What are you going to miss?

Someone asked me, "What are you going to miss most about Philadelphia when you leave?" A tough but important question. Although I have traveled around a huge city, figured out its transportation system, met and networked with several individuals, fought for the starting of Community Schools in lower income neighborhoods, and I have grown personally and professionally there is one thing I am going to miss. The thing I am going to miss the most about Philadelphia is the...Food. 

A wise professor once said, “Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something Holy... It’s about sharing. It’s about honesty. It’s about identity.” 

This quote couldn’t be more true. This summer I have jumped into a new experience with new individuals and new perspectives. I have eaten my way around the city with different people and friends. I have experienced the hustle in Reading Terminal trying new food until I couldn’t eat any longer. I have cooked food outside at the Schuylkill Center with teenagers across the city in the Teens4Good program who work all summer planting and harvesting an urban garden. I have literally picked food from a dumpster with my fellow interns to realize how wasteful we are as a society and turn that food into meals for my roommate and I. I have attended a #right2work dinner series at South Philly Barbacoa to spread awareness about workers in the food industry who are the backbones of many kitchens across the Philadelphia area. I especially enjoyed meals in the neighborhood park getting to know my fellow interns by sharing stories and ideas over a lunch break when we are all together.

Sharing. Honesty. Identity.

It is bringing together the of sharing stories, being honest in who we are, and identifying ourselves and our personalities through the enjoyment and surrounding of food and people.

Food. 

That is what I am going to miss.

Couldn't learn it unless I was HERE #reflection

This Penn State Community Engagement Office in Philadelphia provides unique opportunity to learn about different outlooks and a culture that I couldn’t learn anywhere else. Although the Penn State University Park prepares you the best of their ability for the outside world and prepares you to expand your brain to critically think, they could not have prepared me for this internship.

In Philadelphia, there are different boroughs and neighborhoods that have unique personalities. For example, in West Philly you will have your hipster, trendy individuals that thrive on coffee and would be lost without it or for comparison, you travel Center City where the “suit culture” is alive and well or you go down to South Philly where there is an activist on every corner standing in front of beautiful art work. This city creates a unique melting plot of individuals that come together to form this city of Philadelphia. Although all of them are different, when there is an issue or a call for change into action, these cut out boroughs are not afraid to come together to become agents of change. But what is the change that is happening right now? Solving the problem of the inequities of the public education system in lower income neighborhoods in Philadelphia through the Community Schools Initiative.

The Community Schools Initiative is designed to open a dialogue to stakeholders who are overlooked in a public conversation, implement an Ambassador Program to build leadership among parents, teachers, and community members, bridge a conversation between community members and the Mayor’s Office, and develop public awareness about Community Schools. A lot of awesome work for communities who have been overlooked and not heard from at all when it regards their communities.

Conversations and being comfortable talking to diverse populations about the hard topics is something that I never thought I would do. After realizing that these conversations needed to happen and communities depended on talking about these issues to spread the awareness was crucial to change to be implemented. These are the things that couldn’t learn anywhere else. I couldn’t learn how to identify populations in one city, feel comfortable talking about the inequities that are happening to this day, and I couldn’t create a story about the public education system in Philadelphia without being here to experience it myself.