Community Engagement Report: Our Shared Future
Vice Provost for University
and Community Partnerships
Welcome
A decade ago, we celebrated the grand opening of the Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. Nestled in the heart of the Mantua neighborhood, the Dornsife Center has been a beacon of collaboration, offering a central hub for the University’s outreach activities developed for and with the community — from wellness offerings and legal services to art collaborations, technology workshops and more. For Drexel, the Dornsife Center’s opening marked an important milestone in Drexel’s journey of civic engagement.
Today, within the Office of University and Community Partnerships, we continue to build on the Dornsife Center’s legacy. We integrate community-based learning for our students through the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement and support community-engaged research opportunities for our faculty through the ExCITe Center.
I often refer to the Dornsife, Lindy and ExCITe centers as the three “front doors” for Dragons to engage with the Philadelphia community. Of course, there are many other pathways to connect, especially through unique partnerships built by Drexel’s various schools, such as the School of Education, College of Medicine and Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Through diverse and innovative avenues of engagement, we strive to make meaningful progress on society’s most pressing issues. Together, we can create a shared future that makes us all proud.
This digital report celebrates Drexel’s accomplishments as an anchor institution throughout the years, and it lays a foundation for the transformative times ahead. We are proud of our commitment to bolstering public education through our work with the School District of Philadelphia, including securing funding from external partners for the development of a new facility for two neighborhood schools. We’ve spearheaded and supported projects that improve housing accessibility, job training, adult education and family health. And, year after year, our undergraduate and graduate students have raised the bar in making a difference. It is truly inspiring.
Take, for instance, the collaboration between Drexel Digital Navigators and the student organization TechServ. University students and staff are helping to close the digital divide by providing free-of-charge technical support, digital skills training and refurbished computers for those in need. Our students have tested soil for contaminants in vacant lots across West Philadelphia; they’ve advocated for neighbors who lack access to running water; they’ve connected side-by-side with veterans to ease the civilian-military gap; they’ve created recipes to prevent food waste; and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they used their creativity and ambition to step up in novel ways, undoubtedly impacting — and potentially saving — the lives of many. And this barely scratches the surface of what I know is to come.
Civic engagement is experiential learning, and experiential learning is Drexel’s cornerstone. It is our thoughtful combination of expertise, interest and leadership that has enabled the University to become one of only 16 private institutions in the nation to receive two prestigious Carnegie Classifications, recognizing both top-tier community engagement efforts and high research activity. While it is meaningful to attain this designation alongside highly regarded peers, I believe it’s even more important that Drexel maintains this designation as a higher education anchor institution in Philadelphia. We can and will build an extraordinary future for this region, and it is my hope that we continue to foster a culture of civic engagement and responsibility that enriches the entire Drexel community.
A special thank you, first and foremost, to our incredible West Philadelphia neighbors, who make coming to work each day in this vibrant city a true joy and honor. My deepest gratitude also extends to Drexel’s thoughtful donors, supporters and partners, and to the entire community of students, faculty and staff, whose dedication and commitment are boundless. In this moment of leadership transition, I offer heartfelt appreciation to Drexel’s president of 14 years, John Fry, whose exceptional commitment to civic engagement has truly transformed Drexel. All of us at the Office of University and Community Partnerships are eternally grateful.
I look forward to all the ways this report inspires new ideas, advances and partnerships in and with the community. We will continue learning, thriving, inquiring, connecting, working and changing together. Here’s to an incredible decade and the bright, fruitful shared future that lies ahead.
With heartfelt appreciation and hopefulness,
Youngmoo Kim
Transformative gifts, grants and goodwill.
2011
April 2011
John Fry, Drexel’s president from 2010 to 2024, announces at his inauguration a $15M gift from philanthropist Philip Lindy to support the University’s neighborhood initiatives and Drexel’s Center for Civic Engagement, a gateway for students and faculty to connect to the West Philadelphia community.
2011
The University allocates funding from its $1M PECO grant toward supporting school climate, library resources and instruction at two public schools, Samuel Powel Elementary and Morton McMichael School in West Philadelphia.
