Almost 100 students and family members joined the First Annual ICEF Literacy Festival, staffed by Penn Serves LA volunteers. The event was held at the newly-built View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter Elementary School, one of the schools of ICEF Public Schools located on Crenshaw Boulevard in Inglewood.
ICEF Public Schools
Led by CEO and Wharton graduate Parker Hudnut, ICEF Public Schools is a Los Angeles based charter operator that operates nine inner-city charter schools serving over 3,500 K-12 students. ICEF’s goal is to prepare all students to attend and compete at the nation’s top 100 colleges and universities by focusing on the 3 As – Academics, Arts and Athletics.
Creating the Literacy Day with Penn Serves LA
When approached by Penn Serves co-founder Denise Winner, W’83, with how Penn Serves might assist ICEF, Parker jumped at the opportunity and worked with Denise to develop the concept of hosting a day around books and literacy. “We host an Arts Day and Sports Day, so a Literacy Festival was the perfect catalyst to connect Penn Serves and our mission,” shared Hudnut.
These two students stopped by after their soccer games and checked in at the ICEF Literacy Festival
“At Penn Serves, we love to offer high impact volunteer days and jump on opportunities where we can impact an underserved, underresourced area,” shared Denise. “In the past, we have helped a Lincoln Heights charter school move to a new building, painted the classrooms of new charter school in South Gate, and hosted the first graduation celebration for Richstone. This year we were thrilled to work directly with students and focus on literacy.”
Students had access to a camping-themed reading room with tents and flashlights, a free book exchange, classrooms set for reading out loud, and book-themed arts and crafts tents. Three local children book authors were on hand for impromptu readings and conversations on why they wrote their books. Penn Alumni were encouraged to bring their own children to both celebrate literacy and provide a working hand. Throughout the day, Penn alumni were offering their reading help to younger students and creating crafty projects with young students, while older elementary students demonstrated their reading skills by reading out loud.
“It was a great day for all – and fun to share our love of reading with the students,” shared Kiera Reilly, C’93, one of the Penn Serves board members.
ICEF team members hope to make the event an annual fall event and hope Penn Serves will continue to be part of its success going forward.
Penn Serves LA volunteers, ICEF staff and students are excited about reading!
ICEF Public Schools CEO Parker Hudnut (in purple shirt) poses with Penn Serves LA, students and one of the children’s book authors at the ICEF Literacy Festival
You can see more photos from the ICEF Public Schools Literacy day here.
About Penn Serves LA
Penn Serves LA impacts the Los Angeles community by engaging University of Pennsylvania alumni, parents and families in meaningful community service activities.
We have done everything from serving meals to the homeless to restoring the environment to fixing homes. Six times annually, we find another great opportunity to learn about interesting nonprofits, lend a hand and enjoy fun experience with fellow alumni.
Join Us
We invite the Penn community in Los Angeles (alumni, parents and kids) to join us at a future event, to help spread the word and to help us plan future activities. Join us, meet new Penn people, demonstrate what service means to your kids and friends, and help fellow Quakers make a little bit of difference in our complex city!
If you have an established nonprofit that you would like us to consider for future events or announcements, please let us know. We are looking for new nonprofits to serve in meaningful ways.
Upcoming Events
- January 7, 2017 – Blankets of Love (Manhattan Beach)
- January 26, 2017 – Penn Serves Social
- March, 2017 – Food Forward Harvesting
- April, 29, 2017 – Habitat for Humanity
Contact Us
Questions? Want to join our email list? Reach us at pennserves@gmail.com.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!
The Penn Serves LA Team
Christine Belgrad, W’85, PAR’15 | Michal Clements, W’84 | Justin Gordon, W’05 | Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16 | Leanne Huebner, W’90 | Jamie Kendall, W’04 | Irene Park, C’05 | Kiera Reilly, C’93 | Jeff Weston, C’05 | Denise Winner, W’83
Read about our previous events:
- November, 2016 – L.A. Kitchen
- March, 2016 – Rescue Rabbits
- October, 2015 – Penn Serves Picks Packs of Peppers at Westside Food Bank
- September, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Reads to Kids
- July, 2015 – Penn Serves LA: Harvesting a Garden for Veterans
- June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Spruces up a New Charter School
- June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Has the Giving Spirit
- August, 2014 – Penn Serves LA Strikes Again: This Time with Paint!
