University of Pennsylvania
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Examples of partnerships with the Netter Center include:
Coordinated involvement of students in teaching environmental education in local K-12 Schools. In partnership with the Netter Center, the Penn Sustainability Office is recruiting and funding undergrad and grad students to assist three to five hours per week each to implement the Urban Watersheds Curriculum. This pilot curriculum is being implemented in three grades in nine public schools. http://www.phillywatersheds.org/urban-watersheds-curriculum-guide

As a second initiative, the Netter Center facilitates the temporary hiring of selected student research interns working with local environmental non-profits, such as the Neighborhood Gardens Trust, the Philadelphia Horticultural Society tree tenders, and City Harvest.

The Penn Civic House is working with the Sustainability Office to develop environmentally themed year-long internships and environmentally themed alternative spring break projects. In 2018, about 15 Penn students are participating in an environmentally themed alternative spring break project.
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/civichouse/ParticipateinASB.php

The Lower Schuylkill River area initiatives include support for low-income residential neighborhoods with non-profit agriculture initiatives and neighborhood improvement programs in current and former industrial lands. Several Penn program collaboratively address the social, environmental, and economic deficiencies in the area, including students and faculty engaged in community organizing, public education, design research, local farming and food security, youth education, and environmental justice issues. The Penn Sustainability Office and the Netter Center sponsor students working at Bartram's Farm, a community-based five-acre farm initiative that benefits local youth and the adjacent public housing development by providing fresh farm produce, education on nutrition and healthy eating, and sustainable business enterprises.

http://www.ppehlab.org/dateum-ecological-temporalities-of-the-lower-schuylkill-river-philadelphia/
http://www.ppehlab.org/floating/
https://bartramsgarden.org/explore-bartrams/the-farm/

As part of the Sustainability Office's summer research internship programs, the Sustainability Office partners with the School of Design to recruit students to work directly for city agencies focused on environmental sustainability, including the Philadelphia Managing Director's Office Zero Waste project, the City's Sustainability Office, the Philadelphia Energy Authority, and the Philadelphia Energy Office.

https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/
https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/programs/moelis-access-science
https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/programs/agatston-urban-nutrition-initiative
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/civichouse/programs.php

The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to engaging with both the campus and public community on sustainability, with a goal to make climate change and sustainability part of the Penn culture. This commitment and long standing tradition of both campus and public engagement around the issue of sustainability is seen through campus sustainability groups and community focused centers. Both public and campus engagement organizations partner with the Sustainability Office to create student internships, engage in environmental issues, and build knowledge around sustainability. For a more complete listing of engagement activities on campus, please see EN 10 to EN 14.

The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.