Something about the phrase “Do what makes you happy” struck Faridah Ismaila. It became the title of, and inspiration behind, one of her art pieces. It’s printed onto the back of her T-shirt. It’s something the 15-year-old artist lives her life by.
“When I do art, it’s because it makes me happy, and when I can give my art to other people or spread the joy of art, it’s making them happy,” she said.
Following that guiding light of happiness, Ismaila, a digital artist and a sophomore at Great Valley High School, recently launched her nonprofit, A Paint-full of Promise, which offers free monthly art classes for kids in her school district in kindergarten through gradesix.
Working with educators in the district, Ismaila devises themed art projects and provides supplies and classroom time to teach young artists how to express themselves. The first club is slated for mid-January, with a winter wonderland theme. Children will make snowflakes and paint winter-themed coasters.
Ismaila has been recognized for her art nationally: She was the state winner and a national finalist in the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, where young artists compete for their work to be featured as the Google homepage design. That recognition helped give her the confidence to pursue big dreams, like her nonprofit and club.
“It makes me feel I can still do this. Because sometimes I’ll doubt myself. … I can’t be having all these big dreams,” she said. “But if people want to vote for me and I am recognized nationally, I feel on top of the world. I can do anything.”
The first brushes of the nonprofit — which she hopes one day will grow to multiple sessions a month — started years ago, when Ismaila began making YouTube videos, teaching the fundamentals of art. She showed viewers how to make a gradient, how to depict a sunrise. She circulated the videos around her Malvernneighborhood, and she thought: Why not hold a class for younger kids?
Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
Over a summer, in her garage, she set up two art projects — painting and colored pencils — and led about eight kids through a lesson. She called it Faridah’s Art Crafty Corner.
Holding the class made her happy. So she did it again, but bigger, turning it into a summer camp, under the new name: A Paint-full of Promise.
“Then I decided, why not actually make this a club, so not only my community can get this, my entire district can?” she said.
And now, the teenager has a nonprofit under her belt. She officially launched the organization last month at an event in Malvern, where she raised money by auctioning off prints of her work and selling T-shirts with her designs.
Anne Dale, an art teacher at Great Valley High School who is an adviser for the club, said she was impressed with Ismaila’s ability to get other high school students involved in running the club.
“A lot of students have big ideas for clubs, but there’s not always follow-through. With her, it’s definitely different, and I knew that when she approached me with it,” Dale said.
Giving kids the tools and opportunity to create artwork was essential to Ismaila, who gravitates to art to process her emotions.
“It’s just the best thing ever,” she said. “Once you start doing art as a kid, it’s just a great way to get your feelings out there and express yourself, even if you can’t use words to describe it.”
One of her pieces, Beauty Within, depicts a skeletal hand holding a white mask, a tear running down its cheek. Behind the mask, flowers bloom. It came from a feeling of constantly analyzing herself, the feeling that what you show people is not necessarily what’s on the inside.
Another piece, made when she was “seriously sleep-deprived,” shows a face with an assortment of pixels, pizza, stick figures, and paint pouring out.
Faridah Ismaila, 15, talks about some of her early works at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
A piece she is working on now shows herself, in vibrant colors, pointing to her reflection. She wanted to capture the feeling of two versions of the self — one confident, the other fragile.
Sometimes, her mother Nofisat Ismaila said, her parents feel as if they are holding her back.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna keep keeping up with this girl, because she’s just taking us to places, keeping us busy, keeping us on our toes,” she said. “She’s turning out to be a really young, determined adult.”
Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
But to Faridah Ismaila, it’s about finding happiness, and giving it to others, too.
“I really hope the kids just do what makes them happy. … It’s also just not being afraid to get out there, because when I was a kid-kid, I wasn’t afraid of anything,” she said. “I think middle school really kicks some kids in the butt, and getting up out of that — at least for me, art was a way to do that. I just want to give that to kids.”
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Irene Blair was expected to have another six to eight months to live in June, after her pancreatic cancer rapidly advanced to stage 4 less than a year after her initial diagnosis.
A new drug being tested in clinical trials around the world, including at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, was the 59-year-old grandmother from Newark, Del.’s best hope for more time.
