English Dept. teams up with high school

For many University students and faculty, the campus environment creates a sheltered academic experience. The English Department hopes to change all that. The Penn-Edison Partnership, sponsored by the English Department, gives professors and English majors the opportunity to stare the real world in the face -- working with 10th and 12th grade students at the Edison-Fereira High School in North Philadelphia. The high school students, 85 percent of whom are Latino -- from the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico -- come from a largely impoverished community. Many live alone, others work full-time, some are pregnant and many drop out before graduation. The participants in the Penn-Edison Partnership are Edison's "best and brightest," according to Al Filreis, undergraduate chairperson of the English Department. Yet, many of these students will be among the first in their families ever to attend college. Ten times during each semester, University volunteers travel to the school in order to tutor these students in writing and interpreting readings. According to Filreis, who is also one of the University coordinators for the program, the tutors attempt to serve as intellectual models for the Edison students by providing a modest, bottom-up program. "Four years ago, we in the English department decided to try our hand at setting up a community program," Filreis said. "We want to help kids as directly as possible because it helps us." The program attempts to familiarize the Edison students with college by inviting them to the University for visits, theater events and an end-of-the-year dinner. Carlos Decena, a graduate from Edison-Fereira High School and a current University senior, said the program motivates Edison students by giving them extraordinary opportunities. "The students really like the kind of attention that they get from Penn students," Decena said. "These kids who have very little appreciate it all the more." Decena warned, however, that while participating in the program is a rewarding experience, "you just can't expect to make miracles." "It's an issue of trying to get the students to advance, even if it's only in terms of motivation," he said. Walt Fellman, one of the Edison teachers coordinating the program, said the partnership gives students the unusual opportunity to work in a one-on-one academic situation. "We try various forms of writing, various types of writing and editing, student writing, student response," Fellman said. "We interpret them together. We debate. We don't want to do things where the kids who are less assertive can hide. "It can be volatile, it can be loving. It can be thoughtful and interesting. It's a living thing," he added. In the history of the four-year program, three graduates have attended the University, although the program is not a recruiting effort. Evelyn Bender, librarian at Edison-Fereira and program coordinator with Fellman, said while working in the program is at times difficult, "it's a pleasure to see that successful projects can survive." "People get very excited about the program," she said. "That excitement keeps me going."