Tonight, Penn’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program will show the community that just a few small steps can make a big difference.
The group will host a presentation at 7 p.m. in Huntsman Hall, where Political Science Professor John DiIulio, faculty director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, will discuss America’s “achievement trap.”
The achievement trap “is a corollary to the achievement gap,” said College senior Eileen McKeown, student director of BBBS. She explained that the “achievement trap” is a term that refers to the academic difficulties that high-achieving, low-income students face as they move through school.
According to DiIulio, over 3.4 million low-income children in the United States are academically high-achieving in elementary school but “lose ground academically by middle school and are more likely to drop out of high school.”
DiIulio will begin the presentation with a summary of his co-authored report “Achievement Trap: How America is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families,” according to Josh Power, associate director of the Fox Leadership program.
Following the presentation, student community service leaders will participate in a discussion panel to comment on Penn’s efforts to combat this problem in West Philadelphia. The program will end with an open information session on different tutoring and mentoring opportunities in the area.
Tonight’s program is part of BBBS’s work to provide support and guidance for lower-income students in West Philadelphia. And according to McKeown, BBBS has had a positive impact on the community.
She said studies have shown that the children involved with BBBS — “littles” — “are less likely to get into drugs or drop out of school.”
The presentation will focus on the achievement trap and how it can be solved. But McKeown said she also wants to stres that anyone can get involved in community service in West Philadelphia.
“The point is to show that there’s no profile for a student who gets involved,” she said. “Penn has something to offer for anyone.”
