IMPACT Issue 0 : Pilot, Summer 2013

IMPACT ISSUE ZERO | AUGUST 2013

TWO CITIES, ONE MODEL: A LOOK INSIDE UNIVERSITY-ASSISTED COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

BARTRAM’S GARDEN:

AN OASIS OF GROWTH EMPOWERING PERU: A Student’s Story

START-UPS THAT START CHANGE: BUSINESS AND INNOVATION

IMPACT FOUNDER and EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FOUNDER and EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CONTENT EDITOR ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR WRITERS

CHIEF COPY EDITOR COPY EDITORS PHOTO EDITOR photographers

Valentina Raman Frances Starn Tyler Sullivan Justin Barry Callie Woods, Catherine Darin, Cheyenne Rogers Grace Jemison, Jenna Goldstein, Monica Dyches Nicole Hammons, Nicole Laczewski Nicole Malick, Nicolette Tan Samantha Friedlander, Serena Advani Stephen Pintauro,Yifei Xiao Nicole Laczewski Samantha Friedlander, Nicole Malick Kaustubh Deo Chidera Ufondu, Connie Fan, Dani Castillo Emilee Brown, Jenna Goldstein Sara-Paige Silvestro

DESIGN EDITOR Paula Mello Ferber designers Callie Woods, Connie Fan, Galit Krifcher Jordan Huynh, Monica Dyches Sara-Paige Silvestro STRATEGY AND DEVELOPMENT CHAIR FINANCIAL CHAIR

Seaon Shin Souhail Salty

PUBLICITY CHAIR Andre Ficerai internal manager Nikhil Devnani external manager Nicolette Tan WEBMASTER

Daniel Brooks

other team members Anna Irizarri, Christine Hu, Danielle Kerker Dylan Smith, Erin Fischer, Imran Cronk Kelsey Williams, Natalie Wright, Noah Sanders Siyuan Cao, Taylor Sneed, Toni O’Boyle Valeria Dubovoy, Victoria Pisini, Zoe Lau

LETTER

from the TEAM

WE ARE THE MAGAZINE OF A CHANGING CULTURE. As 2012 drew to a close, the iOpener Institute for People and Performance published a study on our generation, Generation Y. The study asked 18,000 young professionals what attracts and retains our generational talent to jobs.

The answer: fulfillment, not pay.

“Generation Y need to feel that their work has a strong economic and social purpose,” concluded iOpener. “They need to feel proud of their organization and the work that it does.”

Fulfilling work. Organizational pride. Social purpose. These are the motivational forces of social impact.

At IMPACT Magazine, we aim to enhance Penn’s social impact community by connecting the work of students, alumni, and faculty under one publication. We hope to engage our student body in a continuous conversation about social issues that need more purpose-driven young leaders, more Generation Y. This online issue, “Issue 0,” is a sample of IMPACT’s vision for print.

Issue 0 was designed with a unique focus: summer. As Penn students, our summers are periods of productivity, experience, and planning. Many of us dedicate our time to building the communities around us and advancing the causes we care about. This issue covers a small selection of these stories.

With our team spread out across the world, we created a magazine that covers a diverse set of social impact work: farming, education, consulting, empowerment, health, faith, and more. Some are personal stories. Some are reports of others. Yet all convey the passion and hard work of our team members. All articles in this issue have been written, edited, and designed by the IMPACT Team. Some photography is our original work as well, while other photos were generously submitted by our friends and supporters.

We are excited to present Issue 0 to our Penn and global community. We hope this magazine inspires more ideas, conversations, and actions.

Let us embrace our identity as Generation Y and make an IMPACT. IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM \ 1

IMPACT

AUGUST 2013 4 8

PLANTING SEEDS OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY Written by Grace Jemison

INSPIRING BUSINESS Written by Valentina Raman

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A HAND UP NOT A HANDOUT Written by Monica Dyches

12 16 18 24

GRACE PLACE

Written by Cheyenne Rogers

PULAK MITTAL: STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Written by Tyler Sullivan

UACS: A MODEL FOR COMMUNITY SUCCESS Written by Samantha Friedlander

HEALTHY FOOD TRUCK Written by Nicole Laczewsi

PLANTING SEEDS OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: Urban farm impacts nutrition and community Written by Grace Jemison

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“T

here’s something really magical about seeing a small seed, planting it, caring for it, watching it grow, and then actually eating it. It makes you really want to eat healthier and eat what you grew.”

This is the magic of urban farming, as described

by Ty Holmberg, co-director of the Community Farm and Food Resource Center at Bartram’s Garden. The mission of Bartram’s Garden is to provide the Southwest Philadelphia community with access to healthy, local, organic, affordable, and culturally relevant foods. In doing so, this urban farm teaches self-reliance and hopes to create a space in which people can “reconnect with the food, the land, and each other,” said Holmberg.

Located at 54th and Linbergh Streets in Southwest Philadelphia, the farm provides community members in this “industrial wasteland” with opportunities to learn how to grow their own food and take control of their food system.

