Event

Take a break during Reading Days, come out for a snack and to support your fellow Urbies! Our Urbs Honors students will be presenting on their final research projects - come see where a good URBS 400 idea can take you.

Evan Cernea:
I've been focusing on collecting more quantitative data about development in the Delaware Valley region by mining the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey. I am looking for correlations between the wealth of residents and development in townships to argue that richer townships are more likely to be the sites of newer developments, even though poorer townships are more in need of the economic boom associated with development.

Devon Greenwood:
My project examines the degree to which juries in Philadelphia are selected from a fair cross section of the community, primarily by race and gender. Through interviews, trial observations, and court-provided data, I analyze which stages of juror selection introduce bias and discrimination. Based on this data, I present policy suggestions for the Philadelphia Courts.

Alexa Salas:
How do afterschool programs help with the academic acculturation of Mexican immigrant youth? I am exploring how an afterschool program in a diverse urban elementary school, serving the Mexican immigrant community, has been successful in bridging students’ disparate “home” and “school” experiences by intentionally and consistently engaging parents. I conclude by discussing the immediate and persistent challenges that this program faces in carrying out its work.

Nicole Ventrone:
In response to a declining membership, the Catholic Church has closed churches and, in turn, has relocated members to nearby congregations. I interviewed individuals from St. Francis de Sales, a Philadelphia church with a merged parish, to explore this consolidation process. My data suggest that racial and socioeconomic differences amongst churchgoers can hinder integration between merged parishes. Further, these differences can cause individuals to leave the Catholic Church.  Therefore, the Catholic Church’s solution to a declining membership - closing and merging parishes - is further aggravating the problem it was meant to solve.