City Year rally showcases back-to-school pep

Shields and Leighton are among more than 200 Americorps’ members, ages 17 to 24, working in 18 Philadelphia public schools, focusing on helping students make improvements in attendance, behavior and coursework, as part of an overall dropout prevention strategy.

City Year Philadelphia celebrated the start of a new school year at a pep rally Friday morning at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City. It was one of several in the city to welcome students back to school.

Another event presented school supplies donated in a campaign sponsored by Global Citizen, a local community advocate group.

During a pep rally, slide presentation, City Year featured the names of more than a dozen businesses sponsoring public schools for the academic year, including Comcast/NBC Universal, Deloitte, Lenfest Foundation, Ballard-Spahr, AT&T, Starbucks, Wawa, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, among others.

“Thanks for accepting the responsibility of wearing the red jacket,” team leader Jasmin Harvey said, addressing dozens of enthusiastic AmeriCorps members donning City Year’s iconic red jackets.

“Twelve-thousand students need us,” she said, referring to an estimated number of students considered at risk of dropping out.

Both Sheilds and Leighton, who returned to City Year for their second year, shared student success stories before the start of the pep rally.

Shields, 23, of West Philadelphia, remembered helping a student who was three grade levels behind in reading.

“I was working with seventh-graders, and we were able to get him up to a sixth-grade reading level, two grade levels, in a span of six months,” Shields said. “I decided to come back because I wanted to continue the work that City Year does and make schools welcoming, engaging places,” said Cassidy, 24, who lives in Old City.

Both AmeriCorps’ members talked about learning about the job and themselves as a result of their work.

“For me, it was learning and realizing service is mutual,” Shields said. “It wasn’t just what I was giving to the students, but they taught me a lot of things about myself, about approach, attitude, about meeting people where they are and helping them.”

City Year Philadelphia’s executive director, Darryl Bundrige, thanked the AmeriCorps’ members, who receive a stipend, for committing to making life better for students during City Year’s 19th year in Philadelphia.

“That’s the bare minimum of what we’re going to do,” said Bundrige, who predicted the one millionth person would join City Year network, which operates in major U.S. cities, later this year.

City Year uses the social media hash-tag, “#makebetterhappen.”

“Y’all look awesome,” Bundrige said as an ice-breaker to dozens of AmeriCorps’ members with a thick Southern accent. “Y’all really do.”

Bundrige, who also serves as vice president, said City Year had attracted a diverse work-force representing rural, suburban and urban areas, and varied socio-economic levels, all working to “improve our society.”

Also Friday, Global Citizens dropped off school supplies at two public schools, Edward Gideon Elementary School and Roberto Clemente Middle School.

More than 25 local businesses and organizations contributed to the drive between Aug. 22 to Sept. 2, including Global Citizen, which organizes the annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service, the School District of Philadelphia, Black-talk radio station, 900AM-WURD, the African American Museum and Home Depot.

Todd Bernstein, founding president of Global Citizen, said the campaign drive offered a chance to the community at-large to help the school district, which is still operating under significant debt.

“If you harness the resources of the community, sometimes that’s what it takes to fully meet the need of students in Philadelphia’s public school system,” he said.