The Netter Center for Community Partnerships helps high school students from West Philadelphia develop their strengths and interests through Leaders of Change, a University-Assisted Community Schools program.
Fifteen-year old Maya Threndgil (far left) and fifteen-year old Shayla Fleming (far right) make bruschetta, while eighteen-year old Indera Guiton (middle) searches for ingredients for her salmon patties. Photo: Eric Sucar
By sharing its model of hands-on nutrition blended with healthy cooking lessons, AUNI’s cooking crews promote nutritional awareness across the community.
Eighteen-year old Indera Guiton mixes ingredients for her salmon patties. Photo: Eric Sucar
High school students from West Philadelphia share healthy-cooking tips and free samples during the Leaders of Change program’s 2018 Summer Culminating Fair.
AUNI’s cooking crews promote nutrition through healthy cooking lessons.
This summer, the high school students used a problem-based approach to meet their goals of increasing healthier food consumption in West Philadelphia.
Through the Netter Center, students also participated in summertime internships with local businesses and Penn vendors, developing essential skills while gaining on the job experience.
Sixteen-year old Jadah Arthur presents her ‘Mindfulness’ project. Photo: Eric Sucar
The culminating fair, held Wednesday, Aug. 8, also featured many other programs that fall under the Leaders of Change umbrella, including:
The garden crews, who planned, maintained and harvested the gardens located at Sayre and Robeson High schools, while exploring the complexities of growing organic produce in an urban setting.
Rebel Ventures, a youth-driven, nonprofit social enterprise, where youngsters learned about public health and entrepreneurship by running a food business.
Health Pipeline, through which Penn’s Master of Public Health students and faculty helped program participants learn about how their field keeps communities healthy by preventing chronic and infectious diseases, as well as reducing health disparities. The second half of the program introduces high school students to public health as a career field by providing hands-on learning, and fieldwork experiences that promote public health through data collection and analysis.
Through the Leaders of Change program, high school students conducted research regarding challenges facing the West Philadelphia community and presented their findings during the 2018 Summer Culminating Fair.
Additional programs run through the Netter Center include College Bridge, which helps graduating seniors make a successful transition to college; cross-grade literacy, which pairs Sayre High School students in grades K-through-3 to mentor them and build their literacy skills; cross-grade sports, which provides high school students the ability to develop the skills needed to pursue a career in sports and recreation; Gear Up Summer, which empowers youth to recognize themselves as agents of change in their communities; and the MAKUU Summer Impact, which helps students gain a firmer grasp of the college-admissions process.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
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