2012
A $10M gift from philanthropists Dana ’83, ’14 and David Dornsife establishes the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships to connect faculty and students to the neighborhood through community-driven programming.
2012
Drexel and partners receive a planning grant from the Philadelphia School Partnership for the expansion of Samuel Powel Elementary and the creation of a new middle school to serve the West Philadelphia neighborhood.
Nov 2012
The Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center opens as a home for interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) activities and outreach; it is now the research hub of the Office of University and Community Partnerships, which steers Drexel’s community strategy.
2013
2013
Drexel acquires and renovates a 1.3-acre campus with three historic buildings at 3509 Spring Garden Street to house a new University “extension center” named in honor of philanthropists Dana and David Dornsife. The center attracts about 20,000 visitations a year.
2014
The White House designates portions of West Philadelphia adjacent to Drexel as a federally designated Promise Zone, qualifying the area for grants and encouraging partnerships.
2014
With seed money from the Lenfest Foundation and the William Penn Foundation, a Drexel-led collaboration of social service, education and community agencies launch the West Philadelphia Action for Early Learning Initiative to improve early childhood education in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone.
June 2014
Drexel and its partner Wexford Science & Technology acquire the former University City High School site, clearing the way for Drexel to develop a new K-8 school building.
Sept 2014
Students of Thomas R. Kline School of Law begin providing pro bono legal services in the Community Lawyering Clinic (later named after Andy and Gwen Stern) inside the Dornsife Center.
2015
Jan 2015
Writers Room opens at the Dornsife Center (now located at Ross Commons) as a literary shared space for members of the community and Drexel students to “read, write, think and be” together.
2016
The ExCITe Center, with founding support from the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, launches the Young Dragons Summer STEAM program to provide free day camp for middle school students in West Philadelphia.
2016
A new public school, Science Leadership Academy Middle School, opens to fifth graders at Drexel’s invitation inside the Dornsife Center.
Dec 2016
West Philadelphia receives a $30M “Promise Neighborhood” federal grant — matched with $76M from the city, the school district, Drexel and area nonprofits — to deliver support and resources to seven local schools.
2017
Mar 2017
Following an intensive 18-month community planning process, the Community Wellness HUB begins providing free preventative care services and wellness education in West Philadelphia with staff from the College of Nursing and Health Professions.
Nov 2017
Ground breaks on Drexel Square park, marking the first building phase of Schuylkill Yards, a multi-year, mixed-use real estate development vision to create new economic opportunities for West Philadelphia.
Feb 2018
The Lenfest Foundation awards a portion of a University City District grant to Drexel to train nearly 600 previously unemployed residents of West Philadelphia in family-sustaining jobs.
Apr 2018
Drexel receives grants totaling $2.6M from Vanguard Strong Start for Kids and the William Penn Foundation to bolster the West Philadelphia Action for Early Learning (AFEL), an initiative designed to improve the quality of early childhood education in the Promise Zone.
June 2018
With support from Dana and David Dornsife, Drexel acquires the West Philadelphia Community Center at 3512 Haverford Ave., across the street from the Dornsife Center, to expand Dornsife Center programs and recreation for local youth and families.
2019
May 2019
The Lazarex Cancer Foundation (founded by Dana Dornsife), begins working with Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions and the Dornsife Wellness HUB to improve cancer outcomes for residents and to support clinical trials among underrepresented groups.
2021
Sept 2021
The grand opening of a purpose-built public school on the former University High School site next to Drexel’s campus to house Powel Elementary and Science Leadership Academy Middle School, fulfilling Drexel’s long-standing pledge to support local public education with $40M raised by Drexel.
Aug 2022
Drexel partners with AmeriCorps to offer paid co-ops for students to work at local nonprofits through a $1.29M grant from PennSERVE.
2023
Feb 2023
Drexel, as steward of the city’s Atwater Kent Collection of Philadelphia historical memorabilia, restores the collection to public view through a new digital database and public exhibits.
