Office of School and Community Engagement honored for tutoring partnership

The Penn GSE Tutoring Initiative at Andrew Hamilton School—a collaboration between the Philadelphia public school, Penn GSE’s Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE), and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships—was awarded second place in the 2025 Phillip B. Lindy Award for Excellence in K–16 Partnerships.

These awards are given annually by the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) in honor of Phillip B. Lindy, the founder of PHENND’s K–16 Partnerships Network who valued collaboration and communication among diverse stakeholders in order to maximize impact. In that spirit, the awards honor all partners in the venture. So, this year’s second-place prize went to OSCE, the Netter Center, and Andrew Hamilton School—including its principal, TorrenceRothmiller, and the program's school-based liaison, Laura Atabek.

Five women pose with award certificates in front of a stage and a podium that has a yellow sign on it that reads “Community College of Philadelphia”. — (From left) OSCE’s Julie Berger; Elaine Lindy, representing the Lindy Legacy Donor Advised Fund; PHENND Director Hillary Kane; doctoral student and tutoring coordinator Kelsey Trudo; and Regina Bynum, director of teaching and learning for the Netter Center University-Assisted Community Schools programs.

The initiative connects Penn GSE-trained undergraduate- and graduate-student tutors from across the University with students at Andrew Hamilton School for two 30-minute weekly tutoring sessions in math and literacy. OSCE began planning the program with Hamilton leadership in fall 2023, and the program has now been in operation for the past three semesters.

“We are so proud not only of the program itself, which has come to be beloved by Hamilton students and Penn tutors alike, but of the partnership we have forged with the leadership at the Andrew Hamilton School,” said Julie Berger, OSCE senior associate director and architect of the Penn GSE Tutoring Initiative, which also operates at the Henry C. Lea School. "The program was truly co-developed, and the GSE team continues to strive to help the school meet its goals for students."

The team received the award at an event at the Community College of Philadelphia on June 4. In addition to the honor of being recognized, they were awarded $1000 for their collaboration.

This is the second time in two years that an OSCE project has been honored by Lindy Awards. Last year, the office won first prize for its Tier Two for Teachers program at Lewis C. Cassidy Academics Plus School. That project, which is ongoing and led by Stacey Carlough, uses interdisciplinary instructional coaching and therapeutic counseling practices to improve and sustain educator well-being to help build capacity for longevity in the field.