Haverford House

Good afternoon all our many zillions of readers. This is my first blog post EVER and I believe it should start with a modern cliche.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiJbs-JS3XQ

This video is called “you can vote however you like” and is a partisan song and dance done by some of the most awesome children I have ever seen. I suggest watching it several times in order to hear the words they are saying. The teacher of these children has to be someone incredible.

Having just helped to plan a half-day voter education seminar at Parkway Northwest Peace and Social Justice High School in Mt. Airy (my place of work) I am extremely heartened that so many young people are more excited and know more about this election than I ever did about any election in high school or college for that matter. The point of the seminar was to help students to understand how to form their own opinions about the United States political system and how to get involved before the election. I think we at least partially achieved that goal, though I did not get to finish making a fake voting booth out of cardboard.

In planning this half day seminar I learned:

• Where the giant warehouse is that contains all of our oversized pink ballots for the election and that you can get ‘sample ballots’ for educational purposes. It was pretty cool to get that small insider look at the voting system.
• Always send formal faxes to local officials, they are not people you can send emails to.
• Cherelle Parker and Dwight Evans are great speakers and also two of our state representatives.
• Yes, sadly I did not know this before.
• Representatives from the green party, League of Women Voters and Education Voters PA will come to talk at your event and that they are very nice about it.
• Do not try and get a voting booth for practice at your school three weeks before the election.
• Student run workshops CAN BE DONE, with a lot of hard work done by both teachers and students

Hi, everyone. I’m the coordinator of the Haverford House program, so reading my blog might not be quite as exciting as reading a blog written by one of our current fellows (Corey, Ileana, Jenny, Jane, Liz and Sonia). However, I’ll get the ball rolling…

How ’bout them Phils? The celebratory noise outside of my sedate Mt. Airy neighborhood was enough to keep me awake. I can’t image how loud it must have been down in West Philly… it got me thinking about how exciting next Tuesday night might be for most Philadelphians.

Founded in 2002, Haverford House provides a venue for the Haverford community to explore global citizenship in our own region and to strengthen connections between the College and the city of Philadelphia. Currently, Haverford House provides room, board, health insurance, a transportation subsidy, and a small stipend to 6 recent Haverford alumnae/i who share a large Victorian house in Spruce Hill neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

Download Watch the Haverford House video to learn more about who we are and what we do.