This goal of restoring food sovereignty is critical in Southwest Philadelphia, where 14,292 people live in poverty and have low to no access to fresh, healthy food*. Instead of relying on heavily processed and unhealthy foods from convenience stores, people learn at urban farms like Bartram’s how to make healthy food for themselves and, as Holmberg explained, “take the power back.”

Bartram’s Community Farm and Food Resource Center is run by Agatson Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI), which is overseen by Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Just a ten minute trolley ride from campus, this 4-acre farm began in October 2011 and is jointly owned by the City of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the University of Pennsylvania, and Bartram’s Garden, which is the oldest botanical garden in the country. The site includes a crop field, berry patches, the most diverse orchard in Philadelphia, and a greenhouse. Food grown at Bartram’s is sold at a weekly farmers’ market that accepts federal assistance checks (as part of the

IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM \ 5

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC) so that all community members can attain the fresh, organic produce. Additionally, the program offers community gardens for neighbors to grow their own crops, as well as education about gardening and food preparation.

This farm seeks to change more than just nutrition. As Holmberg stated, “food is at the heart of creating change in our communities [and] seeing groups come together.” AUNI provides 25 students from the local high school with paid jobs on the farm and outside internships. College sophomore Khadija Tarver, who worked alongside some of “Bartram’s Incredible Gardeners” on the farm, shared her experience: “I was talking with a high schooler during my volunteering and asked her what her favorite part of working with Bartram’s is.

She said that it was the way she could look at the soil and know that her hands and her work could help make something.”

Tarver continued, “I think that is one of the most beautiful things about urban farming.

Your time, patience, and soil are the only things you need to have dinner on the table for your family.”

Penn students are involved at the farm in a number of ways. A few work-study students work as interns each year. On volunteer days, numerous Penn students often join the ranks to weed, spread compost, or plant. Some students fulfill the requirements of related Academically Based Community Service courses at the farm (including myself in the class “Biology of Food,” spring 2013).

While Holmberg and his colleagues always appreciate the help of Penn students, he explained that such help can be problematic.

The cultures and “privilege” of the Ivy League students can clash with the predominantly black and low-income Southwest Philadelphia 6 / IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM

community.

“We need to address [the] mistrust that a lot of the community members have toward Penn and build those relationships,” said Holmberg.

One of the keys to making urban farms successful is to respect the communities in which they grow instead of arriving with assumptions about what is correct or how to solve the situation.

“The university can use its wealth and knowledge in ways to build the community and make [the farm] sustainable,” said Holmberg.

“We want to provide a space for multiculturalism and for communities to grow, using food as that medium.”

* As of March 2013, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health defines low access as having no supermarket or fresh produce provider within walking distance, or 0.5 miles from one’s home.

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INSPIRING BUSINESS

Written by Valentina Raman

CFA, faculty, and Philadelphians start up change.

I

n the kitchen of a kosher dining hall, Troy Harris cooked up a business plan.

“The name is Kosher Seed Committee,” said Harris, explaining his idea to start his own business – a kosher food truck in University City. Harris, age 38, has worked at the University of Pennsylvania for 13 years, cooking meals for over a decade in Hillel’s dining hall.

“My original plan was to try to get some funds raised,” he continued.

“A couple of guys were going to try to get a vendors’ truck.”

Fortunately, they never did.

“I was dying for failure right there if I did invest the money,” claimed Harris. He had not considered the legal certifications and financial restrictions impeding his business success – that is, until he shared his plan with Wharton and College student Shlomo Klapper. Over a Hillel meal in spring 2012, the two entrepreneurs talked business.

“I thought”, recalled Klapper, “we are minutes away from Wharton, one of the best business schools in the country… Why are we not helping Troy?”

The Whartonite envisioned the school as an “oasis of growth,” supplying West Philadelphia with

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student business leaders to meet its vast demand for financial literacy and business savvy.

“A lot of people in the urban community want the chance to get their own business and change the community,” said Harris, yet he felt “really in the dark” building his idea on his own.

Klapper’s solution: student consulting.

In January 2013, Klapper launched Consult for America (CFA), a non-profit that offers probono consulting services to small business owners and entrepreneurs in the West Philadelphia community.

Beyond its mission to counter economic poverty, CFA aims to train the next generation of business leaders.

“

I thought”, recalled Klapper, “we are minutes away from Wharton, one of the best business schools in the country… Why are we not helping Troy?

”

“We want Penn students to feel that they benefitted from it, that they grew as professionals but as people as well,” stated CFA President

Samaira Sirajee, affirming CFA’s goal to be a “holistic organization.”

Before diving into their consulting duties, team members received training from Deloitte, a professional services firm that acted as CFA’s own consultant in its startup stage.

These people are working 100 hours a week,” Klapper spoke of Deloitte, “but they made time for us.” The founder felt fortunate for the “multiple layers of defense” helping CFA to grow, including faculty advisor Keith Weigelt, a professor in Wharton.

