University-school collaborations

Widener University develops and supports sustainable university-school partnerships with K-12 schools in the region. These partnerships include: tutoring and mentoring, college access, academic enrichment, and teacher professional development.

Through our academic service-learning courses, students and faculty explore current issues in public education and establish partnerships that promote academic achievement.

Widener Partnership Charter School

Widener University in partnership with community leaders and Chester residents, launched the Widener Partnership Charter School (WPCS) in September 2006 to serve families and their children in the Chester-Upland School District. Widener's School of Human Services Professions provide counseling services for parents and professional development for teachers. Charter school students also enjoy the general use of Widener's facilities such as the Widener  Libraries, Science Teaching Center, and Art Gallery among others.

College Access Center of Delaware County

The College Access Center of Delaware County aims to increase the number of Delaware County students who will enter and succeed in higher education. It opened in January 2009 as an initiative of the Chester Higher Education Council, and provides free educational services to students beginning in sixth grade through senior year of high school, and to adults wishing to pursue or complete a college degree. The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania provided $100,000 in funding for the first year of operation. 

Junior Senior Summer Challenge Program

Widener University collaborated with the Chester Upland School District and the Chester Education Foundation to offer the Junior-Senior Summer Challenge. In 2008, this five-week free summer program provided rising 10th and 11th grade students with academic and social enrichment to help them prepare for college.

Project Forward Leap

Project Forward Leap is a partnership with Widener supporting the Saturday Tutoring and Enrichment Program (STEP). Student teachers, recruited from the Center for Education, offer educational tutoring, interactive lessons and academic games which focus on fostering social skills for Project Forward Leap (PFL).

English, science, and math classes are held two or three times a month for 78 Chester middle school students and their parents who attend parenting workshops and provide 50 hours of community service as a condition of their childs enrollment.

Widener CARES Tutoring

Now in its eighth year, the WIdener Cares Tutoring Project connects members of the Widener campus community with elementary and middle school students in Chester-area schools. Volunteers spend an hour a week at one of three sites: Freedom Baptist Church, The Nia Center, and the Unity Center. 

Widener Reads & Widener Counts

Widener Reads and Widener Counts are part of two nationwide initiatives known as America Reads and America Counts. Student tutors (paid through work-study grants) serve in three schools in the Chester area (Drexel Neumann, Widener Partnership Charter School, and the Chester Community Charter School) within two school districts (Chester-Upland and Ridley Township).

Through one-on-one or small-group instruction in reading, phonics, comprehension, and mathematics, they serve as vital role models to the children they mentor as play a positive and supportive role by devoting time and energy to the intellectual development of neighborhood youth.

Science Teaching Center

The Science Teaching Center (STC) was instituted in 1992 in efforts to provide comprehensive outreach programs for public and private schools in the Greater Delaware Valley region. Upgraded facilities, in Widener's Kirkbride Science Building, has led to renewed and reinvigorated interest in PK-16 science education.

Marcine Pickron-Davis, Ph.D.
Assistant to the President for Community Engagement
& Diversity Issues
tel: 610-499-4566
mcpickron-davis@widener.edu

Ellen Madison
Administrative Assistant
tel: 610-499-4549
etmadison@widener.edu