- December, 2013 – Holidays are a Time for Giving
- November, 2013 – Sending Holiday Warmth to our Troops
- August and September, 2013 – Serving the Environment and LA Leadership Academy
- May, 2013 – One on One Outreach
- March, 2013 – Habitat for Humanity
- January, 2013 – Inner City Arts
- September, 2012 – The Midnight Mission
- June, 2012 – Turning Point Shelter
Here is a copy of Christine’s plane ticket. I share it mainly to note the cost of her ticket.
And here is a move-in card. It seems so old-school!
Wow! This is a dorm. At. Penn. (For perspective, I’m standing on the east side of 33rd and Chestnut Streets)
The entrance to Penn’s campus from the east, after walking through Drexel’s campus. This is what used to be Hill Field (you can see Hill House in the back on the left).
Walking through Hill Field on the Women’s Walkway from 33rd and Chestnut Streets. Hill House is on the left. The new College House (not pictured) is on the right of the walkway.
With the new College House opening, Hill House is undergoing renovations. I don’t know if you can tell from this photo, but from what I could see, it looks like the interior is completely gutted.
Hill House
The entrance to the new College House as seen from the walkway. There were tents set up for maintenance issues, and for residential services to assist new students.
As I continued on the walkway, I saw this table for Penn Student Agencies. I worked for PSA all four years at Penn, so I stopped to talk to this current student about the services PSA offers today.
This is when I had my, “we are in the 21st Century moment,” as I saw this student wearing a t-shirt with, “Move-in Social Media,” printed on the back.
Move-In Social Media while approaching the intersection of 34th and Walnut Streets
I walked up Walnut Street to the bookstore at 36th and Walnut. All the new Penn apparel looked pretty cool (I was glad to see there wasn’t any pink or green Penn branded items that I’ve seen displayed in recent years).
There was a large tent between Houston Hall and College Hall. There were bins for bottles of water, Tasty Kakes and soft pretzels. The Penn Band played for the families.
Inside Houston Hall was a fare of services for students.
Crossing 36th and Spruce Street to the Lower Quad
Walking west on Spruce Street, I was surprised by the Wistar Institute building. For my last few visits to campus this was covered in netting and scaffolding.
There were still some students and families moving in to the Quad.
While the carts seem nicer than when we moved in so many years ago, they seem to be the same basic structure.
The view looking east and then west at the corner of 38th and Spruce Streets.
New students and families crossing Spruce Street after exiting Upper Quad.
I walked down Locust Walk. Classes had not started yet, so it was a bit quiet.
Ben on the Bench is still on campus, but he’s moved to the corner of 36th Street and Locust Walk. He sits on 36th Street, outside of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. I heard that it’s a right of passage now for students to pee on the bench. Was that a thing when we were students?
As I continued down Locust Walk, I saw the former home of the Palladium. It was sad that the patio isn’t full of people sitting at tables, enjoying a drink and soaking up the beautiful day.
Do you remember moving in to Penn in September 1989? Do you have pictures of your freshman dorm room or roommate? We are looking for photos of these memories or others from our time at Penn. Please email us upenn1993@gmail.com!
I know that the cost of Penn has increased, but by how much? Thanks to Google, I found the tuition for this academic year pretty easily on the 
Comparing the total cost in 1989 – 1990 ($20,850) with the total cost in 2016 – 2017 ($69,340), I wondered how that 1989-1990 academic year price tab would compare using inflation rates. According to this 
Christine Lutton Foster, C’93, shared her NSW order form.
Amy Korn Duque, C’93, G’93, found the original NSW brochure.
Amy had a copy of the campus map from 1989. Notice building number 49 circled – Logan Hall. It has since been renamed and current students know it as Claudia Cohen Hall. Number 34 Hill House is currently closed for renovation, and across “Hill Field” is the new college house that opened this week.
In contrast to these old documents, I looked for the New Student Week information for this year. It’s now called 
Things have definitely changed. It makes our New Student Week brochure look so last century (ack)!
Frankly Penn 