Wharton 'manages' to steer area kids in the right direction

The potential success of two Wharton Management 100 teams could be reflected in more than just high grades for their freshman participants -- local high school students stand to benefit as well. One group is working with John Bartram High School in West Philadelphia to improve resources for the Communications Academy, a career-oriented academic program run out of the school, while the second group is encouraging students at North Philadelphia's Briney Elementary School to stay away from drugs and alcohol. Wharton freshman Melissa Ronaghan said her group has plans to wire, renovate and redecorate the Academy's library facilities, adding that her team held focus groups with students, faculty and board members to identify which of the school's needs should be addressed. The group is currently seeking corporate sponsorship to help purchase posters, paint, furniture, educational software and current college information, in addition to test preparation guides, reference materials and at least five computers for the Academy. They also seek help in establishing an ISDN connection for the school by mid-November. The group has created a World Wide Web site for their project at http://home.onestop.net/mgmt100. Bartram Program Coordinator Hannah Winston noted that the library's current holdings consist of "no computers, no Xerox machines, no technology of any sort" and the shelves are stacked with "partial sets of encyclopedias from the 1970s." Program coordinators and the Management 100 team members hope these initiatives will ultimately foster increased extracurricular interests among Bartram students. While Ronaghan's team will focus on improving Bartram's physical facilities, the second team will work to actually improve the health and well-being of Briney students through the school's STRIDE program. STRIDE stands for "Students Taking Responsibility in Drug Education." The initiative was developed in 1990 with emergency medicine physicians at Albert Einstein Medical Center. It teaches grade school children about healthy alternatives to alcohol and drugs. Gregory said his group wants to reinforce Einstein's traditional four-week after-school program by "individualizing our attention to one school and one group of children over an [additional] eight-week stretch of time." They hope to put together a graduation ceremony November 19 for the third- and fourth-grade participants, complete with certificates of accomplishment and a performance by a Penn performing arts group. Gregory said there are plans to extend the involvement of Penn groups into a program called "POPS"-- Penn Outreach Program for Students -- in which performers will travel to different schools and possibly even evolve into a community service club at the University.