Meet the Civic ScholarsClass of 2016
Class of 2017
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
|
|
Lucia’s interest in civic engagement dates back to her Girl Scout troop’s trip to a non-profit preschool in 2007. The visit sparked her interest and she volunteered at the preschool in West Oakland for the following four years. Through this experience she became interested in educational equality and began to learn about the challenges facing the impoverished West Oakland community. In 2009, Lucia and her family embarked on a project to start the first elementary charter school in West Oakland. Her involvement in the effort to start Vincent Academy ranged from organizing volunteers at the public hearing for charter approval to distributing recruitment flyers throughout the community to helping with construction and volunteering in the classroom. This past summer, Lucia worked in the first Summer Program at Vincent Academy. Lucia also participated in a range of community involvement through her high school. She participated in her school’s service trip to Senegal and co-led both the New Global Citizens and Africa Service Partnership clubs. |
|
|
Inspired by the kindness and passion for equality that their parents displayed, Roderick was an advocate for LGBTQ rights even before they realized that they were a member of that community. At Penn, they co-founded the organization Penn Non-Cis, which focuses specifically on the rights and struggles of transgender and gender non-conforming people. They serve as the Vice Chair of Outreach Programs for Penn’s Lambda Alliance, reaching out to incoming students who identify as LGBTQ as well as making sure that Penn remains a safe space for queer people. They have also worked with Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention and Penn Monologues, as well as tutoring through the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. Roderick is a proud feminist and activist who tries their best to serve as an ally to communities other than their own. Roderick hopes to use their education at Penn as a Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Major to attend law school and plans to make it their life’s work to help others reform and navigate systems that oppress queer people, people of color, impoverished people, and other groups. |
|
Clara Jane Hendrickson
|
Growing up in a household with four older brothers, Clara has always been aware of the important role gender plays in constructing one’s identity. In her hometown of San Francisco she volunteered at La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence agency serving women living in the Bay Area. She conducted extensive research on domestic violence, teenage dating violence, elder abuse, and peer counseling among other topics in order to revitalize La Casa’s outdated volunteer manual. The product was an concise and accessible guide for volunteers working directly with victims of domestic violence. Clara was awarded Soroptimist International’s Violet Richardson Award for her work at La Casa. As co-leader of SWEAR (Students for Women’s Equality and Rights), Clara co-produced, co-directed, and co-wrote SWEAR Words, an original benefit production that featured the voices of the young women at her high school and poems and narratives from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. This past summer, Clara volunteered at the Arab Cultural and Community Center, working as a teaching assistant in the English as a Second Language class for recent female immigrants from the Arab world and helping the social services department with client referrals and assistance. |
|
|
Rob’n is a Philadelphia native who is fascinated by environmental science and passionate about environmental justice. Her love of science has compelled her to volunteer for several summers at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Dinosaur Hall. While she was there, Rob’n not only worked with caring for fossils and interacting with visitors, but she also worked with children who would pretend to be paleontologists in a digging area called “The Big Dig”. Rob’n is also a lover of music. For her Junior Project, Rob’n worked with preschoolers in the Kaleidoscope Arts Enrichment Program in the Germantown branch of Settlement Music School where the curriculum consisted of combining academics with various forms of art (music, dance, visual art, etc). In addition to supporting the arts in education, Rob’n has also played violin for the residents at her grandma’s nursing home, Germantown Home. Rob’n is excited about the different clubs here at Penn and hopes to be involved in various music groups while she is here. |
|
|
When she was in second grade, Casey lead a group of her friends in a penny drive for the local animal shelter and from that point on she was addicted to community service. In high sch |
|
|
Raisa’s interest in civic engagement began in ninth grade with a year of teaching in orphanages in India and Bangladesh. The following summer, she interned at Grameen Bank, a microfinance institution offering collateral free loans. Discovering that both the borrowers’ and the children’s emotional happiness remained unaffected by their dire economic state, Raisa learned that humans have the ability to choose to fulfill themselves – whether it’s through viewing education from volunteers as an opportunity or by securing loans from Grameen Bank. In addition, through the enrichment she received from Penn for Youth Debate, she realized that volunteering can actually make a difference in someone else’s life. Her understanding that altruism could not be the sole reason encouraged her to travel internationally to gain a perspective on human issues. Last summer, she interned for a reputable Barrister at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh through which she was able to contribute to the work of advocates for a gender sensitive approach to the application of national law in urban and rural courts. She hopes to use her passion for service to enhance her studies in Political Science and International Relations. |
|
|
Lauren believes that we are all taking part in the restoration of all things good. With this, she understands that we all have a responsibility to give of ourselves to one another. For her, this took the form of volunteering at an underprivileged elementary school starting her Freshman year after severe district wide budget cuts in the Providence area. She served as a tutor and mentor while also teaching a film class at an after school arts program. While she loved her time spent in the classroom, Lauren also found a heart for Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. She has produced three documentaries following each of her trips which she used to help raise funds for an orphanage. In the process she absolutely fell in love with the people of Haiti. Her time was mostly spent cleaning up rubble, getting beaten at soccer, and changing mountains of diapers. Lauren is in the Wharton School pursuing concentrations in Social Impact & Responsibility and Entrepreneurship. |
|
|
During high school, Alison’s civic service efforts focused on malnutrition in Haiti. She began her work just a few weeks after the earthquake hit in 2010 with the initial desire to fill any necessary position in the emergency victims’ hospital. After a week of being a physical therapist’s assistant and witnessing minimal improvement among the injured, Alison noticed that a lack of nutrition must be the culprit. Upon returning home, she met with food scientists, protein bar manufacturers, and nutritionists to formulate a protein gel that would act as a meal supplement and ultimately relieve the Haitians of malnutrition. With the collection of $50,000 in donations, Alison and the team were able to create the Hope Gel, an orange creamsicle-flavored protein gel that would taste good, but also provide the necessary fat, vitamins, protein, and calories to fight off malnutrition. The Hope Gel is continuously being shipped to hospitals and orphanages in Haiti, helping hundreds not only become healthy, but also more aware of how necessary nutrition is to survival and happiness. The ultimate goal is to reach self-sufficiency without having to depend on the gel for survival. She hopes this is a helpful jumpstart to a brighter future. |
|
|
Alli’s passion for community service and civic engagement began at a young age. In middle school, she founded a chapter for Soaring Words and also worked heavily at Mount Sinai hospital in the Children Zone. In high school, Alli took a class called World Religions. When she learned about the plight of girls in the Middle East to receive an education she immediately became passionate about an organization called Circle of Women. She founded her own chapter called School Colors, which sold sailor knot bracelets in the colors of the school in which they were being sold. The profits of the bracelets went to building all-girl schools in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. So far, School Colors has raised over ten thousand dollars. Alli won the Violet Richardson Award for her work with School Colors and Circle of Women. Alli was the Senior Leader of the Community Service Organization for three years and established partnerships with over ten non-profits with the Spence School. One of her favorite organizations is Girls Inc. NYC. Spence girls visited a Girls Inc site once a week for an entire year to create a beautiful and vibrant classroom that was more conducive to learning and fostered a sense of pride and self-respect for the Girls Inc girls. |
