Meshing academics and fun for a summer program like no other

"We just have fun every day,” said 14-year-old Luella Moreno, chatting inside a classroom at the Penn Alexander School this past July. No matter the activity, whether it’s math or writing or art or gardening, she said, “they always incorporate fun with it.”

This summer, Moreno was one of more than 200 enrolled students in a special six-week collaboration between the Penn Graduate School of Education and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Flourishing in large part because of an award from the University’s inaugural Projects for Progress (P4P) initiative, the program’s model—balancing engaging academic content with entertaining experiences outside of the classroom—was unique by strategic and thoughtful design, especially amid a pandemic that kept many students from learning in person for the past year and a half. 

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