Spring Break
Film highlights local high schoolers
Janhavi Purohit
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: News
Screenings and panel discussions for the new documentary First Person were held Sept. 25, directed by first-time filmmaker Benjamin Herold focusing on six students and the issues they face in urban high schools today.
Lisa Nutter, president of Philadelphia Academies and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's wife, said the film is a very accurate depiction of the challenges that Philadelphia high school students face as they "make the important transition to adulthood," and that she endorses the film strongly.
"These six young people were promising young students who wanted, and still want to go to college. Their stories reflected the stories that we were seeing everywhere," Nutter said.
Nutter said it is important that the people who watch the film, including policy makers, teachers and everyday citizens, realize that most students in today's schools are doing what is asked of them and deserve some help from the community.
Herold said there were variations in experience among the six students, but that their stories all point to a "bigger systemic problem at hand."
"We're losing a generation of young people," Herold said. "The students featured are like thousands of young people across Philly and the country. They're bright, promising, wanted to go to college, they had a vision, they had a plan, and the fact that the struggle for them is still so hard and the path to college so rocky, it speaks to the fact that as a city and as a country, there are too many hardships."
Part of this help, Nutter said, comes from organizations such as Philadelphia Academies. Founded in 1969 by the corporate sector as a dropout prevention program, it is now a national model that attempts to integrate work and academia in schools.
According to the mission statement on its web site, the main purpose of Philadelphia Academies is to give high school students an understanding of the working culture.
"We also get them outside of the school to get work-based experiences and internships and exposures that allow them to see the possibilities," Nutter said.
Lisa Nutter, president of Philadelphia Academies and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's wife, said the film is a very accurate depiction of the challenges that Philadelphia high school students face as they "make the important transition to adulthood," and that she endorses the film strongly.
"These six young people were promising young students who wanted, and still want to go to college. Their stories reflected the stories that we were seeing everywhere," Nutter said.
Nutter said it is important that the people who watch the film, including policy makers, teachers and everyday citizens, realize that most students in today's schools are doing what is asked of them and deserve some help from the community.
Herold said there were variations in experience among the six students, but that their stories all point to a "bigger systemic problem at hand."
"We're losing a generation of young people," Herold said. "The students featured are like thousands of young people across Philly and the country. They're bright, promising, wanted to go to college, they had a vision, they had a plan, and the fact that the struggle for them is still so hard and the path to college so rocky, it speaks to the fact that as a city and as a country, there are too many hardships."
Part of this help, Nutter said, comes from organizations such as Philadelphia Academies. Founded in 1969 by the corporate sector as a dropout prevention program, it is now a national model that attempts to integrate work and academia in schools.
According to the mission statement on its web site, the main purpose of Philadelphia Academies is to give high school students an understanding of the working culture.
"We also get them outside of the school to get work-based experiences and internships and exposures that allow them to see the possibilities," Nutter said.
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