Presented by University of Pennsylvania, Paul Robeson High School, and William L. Sayre High
During this unprecedented period, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania has adapted its longstanding University-Assisted Community School (UACS) school-day, after school, and summer programs for virtual engagement. During summer 2020, for example, programming operated daily for 6 weeks for a total of 435 West Philadelphia students (142 K-8 students in virtual “summer camp”, 96 middle schoolers in career exploration, and 197 high school students in paid internships and service-learning placements). Sixty Penn students helped to operate and evaluate virtual summer programming; this included nine Penn students who were engaged in an immersive summer internship program and seminar, through which they developed community-based problem-solving learning research projects. This panel — which will include two Netter Center staff, a Penn student intern, a teacher and a high school student from the West Philadelphia community — will discuss how university-assisted community schools provide opportunities for innovative teaching and learning through K-16 partnerships, and how this work has been adapted to support remote service-learning and community-engaged scholarship during COVID-19. Panelists will also discuss how UACS work to support critical basic needs for students, particularly mental health support, at all times but especially times of crisis. Panelists will discuss lessons learned so far and reserve at least 20 minutes for questions and answers from the audience.