After a semester of building the organization and training the team, CFA dispatched its student consultants on their first client: Troy Harris.

“He said he would help me in this business,” said Harris about Klapper.

“He felt that this was an opportunity for Troy to help his family.”

Supporting six children on an hourly wage of $12.95, the Bon Appétit employee shares the financial burdens of his West Philly community. As of 2010 census data, West Philadelphians have a median household income of $26,122, less than half the national average. This number, however, says little of the growing nation-wide problem: the

wealth gap.

“It’s increasing year by year,” said Weigelt, particularly “the disparity of net-worth of minorities, especially American blacks, who have never been given the opportunity to shrink [the gap].”

According to Pew Research Center’s 2011 analysis, the net-worth of black households is 20 times less than that of white households. What these low-income families need, said Weigelt, is education.

“The poor save less than 1%.

They don’t even know about mutual funds,” he explained. Thus, the professor developed the program Building Bridges to Wealth, which teaches West Philly adults and youth how to generate wealth through savings and investing.

“I think there should be a movement toward the good side of business, in terms of helping the disadvantaged acquire financial literacy,” Weigelt declared.

Sirajee, who worked for the program in the spring, spoke of the participants in awe.

“They were very entrepreneurial – very thirsty for knowledge, put-

ting themselves out there, helping the community in some way,” she admired. Harris has similar goals for his startup, Kosher Seed.

“The second phase will be trying to rehabilitate our community,” Harris explained. He wants to reinvest the business profits to “make a safe zone” for youth, create affordable property, and encourage hard work and positive behavior.

“We want to be the big brothers for the kids in the community,” he continued. “We want to be the change.”

After a semester of CFA’s help, Harris now understands the financial and legal constraints of opening a food truck. Instead, he may open a restaurant.

“They really helped me in so short time,” said Harris. “I feel I already have the business because I have been so inspired by the people around me.”

CFA will take Harris as a client again in the fall, yet also has plans to expand – even beyond Penn’s campus. In sharing CFA’s mission with a friend, Klapper inspired his fellow student to start a chapter at NYU

CFA’s team (from left: George Song, Jordan Baker, Jake Gering, Samaira Sirajee, Tobi Idowu) presents to the client Troy Harris how he should proceed with his idea.

Stern School of Business. With Sirajee running the Penn chapter, Klapper will focus his efforts on developing CFA nationally.

“The most important part of our mission is helping the businesses of today, but also we want to help the future business leaders of tomorrow,” Klapper explained. He hopes that the organization will change how students perceive “business as usual.”

“We are not looking at just people with brain power, we are looking at people who care,” said Klapper. “I think most people at Penn are capable of that.”

Sirajee expressed a similar vision for her generation of business leaders, recalling a fact from Wharton professor Adam Grant’s book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.

“The most successful people are the most giving people,” Sirajee recounted. “Their giving nature made them rich.”

Echoing his partner’s words, Klapper concluded, “In order to do well, you have to do good.”

The client, Troy Harris, listens intently as Tobi Idowu presents CFA’s recommendations.

Jordan Baker (left) and John Herbut (right) practice their presentation. They are receiving feedback from CFA faculty advisor, Dr.Keith Weigelt, before the final presentation with the client the following day.

Photographer: Patrick Hulce. Photos were kindly provided by Samaira Sirajee, CFA president.

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A HAND UP

Written by Monica Dyches

NOT A HANDOUT

Leah Davidson’s Story of Empowerment

L

eah Davidson, a rising sophomore in Wharton, has felt the draw of the entrepreneurial spirit and navigated its challenges. She spent the last two months in the rural neighborhoods of Juancayo, Peru, working with disadvantaged youth in the microenterprise program, emPOWERment, that she helped to create.

This summer, the program launched its pilot version; in the future, Leah hopes to expand her initiative to create annual internship opportunities for Penn students.

EmPOWERment works hand in hand with Expand Peru, a nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty in the country. Leah Davidson is the sole volunteer teacher. “I have a lot of experience working with youth,” she states. “Last year, I taught entrepreneurship to students at Freire Charter School and volunteered at the Baring House Crisis Nursery in Philadelphia, which provides temporary daycare services to children at risk of abuse or neglect.”

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Drawing from these experiences, she then began pursuing this passion internationally.

Leah developed a curriculum for teaching entrepreneurship, essential business, financial literacy, and leadership skills to students from thirteen to eighteen years old. For the first few weeks, she teaches fundamentals while forming relationships with the students. In the following weeks, Leah guides the groups of students as they create their own business plans within the community. Finally, the students get to try their projects in the real world – a similar experience to what many Wharton students share freshman year.

Leah takes on many roles throughout the initiative.

From teacher to TA to consultant, she aims to inspire and nurture the participants, empowering them for the future with experience in the business world. She hopes emPOWERment will assist them and the growth of their community for years to come.

