Category: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change S24

Michelle Waksman, BMC ’24

Fair and Just Prosecution

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change

Faculty Advisor: David Karen

Field Site:Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP)

Field Supervisor: Robin Olsen

Praxis Poster: 

MichelleWaxsman_Poster_Final_SP24

 

Further Context:

This semester, I interned at Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP). FJP works with a network of elected prosecutors to advocate for a more equitable, just, and compassionate criminal justice system. They address many policy areas, including diversion programs, juvenile justice, bail reform, and more.

This placement allowed me to strengthen and hone my research skills. I worked to compile the most recent reports, academic research, new articles, and press releases related to the issues FJP is committed to. This was then sent out to the DAs in our network to keep everyone on the same page, share best practices, and alert them to innovations in the field.

I was also honored to be part of multiple planning teams for the April Convening. There, DAs from the network joined for a two-day conference, hearing from an array of experts and those with lived experience in the criminal justice system. I was part of a few research teams building out the panels. I identified potential speakers, joined meetings with them, and collected the most relevant research to their topics. I also worked to compile extensive background research on the individual and the programs they support. These resources were then sent, in one case, to the Executive Director to provide the necessary context for her meeting with a high-profile speaker.

Something interesting about FJP is that they are completely remote. I was impressed by how well FJP functioned and built relationships across distance. It allowed me to strengthen my communication skills and not be afraid to reach out to any member of the team with questions. They made themselves open and available to help me at every juncture, which truly elevated my experience and integrated me into the team deeper than I would have expected.

Overall, I got a close look into how change is made or attempted. Even if I thought we had hit a wall, the staff showed me how we can always pivot and use what we have learned to advance another effort. Thank you to the Praxis Program and FJP for an incredible semester!

Mary Pastore, BMC ’25

Partnership with the Petey Greene Program

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change

Faculty Advisor: David Karen

Field Site: The Petey Greene Program / Beyond Literacy

Field Supervisor: Chiara Benetollo

Praxis Poster: 

Mary Pastore_Poster_Final_S24

 

Further Context:

This semester I volunteered for the Petey Greene Program, an organization dedicated to providing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students access to respectful, trained tutors and rewarding educational programming. I was introduced to PGP in the spring of 2023, when I took an Inside-Out class of half incarcerated students and half Bryn Mawr students at SCI Chester. When I learned that there was an opportunity to volunteer with them through Praxis this year, I jumped at the chance.

The Petey Greene Program was founded in 2008 and has volunteer groups across the East Coast. To become a tutor with PGP, volunteers must partake in multiple national training sessions, covering topics from “The Carceral State and Educational Justice” to “Ethical Volunteerism and Intentional Engagement.” Tutors are also required to attend seminars focused on Tutor Development and Justice Education; these sessions are designed to ensure that tutors have a comprehensive understanding of carceral environments and the barriers that incarcerated students face throughout their journeys.

Lucy and I tutored weekly at Beyond Literacy, which offers classes in adult education and workforce training for citizens of Philadelphia in need. We worked with students to prepare for the Social Studies and Reasoning through Language Arts sections of the GED test. These subjects ostensibly test students’ reading comprehension and ability to analyze literature, grammar skills, understanding of graphs and maps, and critical reasoning. In reality, they test a student’s ability to choose the “best” answer, not the “right” one, and they ask students to work quickly by recognizing patterns and thinking how the GED’s creators want them to think. Each session, we worked through challenging practice questions, and the more problems the students solved, the more they could justify their correct answers and explain why they chose one option over another. I saw real improvement in my student’s work, and I am very impressed by his work ethic and determination; he has served as a great role model for my own studies!

In addition, we have had the opportunity to read incarcerated students’ writing through the College Bridge program. PGP has created a class for students at SCI Phoenix to practice their academic writing; the skills they learn in class can then be used to apply to Villanova and pass the entrance exam, with the goal of obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies. I read students’ thoughtful essays and kept up with their readings, creating discussion questions that could be used in class. It was a joy to read their unique writing styles and encourage them to have more faith in their own abilities. I truly hope that every student writes a great essay for Villanova and gets the amazing chance to pursue their studies.

