Impacting the Student Experience

Impacting the Student Experience

FOOD PANTRY/FOOD INSECURITY

At Community College of Philadelphia, academic success is not just the result of a strong curriculum. Our commitment includes addressing the many circumstances that can prevent students from focusing on their education. The College’s food pantries at Main Campus and at each of the three Regional Centers help hundreds of students who face food insecurity each month. The Snack Rack food pantries, which rely on the support of generous donors, have had more than 9,000 visits since first opening in 2017. The Snack Rack services expanded in winter 2019 to include Healthy Initiative giveaways from our own Grady’s Community Garden with the goal of providing nutritious options and knowledge about growing your own food. Seven garden giveaways have served more than 545 students.

These programs call attention to the greater effort necessary for our students to succeed. The College’s work is also reflected in the broader community, which has expressed a similar desire to tackle the effects of poverty on our students’ ability to learn.

“It’s astonishing to read the statistics of how many of our students are homeless or hungry, without access to real nourishment,” says Mehran Yazdanian, a pharmaceutical scientist living in the Fairmount neighborhood. Yazdanian grew his efforts to support local food drives into a scholarship fund for College students suffering from food insecurity. “This is my neighborhood, and it feels personal.”

9,000+
visits to the Snack Rack since opening in 2017

Perry Watts, a donor to the College whose education is rooted in clinical social work, researched and presented on newspaper articles showing the impact of poverty. She was particularly inspired by The Inquirer’s coverage of poverty in Philadelphia. “Exposing these statistics meant my work had come full circle,” says Watts. Her research led her straight to the College. “The more stories I read about incredible students who had overcome similar issues—Hazim Hardeman, Anyssa El Manfaa—CCP kept coming back as their launch pad.”

Her discoveries inevitably led her and her husband to develop the John R. Jensen Scholarship Fund, which will provide one student with up to $5,000 in tuition, fees and books. “You have to have sufficient nourishment to be able to learn. We have to advance the comfort level of any student so that they can learn without worry about survival.”

545+

students

served through seven Healthy Initiatives Garden Giveaways, which began in Winter 2019

Parx Casino Diversity and Inclusion Partnership

PARX CASINO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PARTNERSHIP

The College and Parx Casino established a diversity and inclusion partnership in 2018 to help fund support services for students who are veterans, LGBTQ+, women, and members of underserved communities.

With funding from Parx Casino, the Center on Disability established an emergency fund for disability-related needs. The partnership funds have increased the capacity of the Veterans Resource Center, as well as expand- ed its programming. Parx supports the purchase of food for the College’s Center for Male Engagement Strong Men, Strong Lives, Strong Futures program series, which not only motivates students to attend, but also helps address the growing issue of food insecurity on campus. The Strong Men, Strong Lives, Strong Futures scholarship also provides additional opportunities for students and, since it began, all recipients are either on target to graduate or have graduated from the College and transferred to a four-year institution. With Parx’s support, the Women’s Leadership Academy has expanded its programming, which consists of the Women in Motion workshops, emPOWER Hour seminars and Women’s Leadership Conference, with more than 75 participants in the various events held in the 2019–2020 academic year. Additionally, the Parx partnership supports the costs of hosting the LGBTQ Conference, with previous sessions on hidden bias, intersectionality, and developing policies that are designed to build understanding and create more inclusive environments for all.

Seeing the Music

SEEING THE MUSIC

Blind since birth, Chris is a student in the Sound Recording and Music Technology program, where he must read and create sheet music. Since sheet music is a highly visual format, Chris needed more than traditional screen reading technology.

The Center on Disability and the Music Department worked with Chris to identify a software program that enables blind individuals to read sheet music. With the Parx Casino Empowered for Success Initiative funding for the Center on Disability, a license for this expensive software for both Chris and the Music Department was purchased, allowing Chris to pursue his Music degree.