ProFESS: After School is an 8 week, after-school environmental education program designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop their own relationship with nature and explore their roles as Future Environmental Scientists and Stewards. With a focus on playful learning, ProFESS strives to spark curiosity, evoke discovery, inspire connections, and instill wonder in students as they learn about the natural world just outside their classroom doors. Tailored to the needs of your students, ProFESSers gain confidence outside as they foster their creativity, imagination, and problem-solving skills.

ProFESS, formerly the Philadelphia Watershed Stewardship (PWS) program, is an initiative originally run in partnership with the Philadelphia Water Department to empower high school students to become environmental scientists and stewards. LandHealth supports students in ProFESS to become change-makers, scientists, leaders, advocates and stewards for a better tomorrow, through natural history, urban ecology, and watershed health. Centered in immersive, exploration-based learning–at-the-source–to better understand the plants, animals, soil, water, and air of our city.  ProFESS offers opportunities for students to share what they learn with community groups and the general public, becoming ambassadors for green spaces and clean water.

ProFESS started in Cobbs Creek, home to vibrant communities in west Philadelphia, its historically preserved hundreds of acres of open space offset by mass industrialization and modernization.  In Cobbs and citywide, our watersheds have suffered from hundreds of years of polluted stormwater runoff, inadequate drainage systems, leaking septic tanks, illegal dumping, and other ills.  This is where ProFESS comes in!

Using the river and land between the Ben Franklin Bridge and Pier 70 as the classroom, this program is designed to enhance appreciation of natural systems, the built environment, and the complex interactions between the two. In applying these skills, participants are exposed to the basics of ecology, urban planning, landscape design, river properties, geology, history, hydrology, and soil.​

Want to grow food, build personal skills, and strengthen your community? Sankofa Community Farm’s high school interns learn, practice, and teach sustainable and traditional farming practices, food sovereignty, food nutrition and preparation, and more.The internship program includes intensive outdoor work, especially in July and August, along with a year-round curriculum rooted in the history and culture of the African Diaspora. The Farm annually employs up to 25 paid high school interns from Southwest Philadelphia.

Glen Foerd’s Riverways Ambassador program is a six-week summer experience designed for Philadelphia-area high school students. The program increases awareness and knowledge of the Delaware River Watershed, provides opportunities for on-water and land activities, and promotes community outreach and stewardship. 

 During the session, Ambassadors participate in water quality testing and monitoring, develop on-water skills through boating, and create and implement their own environmentally based projects. 

Lily P.A.D.S. is a children’s play and discovery program at Glen Foerd that holds wonder-filled art and science workshops all year round! Generally, sessions are open to young budding artists and scientists, ages 4-10, with some occasional sessions geared towards younger kiddos (3-6) and some towards older creators (7-12). During the nicer weather, it is held on our new nature-based, environmentally friendly outdoor Play Space, and when it’s wet or too cool, we will bring the wonder inside the Main House, down in the Rathskeller. 

Each week, friends will explore a variety of art techniques & supplies, including drawing, painting, charcoals, pastels, weaving, collage, tile work, clay, tools, and more! They will often incorporate nature treasures and sensory activities and even do some experimenting with their works! On top of all of that, we always add loads of play, imagination, and magic. 

Teen Arts is an after-school program designed to foster independence, creativity, and an appreciation of the arts in the setting of Glen Foerd’s historic site on the Delaware River. With skilled instruction and guidance, students will explore their unique artistic interests and experiment with new mediums of creativity. Throughout the semester, students will work both independently and collaboratively to create a final project as part of a cumulative installation at Glen Foerd.