This spring, 14 learning-disabled University City High School students spent a semester in a special program at Penn designed to give them essential job skills while continuing their education. The students were paired with mentors who provided support and help with their studies; at the same time, they received training from "job coaches" attached to units of Penn's Business Services Department and performed jobs at a number of campus sites, including the Bookstore , the Penn Tower Hotel , Dining Services and the Wharton Sinkler Conference Center .

On May 10, the people involved in the program honored its graduates and their families with a luncheon at the Penn Tower. The graduates and their families heard Alan Reich, president of the National Organization on Disability (seated in photo), encourage them to make the most of their abilities and skills as productive members of the work force.

Each of the graduates received a certificate of recognition and congratulations from Carol Davis (standing at left), the University City High School teacher who ran the educational component of the program. Several of the graduates also received something more important: full-time jobs at Penn, in some cases at the sites where they worked while in the program.

With Davis in the photo are the other partners involved in the program's success (from left to right): Mary Jane Clancy, director of the office of Education for Employment Program, Philadelphia School District; Ira Harkavy, director of the Center for Community Partnerships; Charles Dye of the Annie Casey Foundation, which provided funding for the program; James Lytle, University City High principal; and Claude Schrader, liaison from Education for Employment, an organization that promotes and arranges programs aimed at preparing students with disabilities for real-world jobs. The Elwyn Institute, a West Philadelphia-based rehabilitation and training school for disabled people, was also involved in the program.

Return to Compass Features for July 16, 1996