Educational and Community Projects and Program Development
Addressing Philadelphia’s most critical challenges requires deliberate action and effort. Thus, bringing together youth, educational institutions, and community partners to meet new people, share their experiences and ideas, and spend time listening and learning from one another is a crucial step toward building understanding in these challenging times to create a brighter and safer Philadelphia. The Groupchat: A Safe Philadelphia is a space dedicated to engaging young people in a community-wide conversation about keeping Philadelphia safe, and providing them with access to resources from the city and local partners. Via open and intentional dialogue, partners co-host a series of discussions that highlight the importance of Gen-Z and Gen Alpha voices, voting, and youth civic engagement to empower youth to imagine what Philadelphia can accomplish and look like when we come together toward a common cause and work to establish a city where everyone has a voice and seat at the table
Founder, 2023 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The GroupChat: A Safe Philadelphia
Bridging the Gap is a highly interactive exploratory program designed to help facilitate growth and development in high school students’ career exploration. The program works to create a space where participants experience and learn the value of education and are able to understand the connection to future careers. Participants are exposed to the various career opportunities within their communities and the importance of the choices they make in high school, as it relates to their career trajectories.
Participants are given the opportunity to develop and practice networking and critical thinking skills needed to prepare for their career and and/or postsecondary education plans. Learn more here!
Bridging the Gap
Founder, 2019
With the complexity of today's workforce combined with the increasing demands of 21st century skills, it has never been more imperative that our youth understand the importance of higher education and explore career options while developing skills to help them succeed in their future academic and career pursuits. Thus, Pathways: offers a unique experience for underrepresented and underserved high school students to explore and learn about higher education institutions and alternative career pathways.
The Pathways: program recognizes there are many paths to success, including four- and two-year colleges, trade and vocational programs, workforce development and many more options! Thus, through the Pathways: program we explore all of these amazing pathways with our students. Learn more here!
Pathways:
Founder, 2019
A Day in the Life of a Buckeye is a program created to offer an individualized experience for urban and rural Ohio high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors to experience life at The Ohio State University (and college in general), for a day. This visit, hosted by currently enrolled Ohio State students, includes attending classes, eating in campus-area dining facilities, visiting campus libraries and recreational facilities, attending student group meetings, seeing a residence hall room, and interacting with professors and university administrators. While the students are visiting Ohio State for the day, the program is not designed to recruit students to Ohio State, but instead to encourage them to attend and learn about college in general. Additionally, high school teachers and administrators are immersed in various professional development session throughout the day.
A Day in the Life of a Buckeye
Founder, 2013 | Columbus, Ohio
A four-year mentoring initiative, Mentor-A-Buckeye paired ninth graders from Columbus City Schools with an Ohio State University undergraduate student mentor and a community leader mentor. Mentor-A-Buckeye was designed to provide extraordinary experiences, to empower and motivate Columbus high school students and Ohio State undergraduate students- to challenge themselves to continuously improve, become civically engaged in their communities and succeed in their academic pursuits. Through a four year relationship. Most high school and college students participating in the program will ultimately graduate together.
Mentor-A-Buckeye
Founder, 2014 | Columbus, Ohio
Buckeye R.E.A.C.H., which stands for Relationships and Education in Action through Community and Hope is a program designed to reduce recidivism among juveniles by working with incarcerated juveniles in Ohio. Through bi-weekly programming consisting of pin pal letter writing, book clubs and discussions, academic projects, and mentoring, participating youth are able to develop and refine essential life and educational skills needed for successful reentry.
BuckeyeREACH: COYC
Site Leader, 2014-2016 | Marysville, Ohio
Recognizing that every Ohio State student deserves to have an extraordinary student experience, the Buck-I-Experience program was created to grant the wishes of students on the Ohio State University Columbus campus who are suffering from debilitating conditions or special circumstances and may not normally be able to enjoy the Buckeye Experience. Buck-I-Experience provides opportunities with accommodations for these students to attend football and basketball games, campus events, and participate in other Ohio State traditions.
Buck-I-Experience
Founder, 2013 | Columbus, Ohio
This professional development opportunity for African American and Latino male college students at The Ohio State University and high school students in Columbus City Schools was designed to allow students to engage and network with other students, administrators, faculty, staff and community leaders. The dinner focuses on building inclusion and promoting the extraordinary student experience.
African American & Latino Male Networking Dinner
Co-Founder, 2016 | Columbus, Ohio
Through weekly sessions, middle school students participated in a series of activities and events, focusing on leadership, identity, cultural competency, citizenship, and service in an effort to improve attendance, grades, behavior, and critical thinking skills.
Principal Pride: Dominion Middle School
Site Leader, 2015-2016 | Columbus, Ohio
In collaboration with Temple Athletics, Temple Admissions, and Temple’s School of Social Work, Temple Experience is designed to be a fun-filled, engaging day that gives area youth the opportunity to learn more about Temple University and what it takes to be a student-athlete and an Owl. The Temple Experience was formulated from conversations and meetings with surrounding municipalities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to introduce the community, specifically young students, to all that Temple University and Temple Athletics has to offer.
Temple Experience
Co-Founder, 2022 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