THE LOGISTICS Leah started applying for grants in the fall of 2012. By June 2013, Leah had secured eight grants, including funding from Wharton and several international organizations. She gives advice to her peers for securing funding: “Believe strongly that what you have will make a difference.” When the project began, Leah feared that she would not find sources that believed in her and her idea. “But stay persistent,” she insists, because “support is cumulative.” Once one organization offers financial support, other donors will see that financial support as an endorsement of the founding idea.

THE BIGGER PICTURE “My long-term goal,” Leah explains, “is to create a volunteer opportunity in microenterprise development with Expand Peru, set up a sustainable program, …and establish a sustainable microgrant fund.” Already, Leah has raised the support needed for this year’s microgrants. For the upcoming years, she has several ideas: “The youth are not obligated to pay back the funds if their businesses are unsuccessful, [but] to the extent that they are able, they will be encouraged to reinvest the amount of their microgrant in a community fund which will support other entrepreneurial ventures.” She concludes, “I am really trying to follow the model of providing a hand up and not a handout.”

CAFETERIA “LEAH AND FRIENDS” “Now that I have a Spanish curriculum, school supplies, and a microgrant fund, it’ll be easy to sustain and expand the program,” Leah says.

After more on-site research and some trial and error, the students (ten to twelve girls and one boy) are opening their own bakery. “[The students] will be learning how to make bread and pastries from a professional chef, which is really exciting. A bakery is actually much more self-sustainable than a handicraft business in that there will be consistent demand” she explains. In fact, “there is a lot of interest in the community in turning this into an annual program and possibly expand[ing] it to work with unemployed adult women.” Leah has involved the community in her efforts, taught English to the students in the program, and made plans to expand this “microenterprise incubator” to other rural communities in Peru.

Through her own passion for service, mentorship with organizations like Compass Fellowship, and examples of leaders in our own Penn community (such as her peer advisors Yong Feng See and Darren Ho Jian Rong), Leah Davidson became empowered to make a difference. In turn, her program has empowered the youth of Juancayo.

Moreover, emPOWERment serves as a model for future NGOs and Penn students alike, aiming to empower others to make a difference. She has created a positive feedback loop, offering hope, encouragement, and opportunity. One can’t help but feel a little empowered oneself.

For information on Leah’s final developments and the success of Cafeteria “Leah and Friends”, as well as her aspirations for future endeavors in Peru, check the IMPACT blog!

HOW LEAH MADE IT HAPPEN: FINANCIAL SUPPORT -Omprakash Foundation: $2300 (applied: November 2012) -MEJOR Communities scholarship: 75% of room and board, est. $950 (applied: January ‘13) -Open Mind for Service grant from the Christian Association: $250 (applied: March ‘13) -Civic House Public Internship Interest Fund Grant: $2400 (applied: March ’13) -Diversity Abroad Summer Scholarship: $500 (applied: April ’13) -Jessica Jennifer Cohen Foundation Grant: $750 (applied: April ’13) -Wharton Social Impact Initiative: up to $450 on a reimbursement basis (applied: May ‘13)

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GRACE

PLACE

Fighting Poverty through Family, Location, and Faith.

T

oday, poverty seems to be the topic of many conversations politically and morally. However, does simply talking about poverty break the cycle? This summer, I witnessed what happens when talk is turned into action.

For six weeks of my summer, I was a counselor for twenty-four rising third-grade campers at Grace Place, a non-profit organization with a “faith-based foundation” that serves over 800 individuals a year through education. Reverend Stephanie Munz-Campbell, the non-profit’s Executive Director, states that Grace Place targets its efforts on “the social change that can be achieved in an interrelated focus on child, family, school and neighborhood,” thus impacting poverty with three unique factors –family involvement, location, and faith.

Together, these factors support a strong backbone for education.

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

Among the Grace Place families in Golden Gate, Florida, over 85% are at or below the poverty threshold.

Additionally, 99% do not speak English as their primary 12 / IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM

Written by Cheyenne Rogers language and have “Limited English Proficiency.”

To help bridge this gap, Grace Place offers Adult English Language Learners programming. Current programming also includes “Bright Beginnings,” which educates parents of young children to be good mentors, and the six-week summer camp, which also provides opportunities for parents to be involved.

Every morning, smiling parents bring their children to camp awake and on time, but that’s not where their role at Grace Place stops. They take time out from work and taking care of their homes to serve meals, clean classrooms, attend performances, and go on field trips with us.

Erika Garcia, Family Literary Assistant and parent of a third grade camper, says “studies show that parent involvement is important in determining academic success.” It also benefits the parents, she points out, “because it helps them develop new skills, which in turn gives them some sense of achievement and motivation.”

“This is how we have built a trust with the families we serve,” says Camp Director Karina Sierra, “by first becoming partners for the same cause in helping children succeed.”

LOCATION

A vital reason why families can be involved at Grace Place is because of its convenient location; it’s recognized as the “heart of the neighborhood.” Parents with transportation problems don’t have to worry about getting their kids to camp every day as long as they have their two feet.

