Search Results
Below are your search results. You can also try a Basic Search.
(04/12/94 9:00am)
Neither rain, nor lack of sleep, nor early hours will deter committed individuals from their community service actions, it seems. Early Saturday morning, 30 students from several campus groups travelled throughout the city to clean streets, serve meals to low income families and construct housing for sick children and their families. Marcine Pickron-Davis, assistant director of the program for student-community involvement, united the five campus groups in an effort to help alleviate hunger and aid in the cleanup of certain sites in West Philadelphia. Representatives of the Community Service Living Learning Program, the Kite and Key Society, Beta Alpha Psi, Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and Circle K all participated in the campaign. Last year, about 125 students took part in the cleanup, but only 30 were present for this year's effort. "This is a difficult weekend for volunteers because of Easter," Pickron-Davis explained. "However, next weekend would be impossible because of Spring Fling." Originally nine sites were targeted for aid, but the number was reduced to five because of inclement weather. Participants prepared food packages at the People's Emergency Center, helped construct and paint an addition at the Ronald McDonald House on 39th and Chestnut streets and helped paint and refurbish an area resident's home that had been targeted by the Episcopal Community Services. Some students also swept streets and cleaned up the area around a local school with Lulac, a Latino organization, and worked with Philadelphians Concerned About Housing. In addition to physical work, students solicited sponsors' monetary pledges. Half of the money raised from donations is sent to a third world country, according to Pickron-Davis, while the other half is sent to a student-selected service organization. All of the students involved said they participated in the event for different reasons, ranging from improving society to personal satisfaction. "This improves things for people because we can put a lot of hours in to insure people get good housing," said College freshman and Alpha Chi Rho brother Chris Bock. "I'm hoping to share some experience with my friends here and get a better first hand understanding of people's plights," explained Wharton senior Steven Foecking. Others cited more down-to-earth reasons for their involvement. "I don't look at things in some grandiose matter," College senior Matt Larson said. "I just want to help out."
(03/22/93 10:00am)
A Sussex University researcher who focuses on cultural materialism delivered the second lecture in this year's Gates Lecture Series on Friday at Van Pelt Library. A mixed audience of about 40 graduate students and faculty members listened intently as Alan Sinfield discussed "Art as Cultural Materialism." Sinfield began his lecture by outlining the origins of cultural materialism, a development he traces to the Second World War. Sinfield then described the ways is which art has been and still is utilized in manners besides that of aesthetic appeal. Literature has several peculiarities associated with it, Sinfield said. Associating literature with "patriarchy, nation and empire" is one such use, he said. "Shakespeare's works are widely deployed in political arenas as 'Britishness,' " Sinfield said. This was not always the case. In the 19th century, art was "gendered as feminine," considered by the businessmen of that era as "proper for wives and daughters," Sinfield added. Sinfield cited T.S. Eliot's personal experiences as illustrative of this phenomena. Eliot, Sinfield told the audience, was "called a sissy by neighborhood kids and a 'Miss Nanny' by his father" because of his love of writing. Sinfield's audience was excited at the chance to discuss cultural materialism with a renowned member of the field. "This is the last word on what is happening that has to do with interdisciplanary work," Romance Languages Professor Jorge Salessi said. "It will and does make people uncomfortable because it is cutting edge." "I think Alan Sinfield's work is wonderful. Alan is a really important voice, and a founder in the field of cultural studies," graduate student Amy Robinson said. The final two lectures will be given today in the sixth floor of Van Pelt. The first will deal with the post-war movement in the United States, and will begin at 5:30. The second lecture on sub-cultural reading starts at 8:30.
(01/21/93 10:00am)
Several students learned last Saturday that in addition to baking themselves in the sun, they can also use it to bake food. That revelation came during a workshop sponsored by the Penn Society for International Development, which featured a display of a solar box that can roast a chicken in two hours and cook large roasts in four. "Put [a solar box containing] a pot of rice out in the sun and it's cooked in three hours," College senior Jennifer Pico said. Club members constructed the solar box -- which heats the food inside by reflecting solar energy off of the exterior -- out of cardboard, aluminum foil, glass and newspaper. The club is planning to demonstrate the capabilities of the solar box on Locust Walk later this semester, said PENNSID president Jessica Davis, a College senior. Because the solar box can be made from such inexpensive materials, it has the potential to provide underdeveloped countries with a method of cooking food, according to a film shown at the workshop. Such a development would lessen their dependence on fossil fuels and reduce some pressure on their troubled economies, according to the film. Davis said the Peace Corps and similar groups have spread the use of the solar box to the neediest countries, including India and several African nations. Both Zimbabwe and Zaire recently began using solar boxes, Pico said. But use of the box in the United States has been strictly experimental, almost on the level of recreation, Davis said. The principles behind a solar box can also be adapted for other uses, such as heating buildings. "I want to make an energy efficient house and this may help," College senior Chris Rollins said. PENNSID, which was founded two years ago, consists of undergraduates, graduates and professors concerned with international relations, Davis said. Club members have participated in field work in Haiti, Nigeria, Ecuador and India, Davis added.
(10/07/92 9:00am)
Supporters of PENNlincs, the University's science mentoring program, hope to expand the program to universities and colleges nationwide, the program's creator said yesterday. The National Science Foundation has asked PENNlincs Director Jean Roberts to submit a proposal on the possibility of creating more mentor programs based on the PENNlincs model for use at other universities. PENNlincs, a tutoring program comprised of University students with strong backgrounds in the sciences, sends students into city schools to work with schoolchildren. The volunteers conduct hands-on lessons and are concerned primarily with recording their observations. Each PENNlincs mentor tutors a small group of students in hour-long sessions each week, Roberts said. College senior Samantha Pozner, who has been involved in PENNlincs for the past four years, said the program seems to be extremely beneficial to the children she has taught. She said that the program provides an environment where the children are "learning, but having fun." Roberts stressed that the program is not a standard question-and-answer session, but that it is based on a "social-constructionist model" where the mentor finds out what the students know about the subject and then teaches them more about the subject. There are currently 26 city schools affiliated with PENNlincs. Building on the success of the program at the University, Temple University created a similar program last spring. The College of Textiles and Science and Drexel University are in the process of creating similar programs based on the PENNlincs model, Roberts said. Roberts added that other regions of the United States are being targeted as well. She said that universities in Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, New Mexico and Iowa have expressed interest in the program. Pozner said she that she finds it rewarding to help students who may not be motivated in a normal classroom setting Pozner explains that the small group settings facilitate learning, because a mentor can see the academic weaknesses in a group, and concentrate on the misunderstood areas.
