CSSP - Community School Student Partnership

I joined the family ! I had read about the CSSP ( Community School Student Partnership) even before arriving here and I  am not disapointed about the additional information I now have.

From now on, on every Friday from 3 to 6 i'll be a after school mentor in a community school of West Philadelphia.

Community School Student Partnership offer to Penn students the opportunity of tutoring in community schools of West Philly where the rate of children able to read is disgracefully low. Students can volunteer or be work study in one of the programs (after school tutoring, reading initiative, recess program ...). 

Why "family"? Because CSSP tries to create this kind of atmosphere and to be full of positive energy. As a future mentor I went to training sessions to learn about the culture of the organization. It's basically about being positive (this includes chants, dances and vocabulary all staff member and children know and use to communicate with each other).

What is a comunity school ? 

According to a reliable source (i.e. wikipedia, hmm hmm) : 

(...) don't read everything unless you are very curious, the key concept is the idea of school as centers of community life. I guess you can identify it to a movement, its supporters do try to influence politics. 

"According to the Coalition for Community Schools, a branch of the Institute for Educational Leadership, a community school is "both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources" with an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, leadership, and community engagement. Community schools are generally public, i.e. government and tax-payer funded, though many private and charter schools have also adopted the model. One of the difficulties the movement has encountered is the sheer diversity of institutions claiming to be community schools. This, coupled with the decentralized structure of American education, has hampered efforts to quantify the number of community schools nationally extant.

The movement gained momentum in the Chicago area, where the Federation for Community Schools is working to disseminate the model throughout the public-school infrastructure. With the appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to the post of Secretary of Education, the concept of "schools as centers of community life" has become part of the national education agenda. Currently, many local, state, and national organizations seek the establishment of community schools throughout the country. Of these the most prominent non-profits are the Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools, Schools of the 21st Century (an initiative of Yale University), the National Community Education Association (NCEA), and the Children’s Aid Society. The United States government (through the 21st Century Community Learning Center) and various state governments also provide funding and policy support for community school initiatives."

Italian Market

Every Saturdays and Sundays the Italian market takes place in South Philly. Last week I went to have a look. Not surprinsingly, it turns out the market is nowadays held by Mexican people. Fruits and vegetables are really cheaper than elsewhere and you get to walk in really cute streets. However, it's not very close from University City so it's not something you can do in a regular basis. It's also a great place for brunches but the waiting list is long. The best thing to do is register on a list and have a walk around but you have to be careful not to miss your turn like it happened to me ! 

The sandwich I eventually ate after missing my turn on the waiting list for brunch

Rooftop

It's the best place to study at night. Located on the 25th floor of every high rise. 

Best view of Philly and the pleasure of deep silence surrounding you. 

 

Rodin, rooftop: the view, my reflection and my laptop

 

View from Harnwell

Fall Semester

NSO switched to the beginning of fall semester very suddenly and one can say that the fun is over.

Add and drop period is starting, it means every student can "shop around" (i.e. go to all courses he wishes to even if not enrolled and then finally drop the class or try to get in it). I and going to begin by enrolling in 5 courses :

-Finantial accounting (Wharton)

-Contagious Marketing (Wharton) 

-Intermediary Persian (School of Arts and Sciences)

-Iranian Cinema (School of Arts and Sciences)

-Media and Politics OR Islam in the modern world.

5 courses represent a little amount of hours, but I might be keeping only 4courses as they are all quite demanding. Yet I also want to have time to devote in other activities such as getting involved in an organization. 

NSO - understand New Student Orientation

NSO is a week during which exchange as much as freshmen are introduced to campus life. Penn administration and student staff are organizing it. 

Last night one of the events was the night at PMA - Philadelphia Museum of art (conscious of it or not, you already know the PMA, it's where the famous rocky scene with the stairs takes place).

Pictures now - sorry quality is poor as I'm using my phone for the moment.

Susi, another French, in front of the majestic stairs

American Freshmen dancing on improvized dancefloor as Fench just watch

Fire works were shoot when exiting museum, American orientation is "cray cray" (= crazy, lol)

In addition to fire works, there was also a bulding enlightened with Penn's colors while going back to campus by bus. I think we can say Americans know how to say welcome. NSO explains a lot about why tuition fees are so high in the US.

The unrealistic moving-in atmosphere.

I'll post some picture of the place very soon. But for the time being, I have to describe the very special atmosphere growing here on campus as people are moving in, for the first time or after leaving for the summer.

Young Americans come with their parents, their cars loaded with the adequate and miscellaneous objects to furnish their housing. In a very palpable way, streets and buildings are getting more and  more busy and many unusual scenes can be observed if you take the time for it. From the unusual by itself, two boys doing capoeira on the grass by 10pm; to the surrealism of observing so much diversity happening so naturally. Imagine the scene. Gaggles of people hugging hello; while a groups stands outside by the modern art sculpture outside; while a boy walks back in, looking determined, listening to music, a big birthday cake in his hands - probably bought at the 24hours opened Fresh Grocer supermarket).

Ultimately, the rush in which everyone seems to know exactly what to do and where to go so smoothely makes me think of a beehive. Really, this atmosphere is special, interesting and exciting.

First impression in Phily

A little bit more than 24 hours after landing in Philadelphia's International Airport, here I am in my appartment using wireless Internet to feed the blog. Of course things have been rushing in the last few hours. I guess it feels weird, but I feel too tired to meditate about that. 

This is the story of the freshly arrived new students - which includes both the exchange and freshman (first year) students.

Between yesterday and now all have probably : gotten their home keys, fetched their PennCard (Student ID card), formated their computer to make it accessible to the university's wireless Internet, opened a banking account, bought a phone and gotten a little and strange jet lagged sleep (considering the exchange students cases).The phone point most particularly surprised me, with a prepaid card one actually has to pay to receive text messages and phone calls...

Tomorrow the New Student Orientation (NSO) week will begin. Many social events aiming at integrating us to our new environment and prepare us to life on campus are going to take place. This evening already, "small group dinners" took place, i.e. we had at campus local restaurants in an informal way with groups of exchange student an d a Penn full time student.

We were all prepared to campus life by reading reports written by previous exchange student, but once on the spot everything goes so fast.. Suddenly many details you wouldn't have bothered with become crucial : exact location and correct entrance of a building, which room to go in the building... Everything happens in a flood of more urgent formalities to coordinate with, it is tempting not to deal with less compulsory projects such as tutoring French courses at Penn to earn a little money. It might not be the priority to deal with at the moment, but later would mean to late. Happily, things will soon settle down for the best.