Munz-Campbell says the Grace Place community has “learned that overcoming the barriers of language, economics, and education is most effective when it is rooted in the neighborhood where safe, supportive relationships of trust can be formed.” Grace Place’s locality allows families to see it as their second home, unafraid to ask for anything they need, be it clothes, food, or other necessities.

She continues, “[M]any of our families come from countries where they have learned not to trust institutions or authority figures.” Grace Place counters this cultural distrust by providing families with familiar faces who act as their “bridge to the schools and the community.”

Grace Place knows there’s something about having a home-style building in your backyard, working towards bettering your life and community, which builds a bond that cannot be easily broken.

FAITH

Grace Place is aware of the strength faith has and its importance to the families.

Although Grace Place was founded by the local United Methodist Church, Rev. Munz-Campbell tells us “the core value of caring for our neighbors…is central to all the world religions.” She continues that “the understanding that all are welcome…resonates both with the families we serve and many of the people who

come to volunteer.”

While religion is not a part of Grace Place’s curriculum, it can be seen through its values and campus. In the Character & Service program, for example, my campers and I would talk about pressing topics like anger, respect, gratitude, and faith, combining this with campus cleanups, thank-you letters, and journal entries. My own class was also taught in the chapel, with Christian images reminding us of Grace Place’s religious foundation.

EDUCATION

Family involvement, location, and faith are the formula for Grace Place’s impact on education.

What started out nine years ago as a small homework club just fifteen minutes away from Rev. Stephanie’s and my hometown has grown into a neighborhood center that teaches life skills and academics. Grace Place offers after-school tutoring, mentoring, career field trips, high school and college internships, and the summer camp, where I was a counselor for 142 first through eighth graders.

Grace Place’s summer camp prevents what Grace Place teacher, Sarah Nick, calls the “summer slump.”

With the help of generous donors who sponsor individual students, the camp instead promotes intellectual development and physical activity. These six weeks allow teachers like Nick to get rid of the reading and math deficits that usually develop in their students.

This summer, the campers learned how to swim, examined the Florida ecosystems, and began to appreciate the arts through their production of “The Pied Piper.” They took trips to local museums, read, and planted sunflowers, along with many more activities.

For these children of Golden Gate, it was the structured opportunity of a lifetime.

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According to the American Psychological Association, children in poverty are at greater risk for having “behavioral and socioemotional problems.”

I saw, however, that with just six weeks of learning, inspiration, close attention, and fun, an at-risk child’s potential to succeed in life could grow immensely.

The work of the passionate educators who had close relationships with children and their families really had an impact. To see my campers’ eyes light up during my lessons or their hands quickly shoot up to answer a question meant we were making a difference.

My own third grade camper, Rodrigo, puts it best saying, “Grace Place helps with my school goals, helps me meet new friends, and lets me have fun at the pool.” Without it, he’d “be bored and have nothing exciting to do.” While being aware of twenty-four rambunctious and enthusiastic nine-year-olds at all times is not an easy job, the experience was absolutely worth it. This summer was hot, hectic, and adventurefilled, but, most importantly, it was eye-opening.

There are some campers’ smiles that will be engraved into my memory forever and some parents’

strength that I will never surpass. These families are the backbone of our society and we need to work together with them, the schools, and the community to make our impact large and sustainable. Grace Place knows the formula for change and how much we’re going to gain by simply investing our time and turning our talk into a program for progress.

Grace Place combats poverty with education.

With Philadelphia and Golden Gate having around 26% of their populations below the poverty line, Penn programs can learn from working in the same impactful ways of Grace Place. As future leaders, we Penn students can make this true social change, this large and lasting impact on poverty.

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Keep the conversation going.

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Help us reach our goal by the 27th or we receive nothing! Only Kickstarter projects that reach their goal receive raised funds.

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PULAK MITTAL is a current senior in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology here at the University of Pennsylvania. Since coming to Penn, he has been active in the startup and computer science communities. Through his projects, Pulak has made an impact on student innovation and entrepreneurship. “What I’m trying to do is spur innovation through various mechanisms,” he explains. Below are brief descriptions of his projects.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Written by Tyler Sullivan

Throughout his Penn career, Pulak has helped organize PennApps – a 48-hour hackathon held by the computer science club, the Dining Philosophers. During this hackathon, students from across the globe come to Penn to compete, usually in 4 person teams, to showcase technical achievements, compete for prizes, and create new apps that can then be spun off into enterprises of their own.

Even students with a basic knowledge of CompSci, Pulak

NVIGOR

In November of 2012, Pulak and three Drexel students founded Nvigor, a non-profit organization focused on fixing two problems: 1. The lack of interaction between students working on startups and doing entrepreneurship across the various colleges in Philadelphia, and 2. The almost non-existent link between the colleges around Philadelphia and the city’s tech scene.

In pursuit of this mission, Nvigor had its first Philadelphia Student

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PENN APPS

believes, can enjoy and participate in PennApps.

“People can come into PennApps with pretty minimal background and come out of it actually having built something pretty cool,” says Pulak.