The drug belongs to a class of pharmaceuticals long considered the holy grail of cancer research. It is a KRAS inhibitor, capable of blocking a protein that fuels an especially deadly cancer. Only 13% of pancreatic cancer patients are still alive five years after their diagnosis, the highest mortality rate of all cancers.
Called daraxonrasib, the drug is not considered a cure. But the results emerging from clinical trials point to the first major advancement in decades for a devastating cancer usually caught in late stages. Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse last week disclosed in a blunt social media post that he was recently diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer and is “gonna die.”
In recent months, the federal government has sped up the review timeline for the drug made by California-based company Revolution Medicines, Inc., based on early clinical trial results.
Across 38 patients in a phase 1 trial, the drug appeared to double the survival time for at least half of patients compared to standard chemotherapy, from roughly seven months to 15.6 months.
“In pancreatic cancer, for too long, we haven’t had effective therapies beyond just chemotherapy,” said Mark O’Hara, Blair’s oncologist who leads multiple clinical trials testing KRAS inhibitors at Penn.
Blair started the therapy through a phase 3 trial in July. Within three weeks, her cancer-associated pain went away.
In October, her tumors looked stable or decreasing on scans. Her most recent December scan showed her cancer had not progressed.
Aside from occasional facial rashes, she feels normal. It’s a big improvement from how she felt previously on chemotherapy, which caused her to lose 35 pounds and become so weak she couldn’t walk.
The question now is how long the therapy can remain effective. Blair seeksextra time to “start living life.”
She officially retired from her job in real estate in May and wants to travel, with trips planned to see family in California and Florida.
Holidays have been especially hard for her.
“You just wonder, ‘Will I be here next year?’” she said.
Irene Blair and her husband, Charles, at a beach in Delaware.
How does the therapy work?
Cancer researchers have worked to design a drug targeting KRAS, a protein that acts like a “gas pedal” for cancer growth when mutated, since its discovery in 1982.
The mutant protein is like a pedal stuck in the down position, driving uncontrolled proliferation — which tumors thrive on. These mutations are found in a quarter of human cancers, mostly aggressive cancers of the pancreas, lung, and colon.
Scientists finally succeeded in 2021, when the first drugs capable of blocking KRAS were approved by the FDA for lung cancer. Dozens of KRAS inhibitors are now invarious stages of development.
Daraxonrasib is one of the first tested for pancreatic cancer, a tumor type where nearly 90% of cases have these mutations. Also called a ‘pan-RAS inhibitor,’ it not only targets KRAS, but two other related proteins that drive cancer when mutated, HRAS and NRAS.
More than 90% of the 83 patients in a phase 1 trial saw their pancreatic cancer stall during treatment, and roughly 30% saw shrinkage.
While taking the drug, at least half of patients gained more than eight monthsbefore the cancer started progressing again.
The drug comes in pill form.
The drug comes in the form of three pills, taken daily at home.
The most prevalent side effect is a rash — 91% of patients in a phase 1 trial experienced this symptom, with 8% having severe cases. It often shows up on the face or scalp and is similar to acne, O’Hara said.
Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and mouth sores are other common symptoms.
O’Hara said these are manageable with medications for most patients and still allow them to have a better quality of life than chemotherapy.
“I want to be able to give KRAS inhibitors to all my patients right now,” he said.
Irene Blair of Newark, Del., meets with her doctor, Mark O’Hara, at her December appointment.
Looking forward
O’Hara runs multiple trials of KRAS inhibitors at Penn.
Some of them are testing the inhibitor as a treatment for patients with metastatic cancer after other options have stopped working.Another is evaluating its use in combination with chemotherapy as an initial approach.
“I’m looking for more tools to put in that toolbox, and I think this provides a new tool,” O’Hara said.
Ben Stanger, a gastroenterologist and scientist at Penn, has led experiments in mice that showed combining a KRAS inhibitor with immunotherapy may be more effective than using the former alone.
If this approach makes it into clinical trials as well, it could still take years to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the combination.
He believes KRAS inhibitors could be “a game-changer” for pancreatic cancer if approved, particularly if paired with other anti-cancer drugs.
“Goal number one would be to make pancreas cancer, instead of a death sentence, into a more ‘chronic’ disease that is treated over time,” he said.
