Service learning projects completed in 2017 include:
By Yumi Kendall, Linda Schiavone and Yi Hui Tan
Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA) supports its residents with therapeutic care and vocational training within a community setting. The service learning project team proposed research-informed activities, which can be incorporated into daily life or explored in a dedicated workshop, that support long-term recovery and well-being by encouraging meaningful connections, cultivating gratitude, and improving communication.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Elizabeth Jennings, Benjamin Jones, Faisal Khan and Shivanee Sen
Liberty Community Connections (LCC), a disability services provider in Pennsylvania, has invested in a robust training institute to recruit and retain a talented and engaged workforce. The service learning project team piloted a resilience-building training module for LCC staff and created a framework to help the LCC training institute create and review further training applications drawn from positive psychology.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
Kerry Sanderson, Jill Greenberg and Lauren Ogle
The ROCK Center for Youth Development is a nonprofit dedicated to providing positive education to middle and high school students in Midland, Michigan. The service learning project team assisted The ROCK in adapting its services to the specific needs of students attending local universities, for whom support in areas such as stress management and relationship building can help promote academic success. Their research enabled The ROCK to apply for a grant-funded program from the Michigan College Access Network.
The ROCK named the MAPP program as the 2018 recipient of its “Friend of the ROCK” award in recognition of the programs ongoing work. Learn more about this award on the Penn Arts and Sciences News website.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Carolyn Gray, Henry Narwhal, Rosie Jaye and Supakorn Laohasongkram
The Shawnee Institute, which organizes and hosts a wide variety of training experiences from workshops to retreats, intends to develop a professional certificate program in applied positive education. The service learning project team laid the groundwork for this certificate by determining a set of learning competencies in positive education, outlining a curriculum, and proposing an application plan for the implementation and evaluation of the new program.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Tajender Luthra, Kathi Norman and Scott Riddel
Bethesda Project (BP), a nonprofit organization located in Philadelphia, PA, provides shelter, housing and programs to 2,000 chronically homeless men and women. To support staff well-being, the service learning project team proposed resilience training with an emphasis on developing optimistic and flexible patterns of thinking. The training was designed to be rolled out systematically, beginning with senior management, and customized on a site-by-site basis.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Frawn Morgan, Adriana Mora, Rolanda Manitowabi and Sofya Glazycheva
Serving communities in Baltimore, Camden, and Philadelphia, the Sister Cities Girlchoir (SCG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering girls through musical education and performance. In addition to choir practice, SCG’s weekly meetings also feature a session of community building called Sister Circle Time. In collaboration with SCG, the service learning project team developed curricula for three new Sister Circle Time activities to foster character development, gratitude, and belonging, while building positive relationships and connections between the girls.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Erin Griffin, Dwight Jaggard, Glory Singh and Jessica Turak
A distinguished liberal arts university in Sonepat, India, Ashoka University partnered with MAPP to enhance student well-being. The service learning project team created a curriculum to teach the fundamentals of self-efficacy, positive relationships, attention, and resilience to students in the Young India Fellowship program. Designed to take place in weekly sessions without disrupting the university’s academic calendar, the curriculum can be scaled or adapted to different student populations.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Sophia Kokores, Anne Johnstone, Julia King and Amanda Jones
In partnership with the International Positive Education Network (IPEN), this service learning project team responded to the growing need for resilience training and tools to promote well-being for teachers. To develop a low-cost, user-friendly, and globally accessible platform for teachers to learn and develop resilience skills, the students proposed a podcast series that would explain key concepts with real classroom examples and could be customized to meet IPEN’s ongoing needs.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
By Chira E. Cassel, Jaclyn M. Gaffaney, Luke A. Obermann, Patricia Joo Segall and Ryan L. Wynia
The Citizens Academy of Midland, Michigan, is a civic leadership program designed to teach Midland residents about how their local government works. The service learning project team proposed changes to the Citizens Academy recruitment process in order to appeal to a larger and more inclusive pool of participants, created four positive psychology-based exercises to be incorporated into its existing curriculum, and recommended a civic engagement scale to measure the efficacy of the proposed interventions.
See the full service learning project on Penn's Scholarly Commons website.