“You really do have people who otherwise would have no exposure to CompSci who are coming to an event like Penn Apps, building something awesome, and then using their skills for a field they’re passionate about.”

He continues, “I think where the real potential to move the world

forward is in utilizing CompSci in the variety of other disciplines that are also broken and need fixing.”

With the CompSci community increasingly solving the “un-sexy problems” of other industries, Pulak sees hackathons as testing grounds for students’ burgeoning ideas.

PennApps Fall 2013 will be held over the September 6th-8th weekend. Expected attendance is around 1,000 students, double that of last semester’s hackathon.

Startup Summit on April 20th, 2013, drawing around 60 students to Penn’s campus.

“We had a number of startup founders, from Philadelphia as well as student startups founders from various schools in Philly [giving talks and workshops],” Pulak describes. “I think we had like 9 or 10 different schools represented, people coming from Temple, Villanova, Bryn Mar, Drexel, and a number of other universities in the city, which is great.

It was pretty successful.”

This coming fall, the 4-person Nvigor team is expanding to 8 or 9 students, incorporating leadership from an array of colleges around the city. Within the first two months of the semester, Nvigor also plans to have a kickoff event – an opportunity for all those interested in entrepreneurship and the startup scene to get involved!

Also in November of 2012, Pulak joined the team of First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund, a venture fund that has two years to invest $500,000 into student startups at the $20,000 level.

“Most student startups that you see are web-based or web apps or mobile,” Pulak explains. “That’s what’s accessible.” The costs for

creating such startups, he continues, have dramatically reduced over the past couple of decades.

“We’re at the point where you can get a super technically complicated startup off the ground for a couple thousand dollars… [T]here are students who want to work on startups and are working on startups, and they need a little bit of capital,

DORM ROOM FUND not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

He concludes, “Dorm Room Fund is essentially there to bridge that gap and encourage entrepreneurship at the student level.”

So far, the Dorm Room Fund has announced 5 investments and is looking to increase that number to over 30.

OTHER PROJECTS Last Fall Break, Pulak helped start the Silicon Valley Tech Trek, gathering a group of 16 students to visit “a bunch of companies, tech companies, offices of Facebook, Google, startups, venture capital firms, [and] Penn Alumni in the city.” This Tech Trek will be happening again this fall.

Also in the fall, Pulak will be helping to plan a high school hackathon in Philadelphia. Last spring, he and others were asked by a group that organized Thomas Jefferson High School’s HackTJ hackathon to create an organization

that can run and expand hackathons for high schoolers. “[By] making sure there’s an explicit focus on learning and teaching,” Pulak explains, “[hackathons] can be a vehicle by which high school students, who might only have taken a semester or a year of some programming, could learn what it’s like to build an app [and] really create innovation.”

After graduation in December, Pulak plans to devote much of his time to Emerald, a startup he’s building with fellow Penn students Alex Rattray and Connor Theilmann.

Emerald is a program aimed at replacing handwritten exams in the classroom. “Writing by hand is slower than typing,” Pulak explains.

“It’s messier than typing, it’s harder to revise, [and] it’s harder to see what you’ve done.” Emerald allows for exams to be typed, saving paper and preventing online cheating by locking the computer while the exam is being taken. Various high schools and university professors (including Penn’s) have lined up to use Emerald in the fall.

work,” he concedes. “[I built] one little feature on one component of this huge website, and it just doesn’t feel the same.” Thus, he decided, “I want to do startups.”

He continues, “They’re the thing that lots of other people want to do, but they may have not discovered it yet.”

Pulak is a facilitator for social impact. He has helped students build

their first app, grow a small dorm room project, and connect to a larger startup community – creating environments for students to put their knowledge and skills to action.

He humbly smiles, “I’m happy to see over the past couple years that I’ve been able to have an impact on people being able to create things and innovate. It’s been a fun ride.”

BEHIND THE IMPACT What is Pulak’s motivation behind all his endeavors?

“I just really, really love startups,” he says, contrasting his past internship experiences at Facebook, a large, established company, and Piazza, a startup where he worked with only 9 other people and built its Android app. “[At Facebook], I just didn’t really have the same passion about my

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UACS

A MODEL FOR COMMUNITY SUCCESS

Written by Samantha Friedlander 18 / IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM

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odd* sighed, his face falling into his hands. Slamming his fist down, he looked up at me despondently. “I can’t do this,” he wailed.

“You can!” I insisted. “You spelled it a minute ago! Think about how it sounds.” He looked back at his paper, hesitantly tracing the outline of a letter he’d already written.

Minutes passed before Todd let his pencil drop. It rolled to the floor, unnoticed by the teary-eyed boy before me. “I’m sorry, Miss Sam. I can’t. I’m not good at this.”

The word was “grass.” Todd, nine years old and going into third grade, had gotten “g-r” down before giving up.

