Community
Widener is one of only 22 colleges that is a member of Project Pericles, an organization promoting social responsibility and addressing civic apathy among students. It is also one of only 76 institutions classified as a Community Engagement Institution by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Only two other schools in the Philadelphia region share this classification - University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College.
Widener has several initiatives aimed at benefiting the surrounding community. These include:
- Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center — The school opened the center in 2006 to provide consulting and educational programs to local small businesses and entrepreneurs. It is one of only 18 in the state and one of 3 in the Philadelphia region (with Temple University and University of Pennsylvania).
- Philadelphia Speakers Series — Since 2004, Widener has sponsored this series which has had such notable speakers as Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite and Dave Barry.
- University Technology Park — A joint project started in 1999 between the university and Crozer-Keystone Health System to foster small business opportunities focusing on health care, science and technology. It currently consists of two buildings (with three more planned) on 20 acres (81,000 m2) and is located directly in between the Main Campus and Crozer-Keystone Medical Center.
- Widener University Observatory — The observatory has free public telescope viewings throughout the school year hosted by the physics and astronomy department.
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Famous quotes containing the word community:
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
—Aldo Leopold (1886–1948)
“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)
“Every community is an association of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)