Teaching creative Philadelphia youth career and entrepreneurship skills
As a volunteer with the nonprofit after-school program Project 440, Meryl Krieger, a senior learning designer for the College of Liberal & Professional Studies, helps artistically minded high school students with life skills.
2 min. read
Meryl Krieger mentors high school students as part of her volunteering with the Philadelphia nonprofit Project 440.
When she moved to Philadelphia seven years ago for the job at Penn, there was another itch she needed to scratch: working with kids. Krieger, who holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, had been a piano and clarinet teacher for more than 20 years, and she had volunteered on and off for years at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a camp and boarding school in Michigan.
A Penn colleague soon connected her with Project 440, a Philadelphia nonprofit that teaches entrepreneurial and leadership skills along with career and life skills to high school students interested in the arts in particular music. She joined the board more than six years ago and also served as secretary for four years.
Krieger has been particularly active on the strategic planning committee for Project 440, helping to rethink the day-to-day operations of the organization. The committee was instrumental in the guiding the organization through the launch of two core youth development programs and navigating a period of growth during the COVID pandemic. Through Project 440, students have gotten involved in advocacy and started music education, performing, and community service nonprofits thanks to the skills they have learned, she says.
The program runs project-based after-school classes in cohorts that build a sense of community and culminate in a graduation at the end of each session. For example, cohorts of Project 440 youth have introduced elementary school kids to music from different cultures, provided free music lessons to lower-income students, and moderated discussions for high school students on mental health, featuring performers and music therapists. Krieger and other board members have also mentored students on such projects.
Krieger says helping high school students develop projects that showcase their personal growth and development is similar to what she does at Penn. In both Project 440 and LPS, she says, “This is about real people who want to take a next step in their life, whatever it’s going to look like.”
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