For the 12 senior girls in Ms. Russell's English class at University City High School, Monday is a lucky day.
Instead of learning the normal curriculum, the young women spend their English period in the library with four Penn women, participating in weekly Girl Talk sessions.
Although the majority of yesterday's semester kick-off session consisted of ice-breaker activities, Girl Talk -- which was started in 1997 by three Penn students -- brings Penn women and female high schoolers together for discussions that will eventually focus on social issues and fostering female relationships.
According to Quanisha Smith, a College junior and the current director of the Girl Talk program, UCHS students are predominantly from working-class and female-headed households. "You're going to have to learn how to deal with other females," Smith says, adding that her group seeks to "foster those relationships and show [the young girls] the importance of them."
Michelle Russell, the girls' 12th grade English teacher, has allowed Penn coordinators to come into her classroom for the past three years. She says the Penn coordinators "have created a focus for the whole semester that I can connect to issues in my classroom."
The Penn coordinators represent women who are not parents or teachers, but peers who the younger girls can turn to for advice, motivation and reassurance, according to College senior Naeema Thompson.
Jess Uitto, a College senior who led a session yesterday morning, says, "It is particularly important to me that these young women we work with know that they have options and choices in the future to advance their educations [and] careers."
With small class sizes, Smith says that coordinators are able to tailor discussions toward topics relevant to the age of the group.
Girl Talk is also currently being offered to a class of 10th grade females at UCHS, which is located at 36th and Filbert streets.
According to Smith, the Girl Talk discussions for 10th graders are geared to "hit home with academics." However, the dialogue with 12th graders will deal with everything from sex and relationships to body image and interracial dating to resume and interview workshops.
"We make sure we're not doing an injustice [to the girls] by taking them out of an academic class," Smith says. She justifies the use of class time by having the high schoolers write in journals "to work on their critical thinking skills," and do a reading and activity each week, followed by a group discussion.
With the success of Girl Talk at UCHS, Smith brought the idea to Drew Elementary School, where eighth-grade females were able to take part in the program starting this past spring.
With no parallel program for the eighth-grade males at Drew, College junior Gerren Price and Wharton junior Brian Washington saw the need to start Rap Sessions.
According to Price, last semester's Rap Sessions centered around a variety of topics, such as hip hop music, sexual relationships and racial prejudice, just to name a few.
Both Russell and the senior boys in her class would like to see a program like Rap Sessions started at UCHS. "The only thing that would improve Girl Talk would be to have [a similar] group for the young men," Russell says. As the girls left English yesterday morning, the remaining boys seemed disappointed that they weren't invited.
Both Girl Talk and Rap Sessions receive funding from the Makuu Black Student Cultural Center and are being supported by the Center for Community Partnerships.
Prior to receiving University funding, Penn student volunteers received little training. This semester, however, Penn coordinators had to attend an orientation session after they applied, where they discussed topics such as how to stay sensitive to certain issues and how to be a good facilitator.
Andrine Wilson, a College junior starting her second year as a coordinator for Girl Talk, benefited from a comparable program when she was in middle school.
"I had a similar support system when I was in the eighth grade ... and the experience was invaluable," Wilson says.
Smith says the rewards are reciprocal.
"You have to share a part of yourself with these students," she says. Coordinators "grow to love these girls. ... You're sharing your experiences and learning from each other. They challenge me and I challenge them ... to [see] things from a different perspective."
