Locally Engaged Education Institutions: Four Principles for Engaging the Urban Environment

Urban life comes with diverse social, environmental, health care, and edu cation problems. However, for many of the people seeking better economic, social, and education opportunities, the big city still holds a special allure. Jazz singer Frank Sinatra sings in “New York, New York ” that he wants to “wake up in a city that never sleeps/and find I’m King of the Hill / top of the heap. ” The question then is whether there is a general solution capable of contributing in some small way toward alleviating these complex and diverse problems, bringing us one small step closer toward building an ideal city. As a youth activist, the author desires a solution that can be implemented at the grassroots level, which taps the entrepreneurship and enthusiasm of youths. Keywords pedagogy, service learning, university and community My experience in Philadelphia encourages me to suggest such a solution. Through my activities getting an education institution engaged in West Philadelphia through social entrepreneurship and other activities, I hypothesiz