!
March
Parkway NWHS
for Peace & Social Justice Community Newsletter
Important Dates
3/6 Half Day for Students
3/9 Visit from Principal MacFarland
(Advisory Board meeting at 3:15)
3/11 SAT Testing (out of school)
3/12 Daylight Savings Time Begins
3/31 Half Day for Students
4/10-14 Spring Break
4/13 Art of The Syllabus student art
exhibit at Arcadia University
4/17 Principal MacFarlands First Day
4/18
Principals Meet & Greet with work with. We selected the following challenge: ...to
Parents (2:45pm)
4/19-21 Report Card Conferences (early
dismissal) social justice school, that challenge had our name
Peace of Mind team members Gavrina Ralph, Emmanuel
Onadien, Leissa Paulection, and Demaro Ricketts
brainstorm their nonviolence campaign for the Aspen
Challenge (team members & contributors not pictured:
Jordan Cherry, Joshua Hutcherson, Tyler Rhoden, Shanice
Boyd, Kion Lewis, Bryan Robinson).
Student Activity Spotlight:
The Aspen Challenge
by Gavrina Ralph, 9th Grade
This year the Parkway Northwest High School for
Peace and Social Justice is participating in the Aspen
Challenge, a National program that encourages
students to solve difficult problems and challenges.
Twenty Philadelphia schools are competing to come up
with the best solutions to five challenges, dealing with
such problems as violence, health, and the
environment. Eight Parkway NW students, along with
two coach-teachers, Mr Weisman and Ms Patil, are
representing our school. We are allowed to choose our
own challenge and each team gets $500 dollars to
change the culture of violence by leading a movement
to make nonviolence cool-especially for those who live
in the most violent neighborhoods. As a peace and
written on it.
We have already developed many constructive
activities that we believe will put us in first place. We
are planning to have a campaign to make peace cool
in schools around the city, to develop a basketball
tournament, and to start a peer mediation program. We
are even making T-shirts with our Peace of Mind-
Non-Violence for All solution identity on them. We
hope to lessen violence in our communities by asking
people to sign pledges of support for peace, getting
more people off the streets and into constructive
activities, and teaching them how to peacefully resolve
conflicts. But this is not just a challenge for us. This
will be a challenge for our entire community and your
helping hands. If anyone is interested in helping with
this challenge, or knows of somebody that could help
us, please speak up. Any and all ideas are welcome!
 New Paint & New Faces at
Parkway NW Day of Service
Parkway Northwests Martin Luther King Day of
All 9th-11th grade students at Parkway
Service was a big success! Thanks to all the students,
parents, community members, and painting coordinators
from Lowes & Olympic who turned out on January 16th,
the school now has fresh new colors in three classrooms
and gym. A variety of fantastic local organizations who
hosted free workshops and community projects on the
day: Black Women in Sport, Men Who Care of
Germantown, A Helping Hand from Your Fellow Mans
I Have a Dream Toy & Book Drive, Wikidelphia, and
Philadelphia College Prep Roundtable. Our thanks also
go out to the community leaders who came to speak to
the volunteers, including Project Coordinator Delise
Williams, Dr. Mary Wade, Dr. Rev Allen Waller, State
Representative Stephen Kinsey, Congressman Dwight
Evans, Senator Art Haywood, District Attorney Seth
Williams, and Councilwoman Cindy Bass - whose office
helped us remove the litter across the street from the
school. Be sure to check out some of the pictures from
this great day throughout this newsletter!
Top Left: 12th grader Kahlaa shakes hands with
Congressman Dwight Evans as he arrives.
Bottom Left: The Cheer Squad turns out in full
force on MLK Day to volunteer and perform.
Counselor's Corner
NW have been reviewing their PSAT scores with
their counselors in the classrooms, and linking
their scores to Collegeboard's new program for
practice at Khan Academy. This is a new
opportunnity free to our students that will help
them prepare for future SAT's. All our students are
also learning how to use Naviance, the new
Philadelphia School District platform for students
to explore personal strengths, careers, and
colleges. Counselors have been in the classrooms
doing Personal Strengths Inventories, Career
Interest Tests, and reviewing the results with the
students. Ask your student to show you the new
Naviance Portal in their StudentNet account.
Seniors have used Naviance to explore colleges
and request transcripts to be sent by the counselor
to their chosen schools.
Top Right: 12th grader Ronald and other Parkway students
team up with students from other schools to paint.
Bottom Right: 12th graders Devena and Christian try out
lacrosse during a Black Women in Sport teach-in.
 Students in the Community
Parkway Northwest has been represented at a
variety of fantastic volunteer events over the
past couple of months, including Awbury
Arbortums trail-blazing to their new Nature
Playground, sorting food donations at SHARE
food bank, and a community forum titled
Where Do We Go From Here?
An important part of attending Parkway
Northwest School for Peace and Social Justice
is completing the community service
requirement: 120 hours, or 30 hours per year.
Up to half of these hours can be filled by
activities/enrichment such as clubs, sports, and
workshops which might not be volunteering but
are still important community-building
experiences. Students can see how many
community hours they have on record by
checking the postings outside their tutorial, or in Student volunteers Isaiah Foster, Taj Boynton, and Vanessa
the Student Community Center (Room 110). All Ulysse pose with State Rep Chris Rabb and facilitators of Where
12th grade community hours are due by May 31st. Do We Go From Here, a NW Philadelphia community forum.
Seniors running behind on these should make a plan
with Ms. Jennifer or Ms. Steinberg (we are here to
help you meet your community service goals!)
There will be many opportunities to get involved in the upcoming months:
SHARE food bank has two future scheduled volunteer days for Parkway NW students -
Saturday 3/25 and 4/22 8:45am-12:00pm
The Blaine school is looking for high school volunteers to tutor 3rd-8th graders in math and
writing (come for free snacks and prizes!) - Saturdays 3/4-4/1 8:30am-12:30pm
Mighty Writers Teens has upcoming writing workshops for Philly high schoolers, including
vision boarding and resume writing.
Students can also volunteer for the Student Community Center! We need help researching
events and volunteer opportunities and building our new website.
To learn more about these opportunities and others stop by the
Student Community Center in Room 110 after school, or email pwnwvista@phennd.org

Student volunteers Aisha, Kamaya, Destiny, Shaniah, and Shaila demonstrate Martin Luther
King Day of Service style.
Parkway Northwest Martin Luther King Day 2017