History

Summer Search Philadelphia is the latest addition to the Summer Search family of offices. In spring 2007, Summer Search offered a life-transforming opportunity to thirteen outstanding high school students from five public schools. Lucky, Maria, Michael, Mariah, Dom, Brittany, Ed, Hector, Louis, Crystal, Vanity, Laqwonda and Kalishea all took a risk and stepped bravely into the unknown: confronting their challenges and learning to trust on weekly mentoring calls, and then expanding their horizons on wilderness expeditions across the country.

Following their life-changing summer expeditions, students wrote and presented essays about their trips at our first annual Fall Event. Weekly mentoring conversations with staff members helped them reflect on their experiences and begin to see themselves in a new light. In a short time, we witnessed significant changes in our students’ ability to think more deeply about their lives and take steps towards a different future.

Over the next five years, Summer Search will create sustainable change in Philadelphia’s low-income communities by expanding to give more deserving and altruistic students the opportunities they need to achieve their potential. We hope you can join us to build on these inspiring beginnings!

Staff

Wendy Epstein, Executive Director
Mary Miceli, Program Associate
Joni Roberson, Program Associate

Wendy Epstein , Executive Director
Prior to joining Summer Search, Wendy Epstein worked as an independent consultant providing fundraising, marketing and management services to nonprofit organizations in the fields of arts, education, youth development, social justice, health and human services.  Before establishing her consulting practice in 1991, Wendy was Senior Executive for the Philadelphia based consulting firm of McPherson, Schultz & Associates (now Schultz & Williams), Chief Fundraiser for Allyson Schwartz for State Senate in 1990 (now Congresswomen Schwartz), and Director of Alumni Affairs and Annual Giving at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts). Wendy started her career in nonprofit administration at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.  Wendy currently serves on the board of directors of Philadelphia Young Playwrights and is co-chair of the Public Education Advocacy Group at Congregation Mishkan Shalom.  She holds a Bachelors  Degree jointly from Rutgers University and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Certificate in Executive Leadership from the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

Mary Miceli, Program Associate
Mary graduated from Hope College in 2005 with a degree in business management.  After graduation, Mary joined Teach For America and moved to Philadelphia to begin teaching high school English.  While teaching, Mary coached and served as the English Department Chair at her high school. Also, Mary earned her teaching certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. While in Philadelphia, Mary has been active with Team in Training and serves on the Local Advisory Board for National Student Partnerships.

Joni Roberson, Program Associate
Joni graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in Politics and Government and Pre-Law (2005). She then joined Teach For America: Philadelphia. She taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade English and Social Studies at the Chester A. Arthur school. During this time, Joni attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned her Masters of Science in Urban Education (2007). She traveled to Chicago as a teacher researcher to present her findings on Critical Literacy, at the 2007 American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference. As an alum, Joni is currently representing Teach For America as a Corps Area Representative (CAR) for the Philadelphia region. Joni joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in 2007.