Working with the Petey Greene Program has been an incredible experience. Everyone I’ve met, from students to advisors and teachers, has been enthusiastic, kind, and driven. I have become a better teacher, but even more importantly, I am more comfortable in new environments and more confident taking risks and stepping out of my comfort zone. I learned so much about how I can support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners, but I want to learn even more. My readings in class with Professor Karen have given me a great starting point from which to do more research about incarceration in the US and how educational justice is evolving. I hope to stay connected with PGP and share their mission with others who want to make a difference in incarcerated people’s lives.

 

Katie Schroeer, BMC ‘24

Podcasting with Philly Thrive

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change

Faculty Advisor: David Karen

Field Site: Philly Thrive

Field Supervisors: R Merriman-Goldring and Brooch Solomon

Praxis Poster: 

KatieSchroeer_Poster_Final_SP24

 

Further Context:

In my first year at Bryn Mawr, I bought a hand-sewn mask from some classmates who were using their quarantine time to fundraise for a local organization from their dorm rooms. That organization was Philly Thrive, an environmental justice organization based in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philly. I read the note attached to the mask and immediately wanted to learn more about this grassroots group going head-to-head with multinational real estate firms. The next spring, I wrote a research paper on Thrive for a political science class, reading up on their past campaigns and interviewing a couple of members. This year – my senior year – I am so lucky to have been able to do a praxis fieldwork placement with Thrive. When I spoke to my supervisor for the first time, I mentioned that I had just taken a class on podcasting, and learned that Thrive members had been tossing around the idea of a podcast for years. I was fresh off my introduction to audio media and eager to do more, and my supervisor loved the idea of a more casual, story-centered project to complement Thrive’s more strategic communications, and so Philly Thrive Live was born.

Philly Thrive Live (the name which won a Facebook poll of Thrivers, despite the fact that the podcast is not, in fact, live) is a product of many conversations with Thrive staff and members, as well as research into how similar organizations make podcasts like this one. I connected with various Thrivers to hear what they had been hoping to see (or rather, hear) in a podcast, and both the overall structure of the show and the topics covered in each episode were based off of those conversations. Once the vision was in place, we turned to production: scheduling, planning, recording, and editing episodes. I worked with my supervisor and Philly Thrive Live’s new host, staff member Chill Hixon, to bring together Thrive members with a wide variety of roles and experiences for informative, entertaining, and occasionally emotional conversations. By far my favorite moments of my praxis work were in these recording sessions: hearing what brought people to Thrive, listening to their favorite memories of marches or Thrive friendships, and laughing a lot. Scheduling sessions with incredibly busy activists was at times very challenging, but it was always worth it once we were sitting around a table together, talking about our favorite songs and what kept us going in difficult political moments.

Many of my lessons week-to-week were small but extremely useful: I learned not to use the office’s squeakiest chairs for recording, how best to share and store the audio, and how podcasts get distributed to different platforms. The knowledge of my supervisors and podcasting teammates was invaluable in helping me connect with people in effective ways and putting together interesting episode plans. One of my biggest takeaways, though, was neither technical nor Thrive-specific: it was that people want to get together and share their stories, and that while it sometimes takes a lot of patience and persistence to make that happen, at least for this listener, it is absolutely worth it.

Desire Bagot, BMC ’24

Philadelphia Fight and Social Justice

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change

Faculty Advisor: David Karen

Field Site: Philadelphia FIGHT

Field Supervisor: Catrina Peeples

Praxis Poster: 

Desiree Bagot_Poster_Final_S24_redsize3

 

Further Context:

Through the Praxis Course, Social Justice and Social Change, I had the opportunity to volunteer with Philadelphia FIGHT. FIGHT is a non-profit, comprehensive health services organization providing primary care, consumer education, research, and advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS and those at high risk. I worked within the Human Resources department where I assisted the Chief HR Officer and HR staff with a variety of tasks such as filing paperwork for new employees, participating in interviews, scheduling and managing interviews, ensuring correct information of staff on the organization’s website, and updating job descriptions and job description templates. The Praxis course has allowed me to apply principles of power, social justice, and social change to the work I’ve done at FIGHT.