Mar 2023
The Environmental Collaboratory, founded in 2022, receives $2M from the Waverley Street Foundation to support community-based climate research involving faculty, professional staff, students, industry partners and the public sector.
Oct 2023
Second Story Collective, a collaborative venture of Drexel’s Writers Room and the Justice-oriented Youth Education Lab, receives $1M from the National Science Foundation to pilot innovative co-living arrangements aimed at making housing more accessible and affordable for young and old residents.
2024
With a commitment to retaining business with diverse suppliers, Drexel launches the Supplier Inclusion Marketplace. The initiative broadens Drexel’s business relationships with minority, women, veteran, service-disabled, disabled, LGBTQ+ and small businesses, fostering economic impact within the local community.
Learn
In a place where the community comes together to learn…
Each year, undergraduates from Drexel’s School of Education bring new learning experiences to young children in West Philadelphia public schools, sometimes with extraordinary results. In fall 2023, Michaela Youngblood (pictured), Savvy Gurule and Raen Johnston taught a “mini-course” on robotics for middle schoolers at the Science Leadership Academy at Beeber. The class founded a FIRST LEGO® League Challenge robotics team, the Beeber Bots, that placed sixth in their first competition and won the Innovation Award for their design for a video game about experiencing history as a time traveler, a win for the students’ confidence and collaboration skills.
This past year, Drexel students led 14 sections of eight distinct mini-courses across partner schools — just one way Dragons have broadened horizons for children in Philadelphia. Summer camps and community-based learning classes have helped residents grow their skills, Writers Room has promoted community and reading, and grants have opened schools and expanded programs, bringing opportunities to a multitude of learners.
“
It was cool to boost community and spirit around the school. It was student-driven and student-centered, and being more of a facilitator than a lecturer is something I want to take to my own teaching.
— Michaela Youngblood, BS ’24, student teacher in training supervising seventh- and eighth-graders
Number of public school youth who have participated in Young Dragons Middle School STEAM Summer Camps since 2016.
Number of community-based learning courses since 2019 in which Drexel students joined local residents to study food insecurity, aging and racial inclusion.
Number of PreK–12 schools in Philadelphia and South Jersey receiving support from Drexel over the past decade in the form of programming, partnerships, student teaching and field placements.
Number of authors, poets, photographers and illustrators from Mantua and Powelton Village whose creative work took shape at Writers Room and appeared in its anthologies.
…where work opportunities grow and job training is plentiful…
Work
Live somewhere a long time, and you get to know everyone. Jeffrey Jordan’s 20-year roots in West Philadelphia set him on a career path to help residents connect with opportunities at Drexel. A caring neighbor who festoons his porch with welcoming streamers, he became involved with Drexel by conducting door-to-door surveys about the quality of life in the Belmont, Mantua, Mill Creek and Powelton Village sections of West Philadelphia for researchers. Later, he helped Drexel and neighborhood associations implement the West Philly Promise Neighborhood, a Department of Education-funded grant supporting childhood development and opportunities in disadvantaged communities. Afterward, Jordan joined Drexel full-time as a community liaison.
All told, myriad Drexel programs have helped neighborhood residents obtain GEDs, learn financial literacy, gain computer skills, and secure opportunities with campus and city employers. In the past several years alone, the University has spent millions on contracts with small local business owners and hired hundreds of West Philadelphia residents.
Through my work, I’ve learned that anchor institutions such as Drexel and the community, if they have a desire, can live together peacefully and the university, the students and the community win.
— Jeffrey Jordan, West Philadelphia resident and outreach community engagement specialist for Drexel’s Office of University and Community Partnerships
”
Number of community members who have taken Beyond Literacy GED-prep classes at the Dornsife Center since 2023.
Number of local teens who explored financial independence, relationship building and life interests, plus 89 who secured summer jobs or after-school work, through Fab Youth Philly programs since 2017.
Number of job seekers who have found work since 2021 in STEM, financial technology, hospitality, retail and security through the Beachell Center’s career workshops.