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spent this summer working at the University-Assisted Community School (UACS) program, run in partnership with the University of Tennessee (UT) at Pond Gap Elementary in Knoxville, Tennessee. Students rotate through activities including gym, music, academics, and a confidence-boosting circus class, in which students stride across the room on stilts, ride unicycles, and flip through hula hoops. Cries of “Miss Sam, watch this!” bounce chaotically through the room as eightyear-olds hurtle through space, landing in heaps of tangled limbs only to spring back up, beaming with pride. My favorite moment occurred when Imani, a shy but bright and cheerful girl, worked up the courage to perform on the parallel bars.

Although she had struggled, she squared her shoulders and jumped—completing a flip and even landing, cackling with glee, in a full split. The class erupted into applause.

“People don’t really know what Community Schools are,” lamented Dr. Bob Kronick, a professor at UT and the director of Knoxville’s UACS program.

He describes Pond Gap, a designated Community School since 2010, as a IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM \ 19

“one-stop shop.” According to the school district, a Community School meets “the most basic needs of children and their families.” The goal is for the school to become “the core institution, the ‘hub,’ for community engagement and democratic development.” By offering a strong support system for the whole family—helping parents with job searches; providing parenting seminars; offering classes on cooking low-budget, nutritious meals—Community Schools improve every facet of their students’ lives. UT’s goal for UACS is to address “unmet social, academic, and economic needs of the students and community.”

“We work with the community, not for the community,” Kronick

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stressed. “We’re not coming in and deciding what they need. We’re figuring it out together. I want these kids to grow up proud of their neighborhood.”

Kronick immerses himself in the community in order to fully understand its needs. “I buy my gas at the Shell station down the road,” he shared. “I got lunch right down the road today. I walked in, and the owner smiled and said, ‘Hi, Professor Kronick! Good to see you!’”

Program Coordinator Mark Benson walks Pond Gap’s halls with similar familiarity, greeting each student by name and asking about family members. Teachers also have personally driven students to and from school when parents could not. One

teacher told me a heart-wrenching story of seeing one of her youngest students walking aimlessly down a busy road, pillowcase slung over his shoulder, after he was told to get out of the house. His teacher picked him up and drove him to a relative’s house, making sure he was safe before leaving. Pond Gap does not take the word “community” lightly.

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f the phrase “University-Assisted Community School” sounds familiar, that is because the UACS model was developed at the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Founded in 1992, the Netter Center’s UACS program runs after-school and summer

programs for approximately 5,000 students in West Philadelphia. In addition to academics, students participate in enrichment activities including art, sports, computer animation, cooking, nutrition, dance, and drama.

Programs designed to help the whole family are also available.

The Netter Center has demonstrated continued dedication to spreading its UACS model. Between 1994 and 2004, the center assisted twenty-three universities in establishing UACS programs.

The UACS model has been ratcheted up to a new level because of Penn,” Kronick claimed. In addition to providing the initial model, the Netter Center has demonstrated that it’s possible not only to run UACS

programs across multiple schools, but also to maintain programs longterm.

Although Philadelphia’s UACS program is staffed by the Netter Center, Penn students provide support through the student-run Community School Student Partnerships (CSSP), which sends volunteers (including me) into schools. Jessica King, Penn student and current director of CSSP, believes Penn mentors are invaluable additions to students’ days.

“It may be the only time during the day students have one-on-one interactions with someone who’s teaching them,” she explained. One-onone interaction ensures that students who might otherwise slip through the cracks are noticed and helped to ac-

quire necessary skills. When I asked King if any examples came to mind, she didn’t even pause. She remembered a girl struggling with reading, at risk of repeating the year. Then, CSSP placed mentors in her classroom each day. “We were able to help her avoid being left behind,” recounted King proudly.

Echoing the words of Dr. Kronick, King explained how a Community School “becomes a hub for the community so the kids can be there before and after school.” The benefits of these after-school programs are preventative in nature: “They have somewhere safe to be until 6 o’clock.

In these neighborhoods, having somewhere to go in the evenings could be the reason why kids decide

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not to be on street corners with older kids, modeling their poor behavior.” Whether in Philadelphia or in Knoxville, Community Schools, the Netter Center claims, can “provide a decentralized, democratic, community-based response to rapidly changing community problems.”

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ommunication between Philadelphia and Knoxville has benefited both communities. Penn invited Kronick to participate in panels about UACS, and Dr. William Labov, a linguistics professor at Penn, recently came to Pond Gap to speak about work being done in Philadelphia regarding his linguistic research targeted at helping children learn to read.

“We were expecting maybe fifteen people,” Kronick recalled, laughing.

“We got way more. People were filling the hallways!” Kronick added that Knoxville’s UACS model, although not a direct replication of Philadelphia’s, owes much to the Netter Center. That being said, I personally cannot imagine a program or staff more genuinely dedicated to improving students’ lives than Pond Gap’s.

