The West Philadelphia Improvement Corps celebrated a decade of achievement on Saturday, March 30, with a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Sheraton University City Hotel. Housed at the West Philadelphia Partnership, WEPIC offers community-school, educational-enrichment and service learning programs in nine West Philadelphia public schools, drawing on resources from Penn and the surrounding community.

As part of the celebration, WEPIC honored the people whose vision made it a reality and took another step into the future with the awarding of a new scholarship to assist WEPIC alumni with their college studies. Antwan Diggins (second from left), a prelaw student at Waynseburg University, participated in WEPIC's carpentry apprenticeship program while in school. As the first WEPIC scholarship recipient, he will receive $500 for his next year's tuition.

Pictured with Diggins are the honorees who founded WEPIC and guided it through its first decade. From the left, they are: Dr. Ira Harkavy, head of the Center for Community Partnerships at Penn , whose idea for a youth service program in Philadelphia schools formed the nucleus of WEPIC; George Brown, who, as director of the West Philadelphia Partnership at the program's founding, saw WEPIC through its first period of expansion; Marvin Schuman, former head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers; Turner Middle School teacher Marie Bogle, who has been involved in WEPIC from its start at Bryant Elementary School; and George DiPilato, former Southwest Region district superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia, who, along with Schuman, provided support that allowed WEPIC to expand into additional schools in West and Southwest Philadelphia.

Return to Compass Features for April 16, 1996