Number of visits by 1,561 job seekers and other community residents to use the Beachell Center’s free KEYSPOT computer lab located at the Dornsife Center since 2018.
Amount spent on contracts with small businesses in West Philadelphia by Drexel from 2020–2023, a portion of the $346M Drexel spent with small businesses across Philadelphia.
Number of West Philadelphia residents hired to benefit-eligible positions at Drexel between 2021 and 2023.
Thrive
…where healthy, sustainable communities can thrive…
Annette Gadegbeku, MD, helped hundreds of city residents receive life-sustaining health services and screenings, at no cost, from Drexel Health faculty and doctors-in-training while she was medical supervisor of the Community Wellness Hub at the Dornsife Center. She continues to transform lives as the medical director of Healing Hurt People, a program that interrupts cycles of violence by supporting victims’ emotional healing. And as a member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center Research Consortium, she ensures diversity and health equity are factored into outreach, training and cancer-related research.
Beyond West Philadelphia, scores of Drexel Health practitioners like her and young doctors in training are making the city healthier and more equitable. They’re fighting disparities and improving access at the Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, and through College of Medicine initiatives such as the overdose-prevention Naloxone Outreach Project and other student-engaged outreach programs.
“
Anything I do out in the community, my mindset is that if I can at least impact one life, it adds up; and we definitely impact more than that.
— Annette Gadegbeku, MD, family physician and associate professor, College of Medicine
Number of community residents who received free COVID, hypertension, HIV, obesity and diabetes screenings through the College of Nursing and Health Professionals’ Community Wellness HUB located at the Dornsife Center from 2022 to April 2024.
Number of Eat Right Philly cooking classes focused on healthy nutrition at the Dornsife Center since 2017. Drexel University’s EAT RIGHT PHILLY Team conducts interactive nutrition education programming
Number of residents who participated in community health events with partner organizations of the College of Medicine’s Office of Community Health and Inclusive Excellence in spring 2024.
Total number of hours volunteered in 2023 by College of Medicine students, who administered flu vaccinations and naloxone through the student-led Health Outreach Project, saw 758 patients in clinics, and performed 93 health screenings.
Number of Hunting Park residents who were hired to build 130 shade-producing bench planters as part of a project to study the impact of cooling strategies in urban neighborhoods.
…where everyone can connect and know each other…
Connect
Dana and David Dornsife, whose 2012 philanthropic gift named the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, envisioned it as a space where all are welcome to come as they are — whether neighbor, student, professor or alumnus. Early on, the center began a neighborhood tradition of hosting a monthly Community Dinner prepared by Drexel’s culinary program. In the years since, guests have shared more than 22,000 meals on the center’s lawn or in its halls, forming bonds through the act of breaking bread together.
This spirit of connection is central to community engagement at Drexel, fostered daily among West Philadelphia’s residents through programs like dance and karate classes, music lessons, tenant’s rights discussions, community gardening, local youth development, and more.
Each and every guest who comes to a Drexel Community Dinner brings us so much joy; we come together as a community to get to know each other, support each other, and overcome the divisions that tend to keep us apart.
— Dana (BS ’83, HD ’14) and David Dornsife are the largest single benefactors in the University’s history
”
Meals shared with neighbors at the Dornsife Center’s monthly Community Dinners.
Average number of West Philadelphia participants attending the family-friendly Spring Garden Festival resource fair co-hosted for the last six years by the Dornsife Center with 20 community partners.
Number of free 30-minute music lessons the Dornsife Center’s After-School Music Program has provided to children and adolescents twice weekly since 2015.
Number of residents connected to low-cost internet service since 2020 through the Digital Navigators program, which also provided 646 neighborhood organizations and households with new or refurbished computers.
Number of hip hop, bollywood and movement classes led by Drexel students for neighborhood children and adults at the Dornsife Center.
