Mia Vesely | Citizenship means recognizing what the community can teach you

Recently a fellow opinion columnist came up with a wonderful piece on the benefits of taking an ABCS course and encouraged everyone to take one. ABCS – Academically Based Community Service – courses are delivered by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and focus directly on the community. Civic engagement is important, but the nature of community engagement at Penn is lacking.

The majority of ABCS classes at Penn send students to high schools in the West Philadelphia community. While this is great, the Netter Center should focus more on community engagement than community intervention. Traditional ABCS courses promote the narrative that our institution is the instructor, while the community is the learner. Even the name of this classification of courses suggests that Penn students are the ones providing this service, but I would argue that the West Philadelphia community has a lot to teach us.

The traditional ABCS framework promotes the idea that the West Philadelphia community is an “other” rather than a peer.

This semester I am a teaching assistant for a different type of ABCS course. “August Wilson and Beyond” changes the ABCS standard by sending Penn students to schools and instead brings West Philadelphia residents to campus. These students include many older West Philadelphians—also known as “community students”—who participate in class, ask questions, and are essentially equal in the classroom. Much of the class challenges the stereotypes Penn students have about our neighborhood, while students from the community can do the same.

In class we have discussions about how the West Philadelphia community has changed over the years. It is a moving experience to hear these elders tell stories of how their hometown has changed from a family store to college developments and expensive apartment buildings. As a junior who now lives off campus, it is important to me to know the history of the area where I live nine months out of the year.

The class partners with local organizations such as Paul Robeson House and Theater in the Theater in the X is a West Philadelphia theater company that strives to make theater accessible to the African American community. This class structure allows those who attend Penn—many of whom are new to Philadelphia—to get to know the community through direct participation, literally pushing them beyond 40th Street.

Penn students seem to be confronted with the ridiculous idea that we shouldn’t travel far from campus, and that initiative is important. But how does Penn programming encourage collaboration? Our neighbor, Drexel University, has a program that uses an intergenerational home-sharing model to bring West Philadelphia residents and students together in affordable housing projects. Initiatives like these build community in a very different way than tutoring programs and after-school projects. According to the Second Story Collective initiative, their vision is that of a “shared living space and shared stories… a basis for meaningful coexistence.”

The university must perform better in promoting initiatives that match the desire and need for deeper collaboration. Not only do some Penn students feel uncomfortable leaving campus, but West Philadelphia residents also feel left out. Physical markers that provide comfort to students—the Covenant statue near the high-rise known as the “Tampons,” the Split Button—can serve as markers of obscurity for others. Sidewalk-front restaurants – like the Sushi Spot advertised for “PennCard holders” on Spruce Street – also exemplify this division.

The ‘Tampons’ are located on an area that was once a popular residential block in West Philadelphia. The origins of the statue – as told by Penn – are directly related to gentrification and the relocation of previous residents. As our campus expands, these landmarks are a visible reminder of changes in physical space. Penn students are entitled to spaces just for us, but looking at it from a community resident’s perspective could change the way we view our campus.

If we expect local schools to let us through their doors, we should at least also open our doors to offer community engagement courses. Courses for high school students are offered by Penn, but with financial barriers such as the cost of college credits and the lack of exciting options outside of high school, their impact is limited.

I urge the Netter Center to focus more on community partnerships that put people on an equal footing. Programs that engage residents of all ages should be available and would be much more equitable than currently offered classes. I’m not saying we should eliminate high school programs altogether, but we should expand programming to include initiatives that allow local residents on campus.

It may be radical, but creating programs where West Philadelphians take the reins would create a more formidable and equitable neighborhood. Penn glorifies students as educators in an attempt to correct the fact that they do not pay taxes to local schools. As a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit, this is no longer necessary, and has not been the case since 2000. Instead of relying on tutoring programs in place of funding, let’s create a culture where West Philadelphia is welcomed by Penn, both on and off campus.

MIA VESELY is a college junior studying philosophy, politics and economics from Phoenix. Her email is [email protected].