While working at FIGHT, I did not initially see how working within the HR department and ideas about social justice could coincide. I often wondered if the work I was doing was enough, and if this work even pertained to social justice. I’ve come to realize that all aspects of work within a non-profit organization are integral in the functioning of an organization and in sustaining it as well. But even more so, I realized that HR and social justice intersect more than I realized. At FIGHT, I had the opportunity to assist in the planning of Employee Appreciation Week (EAW). While planning for this event, we discussed the importance of raising staff morale and especially the importance of staff appreciation. In non-profit organizations where employee burnout is typically a concern, it is important to foster community and support where community care can flourish. In another instance, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about equitable hiring processes that the HR department adheres to. My supervisor has discussed how important it is to provide every individual with equal opportunity in the hiring process, regardless if there has been a recommendation of a particular individual by an employee within the organization. Furthermore, it is also important to increase ethnic and racial diversity in non-profit leadership positions and ensure their voices are heard and valued.

Within a classroom setting, I’ve had the opportunity to read different principles, theories, and other articles that discuss dismantling institutional power and the role that non-profit organizations play in challenging institutional power. Something that I have been thinking about is how and if non-profit organizations can simultaneously challenge micro and macro levels of institutional power that perpetuate inequality. How do we work towards transforming institutions of power while making conditions livable under capitalism in our own communities? Would this increase the workload among employees, and therefore put already existing pressure on non-profit employees? As I work towards my future endeavors in the non-profit world, these questions will sit with me.

Volunteering at FIGHT has allowed me to further build the relationships I made when I worked there as an intern the previous summer. This experience has also allowed me to understand the intersections between human resources and social justice. I have been able to reflect on the social justice work that non-profit organizations do, and how social justice values can be maintained within an organization.

 

Lucy Benson, BMC ’25

Educational Justice and the Petey Greene Program

Semester: Spring 2024

Praxis Course: SOCL 420 Social Justice and Social Change

Faculty Advisor: David Karen

Field Site: The Petey Greene Program /  Beyond Literacy

Field Supervisor: Chiara Benetollo

Praxis Poster: 

Lucy Benson_Poster_Final_S24

 

Further Context:

My praxis experience was in partnership with the Petey Greene Program of Philadelphia. PGP “supports the academic goals of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people through high-quality volunteer tutoring programs, while educating volunteers on the injustice manifest in our carceral system.” Our original plan was to tutor with the College Bridge Program at SCI Phoenix. However, our tutor clearances didn’t go through and we pivoted to Beyond Literacy, a GED prep program in Philadelphia. Prior to beginning, we received training over Zoom. Topics ranged from tutoring strategies to food justice in prisons. This was also an opportunity to meet and talk with tutors from other regions. During our placement we worked with students on the Reading and Language Arts section of the GED, working through practice problems every week. This was the most memorable part of my praxis, as it was the most social and connective part of the work. Later in the semester, we also supported the College Bridge Programming from the outside by providing feedback on students assessments and serving a TA role.

It can be difficult for those on the outside to get cleared to access and bring services into prison. For us, this meant delays and eventually having to move to a program outside a facility. We did a lot of waiting to hear back from prison and there was a lot of uncertainty in the process. Another challenge was the test itself. The GED is a frustrating and tricky test that is a poor measurement of intelligence and knowledge. But with Beyond Literacy we were able to have conversations about the staggering limitations of standardized testing and how difficult our society makes educational success. While frustrating, the setbacks connected us with the people at Beyond Literacy and gave us a new opportunity. Also, they showed the persistence and kindness of the PGP who supported us throughout and worked to continue providing educational services into places that are hostile towards them.

Working within the prison system is difficult and trying work. Prisons do not want to support humanity-affirming services and inside-outside connections. This type of work is important and valuable but must exist alongside other advocacy work to dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex.  Education is both a site of harm and healing, especially for communities most directly affected by state violence. Approaching tutoring requires consideration of former schooling experiences and must center student-led approaches. The PGP team wants to foster connections and support both tutors and students. They worked hard to place us and include us in this process. In the future, I want to continue imagining what alternatives to prisons can and will exist in our world.