ABCS Courses

Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses are at the core of the Netter Center’s work. ABCS students and faculty work with West Philadelphia public schools, communities of faith, and community organizations to help solve critical campus and community problems in a variety of areas such as the environment, health, arts, and education. Penn has 80-90 undergraduate and graduate ABCS courses each year, enrolling over 1800 students.

ABCS courses

  • Integrate service with research, teaching, and learning
  • Are a form of Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES)
  • Bring together academic expertise and the expertise of the community via mutually-beneficial, mutually-transformational democratic partnerships
  • Use collaborative local problem-solving to improve the quality of life and learning in the community and the quality of learning and scholarship in the university
  • Foster structural community improvement (e.g., effective public schools, neighborhood economic development)
  • Emphasize student and faculty reflection on the service experience
  • Help students become active, creative, contributing citizens of a democratic society

Click here to browse Fall 2024 courses.

To register for an ABCS course: You can browse and register for ABCS courses on Path@Penn. To find ABCS courses, use the advanced search tool and find "Academically Based Community Service Courses" in the University Attribute dropdown menu. The most updated list of ABCS courses is on the Netter Center website.

Obtain your clearances for working with minors here.

For current and prospective ABCS faculty and students: Click here for information on ABCS resources.

For graduate students interested in ABCS, community-engaged scholarship, and related activities: Learn more Provost's Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows at the Netter Center and Penn Graduate Community-Engaged Research Mentorship summer program.

 

2022 Spring Undergraduate & Graduate ABCS Courses
Undergraduate

Tutoring School: Theory and Practice

Education 323 Urban Studies 323
Aliya A Bradley

This course represents an opportunity for students to participate in academically-based community service involving tutoring in a West Philadelphia public school. This course will serve a need for those students who are already tutoring through the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project or other campus tutoring. It will also be available to individuals who are interested in tutoring for the first time.

Urban Education

Education 202
Andrew J Schiera
Urban Studies 202
Michael C Clapper

This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

Urban Financial Literacy: Pedagogy and Practice

Education 245
Brian Peterson Brandon Matthew Copeland
Graduate

Community Youth Filmmaking

Education 725
Amitanshu Das

Community Youth Filmmaking

Education 752
Amitanshu Das

This course focuses on how the filmmaking medium and process can provide a means for engaging youth in ethnographically grounded civic action projects where they learn about, reflect on, and communicate to others about their issues in their schools and communities. Students receive advanced training in film and video for social change. A project-based service-learning course, students collaborate with Philadelphia high school students and community groups to make films and videos that encourage creative self-expression and represent issues important to youth, schools, and local communities. Stories and themes on emotional well-being, safety, health, environmental issues, racism and social justice are particularly encouraged. A central thread throughout is to assess and reflect upon the strengths (and weaknesses) of contemporary film (digital, online) in fostering debate, discussion and catalyzing community action and social change. The filmmaking medium and process itself is explored as a means to engage and interact with communities. This course provides a grounding in theories, concepts, methods and practices of community engagement derived from Community Participatory Video, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Ethnographic methods. For the very first time, Penn students will be trained to operate a state-of-the-art TV studio at PSTV (Philadelphia Schools TV). At the end of the semester approved films will be screened with an accompanying panel discussion at an event at the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). These films will also be broadcast on Comcast Philadelphia's PSTV Channel 52 and webcast via the district's website and YouTube channel. This is an ABCS course, and students will produce short ethnographic films with students in Philadelphia high schools as part of a partnership project with the School District of Philadelphia. EDUC586 Ethnographic Filmmaking (or equivalent) is a pre-requisite or permission of instructor. Note that because of Covid-19, the course may be required to make adjustments and changes. These will be announced in class by the instructor.

Developmental Theories & Applications with Children

Education 580
Laronnda V Thompson

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to consider mandates, models, and methods related to enhancing the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children. This course emphasizes the application of developmental psychology and multicultural perspectives to the design of effective classroom-based strategies. Students will consider a "whole-child" approach to understanding children's classroom behavior in context. Major assignments will involve gathering and synthesizing information about children in routine classroom situations. This information will be used to better understand children's needs and strengths and how they are manifested in transaction with classroom contexts. Students will focus on one or more students to conduct a comprehensive child study of the child in context in P3 environments. This contact must include opportunities to observe children in a natural setting and interact with them on a regular basis through out the semester. If students do not have a regular classroom contact, one will be arranged. The class will be working with theNetter Center to form student placements, which must be approved by the professor.

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Education 598
Stephen R Kocher

This ABCS course explores interfaith dialogue and action on college campuses. It brings together students from diverse faith backgrounds, as well as students with no faith commitments, to engage with and learn from one another in academic study, dialogue and service. The course is open to all undergraduate and masters students. Click here to fill out the permit to enroll in this course. 

University-School-Community Research Partnerships: Theory & Practice

Education 545
Rand A Quinn

[node:field_inline_call_to_action]