Tim Whitaker and Mighty Writers: Giving Kids the Power of Writing



Numbers don’t lie. Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the country. Nearly 40-percent of the city’s students are not graduating high school and only 30-percent of eighth grade kids are reading and writing at grade level.

That’s why in 2009, Mighty Writers was launched with a five-word elevator pitch: To teach kids to write.

They do this through four-day-a-week writing academies at their six neighborhood locations in Philadelphia, at their Kennett site in West Grove, and at their site in Camden, New Jersey.

Over the course of a year—including summers—they take students through every genre of writing but always with the same goal: to get kids to think clearly and write with clarity.

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Jeffrey Rosen and the National Constitution Center: Visit—Learn—Debate

Jeffrey Rosen and the National Constitution Center: Visit—Learn—Debate


Jeffrey Rosen is the president & CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the U.S. Constitution. Located steps from Independence Hall in historic Philadelphia, the Center engages millions of citizens as an interactive museum, national town hall and provider of nonpartisan resources for civic education.

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GreenWave is training a new generation of ocean farmers feeding the planet and building a blue-green economy in the era of climate change. GreenWave is a non-profit organization founded in 2014 dedicated to climate resilience and equity. They work in two areas: farm replication and market innovation. Their goal is a blue green economy – built and led by restorative ocean farmers – that feeds local communities while protecting the planet.

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Madeline Bell is the president and CEO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), one of the top-ranked children’s hospitals in the United States. A bold and visionary leader, she champions change with empathy and integrity, inspiring the nearly 20,000 employees in the hospital’s $3-billion-a-year health system and research institute to create breakthroughs that have worldwide impact.

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FringeArts is Philadelphia’s home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectation. Their programming exposes audiences to genre-defying dance, theater, and music performances by accomplished and emerging innovators who push the boundaries of art-making and redefine the artistic landscape worldwide.

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