For me, comparing the Community School model to other programs designed to help socioeconomically disadvantaged youth drove home the importance of providing not only programming and safe locations for children, but also an interconnected community where students, parents, and teachers can come to eat, learn, and create something together of which they can be proud. University-Assisted Community Schools’ focus is decidedly forward-looking; the schools create environments in which students learn to make safer

22 / IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM

and more constructive decisions for themselves through character-building classes, close relationships with longtime teachers, and parents who are better able to provide for their children themselves as a result of the school’s support. Whereas it may be easy to provide students with fish, these schools teach the entire family how to fish.

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Is that okay?” he asked nervously.

“Okay? Are you kidding? Todd, that’s incredible!” I exclaimed.

“I’m incredible?” he repeated, voice filled with wonder. Springing from his chair, he danced wildly around the room, whooping with glee. “I’m incredible!” he announced.

And in that moment, the many unbelievably frustrating hours were unquestionably worth it.

nd as for Todd: after working with teachers on spelling worksheets and games each day for three weeks, we sat down for another test.

The memory of his first weeks’ results – he missed fifteen of twentyone words – was still fresh in his mind, but he made his way down the list carefully. The result? He missed *The names of all children have been only one of twenty-one words. “ changed to protect their privacy.

“

“We work with the community, not for the community,” Kronick said. “We’re not coming in and deciding what they need. We’re figuring it out together. I want these kids to grow up proud of their neighborhood.”

”

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HEALTHY FOOD TRUCKS

Written by Nicole Laczewski

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hen neither eating another dining hall meal nor cooking between classes and club meetings is an option, food trucks offer the perfect combination of price, taste, and convenience.

Even so, some students avoid food trucks. Penn student Robert Hsu found that 37.3% of these students who regularly skip food trucks believe that food trucks are unhealthy. Equipped with his survey data, a passion for public health, and a business school education, Robert launched the Philadelphia Healthy Food Truck Initiative in March 2013 to change people’s perspectives on food trucks.

In his sophomore year of high school, Robert Hsu started the Northville Health Awareness Society to help people realize the significance of heart disease. Now a rising junior in the Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, he is continuing to “find a way to blend his interests [and] work to serve public health needs.”

Robert’s focus is combating obesity, which affects over 900,000 people in Philadelphia alone. Because food trucks are so prevalent in the City of Brotherly Love, he decided that their support in spreading information—like posting signs, nutritional information, and healthy-eating pamphlets—could be a great way to impact immense numbers of people. If food trucks 24 / IMPACTMAGAZINE-UPENN.COM

showcased or offered healthier options, people would become more health-conscious when buying from food trucks they already frequent; moreover, they would recognize these improved, healthy options.

Robert is currently working closely with Penn undergraduates Jess Chen and Mitch Gissinger as well as Ashlee Halbritter, health educator at Campus Health Initiatives, who serves as the initiative’s internal supporter at Penn. Two food trucks, Chez Yasmine and Magic Carpet Foods, already have missions to provide healthy food and have also agreed to work with him.

David Fine, a recent Penn graduate, has also made plans. He will soon launch Schmear It, a food truck “serving bagels and social impact.”

When opened, Schmear It will offer healthy and customizable food options to consumers.

Fine reached out to Hsu when he heard about the Healthy Food Truck Initiative because he “[believes] its mission is valuable [since] healthy eating is one of the key solutions” to fighting obesity. He agrees with Robert that providing nutritional information along with tasty, healthy options will increase traffic and profit, even though it might be a difficult transition.

“Consumers and food truck operators alike might be disgruntled [by how] that delicious but

calorie-laden sandwich won’t taste as good when the nutrition information is known,” Fine states, adding that the shift to healthier options will be “time-consuming and costly.” Kung Fu Hoagies, for instance, responded that the project was a good idea, but would not be feasible because consistently providing nutritional labeling for its frequently changing menu would be difficult.

Many students might also prefer to follow an “ignorance is bliss” mentality when purchasing their favorite lunch that has enough calories and fat content to last them a week.

Negative reactions, time constraints, and financial challenges, however, have not discouraged Hsu from pursuing his goals. One of the biggest challenges Robert faced was getting food truck owners to take him seriously.

“At first, [they] were helpful, but didn’t think I was serious,” Robert comments, “But I kept going and tried to nurture the relationships.” Seeing his

persistence, the food truck owners realized that Robert was committed to his idea. Once he had secured working relationships with the previously mentioned food trucks, he began a fundraising campaign. His team raised just over $700 which, Hsu says, is more than enough to start working with the food trucks. He expects that more people will be willing to support the initiative as it gains exposure and as people increasingly recognize his team’s commitment to creating change.

Hsu says he is not out to regulate food trucks.

While Fine and Hsu believe it is important for young people to form healthy eating habits, they agree that an “occasional treat” (Fine) is alright; they want to help people make healthier eating choices while simultaneously increasing business for food trucks. The Healthy Food Truck Initiative, according to Hsu, “fits perfectly into the competitive business model” and aims to have a visible impact on campus this fall.

Left: Robert Hsu Right: Mitch Gissinger, Jess Chen

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