By Charlie Lynn, News Editor
Calista Cleary’s work space at Bryn Mawr is a tiny circular table covered with papers and folders, tucked away in a small office on the second floor of Taylor Hall. She’s here on Friday mornings, at Swarthmore on Tuesdays, and at Haverford for the rest of the week. Starting soon, she’ll be adding a fourth space to her rotation- the newly leased classroom and office space at the Friends Center in Center City, where the Tri-Co Philly Program will be based.
When the program debuts next semester, it will be the culmination of over a year of work for Cleary, the program’s planning director, who was initially brought on board to design a fully immersive program. She explained that “the idea was that students would be living in the city and taking a full course load there as well as having some sort of community engagement placement in the city.”
However, after spending months researching and then presenting the program to the Tri-College Consortium back in March, they decided not go ahead with the fully immersive program initially imagined. Cleary described that one of the issues was the costs of the proposal. She also said that the residential element produced some unease. “It’s a huge leap to imagine the residential piece. There was also concern around this point about whether the student demand would be there.”
After the presentation, Cleary said that it wasn’t clear where the project would go from there. A survey was sent out students and she later came back and presented Haverford with a scaled-down version of the program. The residential element was gone, but the Philadelphia-based courses and community engagement would stay.
Haverford already had the money set aside, and Bryn Mawr soon agreed to join this new pilot program. After initially declining to join due to financial concerns, Swarthmore eventually joined as well. All three colleges have committed to a three semesters trial-run, before making a decision on the future.
Cleary imagines that a future Tri-Co Philly Program could look very much like the original proposal.“There is definitely interest across the Tri-Co in it becoming a residential program. It’s entirely different when you are living in the city. It’s a really different experience for the students. I would love to see us get there,” she said.
However, she acknowledges that a scaled-back version is the right step for the colleges at this moment. “I think it makes sense that we are developing it incrementally. It was clear that the leap to the full program was huge,” she explained.
While Cleary’s ambitious vision for the future may have been scaled backed, the program for next semester for 21 students still offers plenty of new opportunity outside the Tri-Co.
Students accepted into the program will take one core class taught by Haverford Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Thomas Devaney, called “Philadelphia: Inventing a City.”
Students will also take an elective course as a part of the program, and one option is “The Politics of the Creative Class in American Cities”, taught by Haverford Associate Professor of Political Science Steve McGovern. The other option for students will be a course taught by Bryn Mawr Assistant Professor of English Mecca Sullivan called “Narrativity and Hip Hop.” All three course will take advantage of their location in Center City to directly engage with the city.
Although students will reside on their respective campuses, the cost of SEPTA to the classroom spaces at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry Street will be provided. The Friends Center is a short five minute walk from Center City’s Suburban Station.
Cleary is also organizing a number of additional activities for the inaugural group of students. She imagines a wide range of activities ranging from visits to the Uncle Bobbie’s Bookstore in Germantown, to exposing to students to the wide variety of theatre and art available in the city.
She is excited to be able to share more of Philadelphia with the Tri-Co community. She says that after a year involved with the Tri-Co, she has an evolving sense about the relationship each school has with the city. She is looking forward to providing more opportunities for the Tri-Co community to engage with her city.
Cleary is not a native Philadelphian. She first came to the city to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a PhD in American Civilization and Master’s degree in Historic Preservation. However, her love for the city started early. She explained, “the second day I was here I went to the Italian Market and I walked huge portions of the city and I just fell in love with it.”
The chance to work in higher education and to connect students with Philadelphia is Cleary’s dream job. She said, “I worked in historic preservation in Philly, in the suburbs out here, and in New Jersey. And I’ve also worked in education, but the opportunity to work with these three institutions and strengthen their ties to the city was incredibly exciting.”
Despite the long time it has taken for the program to be planned, Cleary is excited about its prospect and urged any interested students to become involved in the future. “If students are looking for opportunity to engage with the city academically and experientially, to increase that relationship, this really is the ideal opportunity for them.”
Photo Courtesy of Haverford College