Inquire
…where we inquire about community needs and share knowledge…
In search of the social good, Drexel faculty members conduct research with and for the community in ways that can be incredibly innovative. Ayana Allen-Handy and Rachel Wenrick are piloting a study that could become a model for how homeowners and students co-exist in campus neighborhoods like West Philadelphia. In partnership with local developer Lomax Real Estate Partners and the Mantua Civic Association, and with a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, they will create unique arrangements for students to live with residents who wish to age in place. Participants will share expenses, upkeep and company — a solution to the challenges of housing and social connection faced by both populations.
Across the university, researchers in the College of Medicine, the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, the Thomas R. Kline School of Law and colleges are asking the same question: “What does the city need?” and discovering answers that empower citizens and students to help heal people, protect our air and water, or fight bias that stifles opportunity.
“
Our project is a model for what it means to be civically engaged at Drexel, because we have transdisciplinary work happening across multiple units and in partnership with our community residents.
— Ayana Allen-Handy, PhD, professor, founding director of the Justice-oriented Youth (JoY) Education Lab and interim chair of the Department of Policy, Organization, and Leadership in the School of Education (photographed at right). With Rachel Wenrick, executive director for Arts & Civic Innovation in Drexel’s Office of University Community Partnerships and founding director of Writers Room.
Number of Philadelphia residents of low-income neighborhoods who joined a 2016–17 Drexel study that documented correlations between socioeconomic status and chronic kidney disease.
Percent decrease in arrests tracked by Drexel researchers studying a diversion program Philadelphia police implemented in city schools from 2014–2023.
Number of Philadelphia residents who used an experimental smartphone app designed to signal and respond to opioid overdoses as part of a 2020 Drexel study.
Number of “citizen scientists” who collected data used to map neighborhood hot spots for a climate impact project managed by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in 2022.
Percent reduction in food insecurity in households that received financial empowerment interventions from the Building Wealth and Health Network, a trauma-informed social program run by Drexel’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities that has benefitted 2,400 members since 2014.
…and where people are inspired to change society.
Change
Sharing Excess is a food redistribution service borne out of an excess of Drexel cafeteria meal swipes, dreamt up by founder Evan Ehlers ’19 during his student co-op at Drexel’s Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship. It has grown to distribute around 50 million pounds of food a year from several warehouses in the Philadelphia and southern New Jersey region, with Ehlers and his team still personally doling out food daily to more than 600 community centers, shelters, schools and food banks. Every two weeks, the Sharing Excess team delivers more than 1,000 pounds of food to the Dornsife Center, sourced from restaurants, warehouses and wholesale produce suppliers.
Drexel’s relationship with Sharing Excess is one of a web of affiliations that nurture the community and sustain people on pathways toward a better life. In the same vein, the AmeriCorps co-op program employs students at nonprofits that help people learn and find jobs; Dragon Volunteers brings students, faculty and staff into West Philadelphia; and many other programs create avenues for personal grow through service.
Overwhelmingly, we hear the community rejoice at having access to fresh and healthy food on a regular basis. People tell us it has completely changed their lifestyle and motivated them to cook for others in their family.
— Evan Ehlers, BA entrepreneurship and innovation ’19, CEO and co-founder of food redistribution nonprofit Sharing Excess
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Pounds of food Sharing Excess has distributed to families in need at the Dornsife Center since November 2023.
Hours of legal help the Andy and Gwen Stern Community Lawyering Clinic has provided residents to address job discrimination, estate planning, public benefits, post-conviction and homeownership issues since 2014.
Number of families in West and Southwest Philadelphia that purchased first homes with closing-cost assistance and financial literacy support from the Beachell Family Learning Center with the Urban League of Philadelphia.
Number of West Philadelphia residents who overcame chronic physical, mental and emotional conditions to secure good jobs through workshops run by Philly WINS (Workforce Inclusion Network) located at the Dornsife Center.
Drexel’s investment in public safety from 2014–2023, a period when University expenditures on related personnel and equipment rose by nearly 44%.
Hours volunteered by Drexel employees in service to community partners in 2022–23.
Number of service hours Drexel AmeriCorps co-op students contributed through Lindy Center-led events and University-organized cleanups.