By Emily Kirschbaum

I LOVE MY NEW INTERNSHIP!!!!!!

…After the big change, I was a little worried that my new internship would only bring up more doubts about my choice in career…However, after my first day at the community mental health center, and after being introduced to the members, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. I was able to have conversations with reasoning human beings [Editor’s note: What, you’re saying toddlers aren’t reasonable?!!?], sit in on many support and therapeutic groups, and talk with my co-workers. I instantly felt more comfortable than I had in my previous placement…

To read more, visit our student blog, DiscoverTPC.

By Katie Matresse

As I was walking into my office from lunch on Friday, out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone very familiar…my favorite person in the world, in fact! I hadn’t been expecting my mom until later, but this was the best surprise in the world! 

To read more, visit our student blog at discoverTPC.

By Dan McCormick

This past weekend I visited the Constitution Center, on Independence Mall in Old City.  It’s a museum dedicated to the history of the American Constitution, and it houses exhibits that explain how the Constitution was devised and written, and how it’s been interpreted throughout American history.  It’s a pretty cool place; it opened in 2003, so all of it is very new.  The building has really interesting architecture, a theater-in-the-round that features a multimedia presentation that includes a live actor and film projections, and interactive exhibits that delve into historical events and Supreme Court cases.

But I must confess: I wasn’t really there for any of that.  I was there because the Constitution Center is currently hosting a Bruce Springsteen exhibit, on loan from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

To read more, visit our student blog at DiscoverTPC.

By Emily Kirschbaum  

…It marked the halfway point in my semester…and gave me the chance to show off Philly…

 

…And my Senior Seminar: Values and Vocation class went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see Zoe Strauss’s exhibit “Zoe Strauss: Ten Years”.  Zoe is the daughter of one of the staff members at TPC, and I had been wanting to see her work for a while.  Her photographs focus on low-income people and places throughout Philadelphia, but are definitely not limited to this demographic.  Her work has been displayed over a period of 10 years under an overpass for expressway I-95, and is currently being displayed on 54 billboards throughout the city in places where art is hard to access.  The billboards display only the photographs - no logos, no ads, just art.

To read more, visit our student blog at discoverTPC.

By Katie Matresse

Let me just say this: I am a person who enjoys control over my life.  I like to plan.  I wish I could marry my iCal. The TPC alums from Whitman, who I relentlessly hounded for information about the program (so that I could plan out everything in advance), told me that “it just happens” and I needed to let go of my need to know everything in advance. That was one of the most difficult and thrilling parts of coming to Philadelphia for me, and this week I really came to appreciate it….

…Sometimes things simply can’t be planned, and those experiences are irreplaceable.  TPC is all about allowing things to fall into place…

To read more, visit our student blog.

By Katie Matresse

It’s a new game. I was finally assigned to a permanent supervisor (for the sake of his privacy and as a tribute to his Irish Catholic heritage, let’s call him ADA Sean Patrick O’Houlihan), a young attorney who was an intern himself only a few years ago! 

He has already supervised one other TPC student, so he knows what’s up.  I recently met with him and Mark Clark, my faculty adviser, for the first of two “three-way meetings” during which we discussed my “Learning Plan.” (Note the TPC lingo here.)  The Learning Plan is required of each TPC student, and for good reason!  Essentially, the Learning Plan requires you to lay out at least six different types of goals, your means for reaching those goals, how you’ll know you’ve reached them, and who can help determine when you have.

I sat in that office in complete awe of my two mentors…

To read more, visit our student blog at discoverTPC

By Dan McCormick

Friday was the first Friday of the month, which means most of the art galleries in Philadelphia stayed open late and served wine or beer with a come-and-mingle atmosphere…

…I also got a chance to check out this record store next to Abby’s gallery that is hardly ever open when I’m there. It’s called the Hiding Place, and it’s really just a little hole in the wall, but it’s got some really cool records. I spoke to the owner and surfed around a bit last night, and I ended up finding a Velvet Underground record…

To read more, visit our student blog at DiscoverTPC.

By Dan McCormick

Friday I took a field trip with my Urban and Political Systems City Seminar into Kensington, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia.  Kensington is one of the poorest areas in Philadelphia, and one of the poorest areas in the country.  Our purpose for visiting was to see Cheri Honkala, a human right activist who lives and works in Kensington with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. 

Cheri took us on a short tour of Kensington, pointing out the factories that had been shut down long ago, the homeless shelters and soup kitchens, the welfare offices surrounded by barbed wire, pawn shops and drug corners, and the many, many abandoned houses, churches, and buildings that served as temporary homes for some of Kensington’s homeless.  She discussed with us the systemic causes of poverty in America, and the reasons why those in power do so little to stop it.  She explained to us that, right now, the Pennsylvania state government is moving towards ending all general assistance programs for impoverished citizens.  The level of poverty in Kensington is inhumane, Cheri said…

To read more, visit our student blog at discoverTPC.

By Emily Kirschbaum

The room was tiny. There was a row of old thrift-store velvet sofas in the front, and mismatched folding chairs and bar stools in the rows behind it. The lights were off except for two spotlights on the stage, and dimmed red lights surrounding it…  

“Ok, so here’s the deal…Each poem has to be maximum 3 minutes long. I will let you continue talking until 3 minutes and 10 seconds, but you will get ¼ of a point knocked off for every 10 seconds you go over. Once you get to 3 minutes and 25 seconds, I will literally steal the mic out from under you and hit you with it…”  

To read more, visit our student blog at discoverTPC.