Sayre High School

So, I feel like I should fill you in on something that I feel great about.

One of the courses I'm taking this semester is URBS-178, Urban-University Community Relations. I originally signed up for it to fulfill a requirement for the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, which I am in. It's an academic-based community service (ABCS) course, which means we tie in our studies with community service (as the term implies!). Mostly, we are studying Penn's relationship with the West Philly community...

We volunteer in three shifts at Sayre High School, an urban high school located in a very dangerous neighborhood, with poor funding, with half of its teachers apathetic to the students' performance in class, and a school environment that is also not conducive to performing well in school (or going to college for that matter). In other words, it's your typical public urban school (but it's better than some others in the area).

My mentoring group of four goes from 3-4:30 on Tuesdays, with a program coordinator. Our goal is to get kids ready for college, to tutor them, to offer them guidance. And they really need it. But there is a wide variance in socioeconomic status and academic performance as well... for example, one junior the other day didn't know how to type, whereas a freshman had a computer at home. Many of them see college as a distant idea - not a reality.

And whereas the Monday and Thursday groups get kids who WANT to be there at the College Readiness Program, we get the kids who are forced to be there by their football/cheerleading/dancing coaches. They don't want to be there. So the kids, when we introduced ourselves and did stuff as a large group, were very uncooperative. When asked to go around in a circle and introduce themselves, many would mumble their replies, talk amongst themselves instead, etc. Difficult.

But today we (the mentors) were grouped with 5-6 students, of all grade levels. My group consisted of five girls - Shanae, Channell, Kenya, Ashley, and Jessica - two freshmen, two sophomores, and a senior. We basically talked for the 25 minutes we had left, asking where they were from, what they wanted to do after high school, what subjects they needed help with, etc. On a personal level, they are so much more cooperative! The time went by really quickly, but I definitely left feeling awesome. Kids who hadn't shown ANY interest as a large group finally spoke up about what they wanted. It was really amazing.

That being said, I was left reminded of the fact that there are more important things than just doing work and being concerned with your own well-being... I'm already planning out what my group will do next week. Maybe I'll show them the Penn campus?

Anyhow, I've got a dinner with my dorm in five minutes... we have a guest speaker by the name of Kalpen Suresh Modi. He's a guest professor this semester in Asian-American studies. Here's a picture (he's on the left):



For those of you who don't know (apparently 100% of you), his colloquial name is Kal Penn. He's appeared on House (as shown), 24, and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, among others. Cool. Dinner and a celebrity-professor beckon.