Community School Student Partnerships (CSSP).
Claire Keller, a third year from Summit, New Jersey majoring in cognitive science, is the program’s director of operations. She consulted with teachers about age-appropriate texts and purchased all the books for the parties.
Since Amazon couldn’t get the quantities the students needed in time, Keller hunted down volumes at the Penn Bookstore. “That part was a little bit of a chaotic process,” she says. “We bought out “Elephant and Piggie.” We bought out “Pete the Cat.” We bought out “Magic Treehouse.” We just want them to all have a book they are excited about.”
Emerie, 7, received a Mo Willems book, as did the rest of her first-grade cohort. “I know someone in this book!” she announced. Emerie flipped forward to a depiction of Pigeon, a bus-and-hot-dog-loving rapscallion featured in Willems’ earlier volumes. Emerie pointed to Pigeon; “I’m his friend,” she declared.
Emerie can read the book all by herself, but she likes reading with other people. When she stumbles over a word, she can ask for help.
The Community School Student Partnerships offers those extra helpers. Housed in the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the program is organized by a board of 10 Penn students who coordinate the placement of more than 120 fellow Penn student mentors across six university-assisted community schools in West Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea Elementary School, Andrew Hamilton School, Benjamin B. Comegys School, William L. Sayre High School, Paul Robeson High School, and West Philadelphia High School, where they are embedded both in the classroom and in after-school programs throughout the year.
“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Andrea Barajas, the program’s incoming co-director. Barajas, a third-year student from Los Angeles majoring in criminology and sociology, is excited about expanding the program. “I have so many great ideas about how we can expand our presence at different sites, how we can integrate more as a community,” she says.
Barajas finds the time spent in schools “very grounding” and adorns her fridge with the artwork students make for her. “I love working with kids,” she says. “I’m going to be someone who shows up for them.”
Katherine Taylor, a fourth-year neuroscience major from Baltimore, is the program’s outgoing co-director. She started volunteering with the Netter Center and found CSSP to be the perfect blend of mentoring and tutoring, she says, but she started mentoring students while still in high school.
Over the years, Taylor noticed a pattern, with teachers and mentors not only supporting her academically, but helping her develop as a person. Regardless of the issue, “having an older, more experienced figure sit down with me” was beneficial. She thinks that everyone needs that, feeling like someone’s there for you.
“If I can do that for somebody else, then why wouldn’t I?”