In October, the drug was also one of the first selected for a new program that aims to accelerate review times for drugs from one year to as short as a month, potentially putting it on a faster path to approval.
Daraxonrasib, also known as RMC-6236, earned Breakthrough Therapy and Orphan Drug designations in 2025.
Limited options
When Blair first started having back pain around May 2024, she thought it was a pulled muscle from kickboxing.
She put a heating pad on the back of her chair and went on with life.
Afterher father had a stroke that July, she got it checked out at the hospital where he was admitted.
A day later, she was diagnosed with stage 2B pancreatic cancer.
“My first thought is, ‘I’m dying,’” she said.
Had she been diagnosed earlier, she would have retired early, instead of worrying about saving money.
Instead, she spent her final working year undergoing surgery to remove partof her pancreas, spleen, and several lymph nodes, followed by 12 difficultsessions of chemotherapy.
When she finished her last session in March, Blair’s scans showed no evidence of the cancer. But by late April, her back pain returned.
Two months later, more scans showed that the cancer was now considered stage 4, as it had metastasized to her liver, forming 10 to 15 new tumors.
Her best option was to enter a clinical trial of daraxonrasib at Penn.
Much to her relief, she was chosento receive the drug in July upon enrolling in a study in which half of patients are randomized to receive chemotherapy.
“It’s enabled me to start living again,” she said, but knows eventually the therapy will likely stop working.
In that case, doctors may try the standard chemotherapy — which usually works for three to four months — or test a different therapy based on her cancer’s genomic profile, O’Hara said.
For now, she described herself as “living scan to scan,” seeking as much time as possible with her son, grandchildren, and husband.
Irene Blair and her husband Charles, son Tom, daughter-in-law Kelsey, and two of her three grandchildren, Aidan and Madilynn.
Blair’s next evaluation is in February. She hopes it shows her disease remains stable, and she can stay in the trial.
When Scott Edgell was discharged from the military after a service-related head injury at age 20, he thought he would resume life as normal.
But over the next four decades, the Lancaster Countyman was troubled by frequent migraines, memory problems, dizziness, irritability, and balance issues. Even everyday activities, like grocery shopping or eating at a restaurant, became overwhelming.
“I didn’t understand what was happening to my body,” said Edgell, who is now 57.
He realized the head injury he suffered while serving in the military was to blame after watching the 2015 movie Concussion, but struggled to find doctors who knew how to help him.
Just as he started to lose hope in late 2023, he learned abouta Jefferson Health program in Willow Grove for veterans and first responders with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The clinic provides physical and cognitive rehabilitation to participants over a three-week intensive outpatient program.
Edgell is among the estimated one in four veterans who have had a TBI. More than half a million U.S. military members have been diagnosed with the injury since 2000, according to the Department of Defense.
Many suffer TBIs as a result of combat-related incidents, exposure to blasts during explosions, training accidents, and vehicle crashes.
While some patients can recover completely, up to 30% of those with mild TBIs, also commonly called concussions — which account for the vast majority of TBI cases — experience long-term symptoms.
The lasting effects of TBIs are often overlooked among veterans because of the injury’s invisibility. Yet they can be life-altering, affecting employment, personal relationships, and overall quality of life.
Veterans with a TBI had suicide rates 55% higher than veterans without the injury, one study found.
Jefferson’s program, called the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health, was founded in 2022 and has treated roughly 100 patients. Itruns on donations — the biggest being from the veterans’ wellness nonprofit Avalon Action Alliance, which has provided $1.25 million annually.
Donations allow them to offer the program at no out-of-pocket cost to veterans and first responders, and cover housing, transportation, and meals during the three weeks.
“I walked in those doors at the lowest part of my life,” said Edgell, who participated in June 2024.
Though there’s no cure for his injury, the program has helped him rebuild his life.
“All you can do is learn to manage your symptoms,” he said.
Edgell and his family, including his wife Tami, stepdaughter Monica Bressler, son-in-law Kenny Bressler, and granddaughter Hayvin.
The program
Edgell entered the MossRehab program in June 2024 as part of a cohort of four.
The first step in his rehabwas learning about what was happening to his brain.
His accident occurred back in 1989, when a steel hatch swung shut and hit him in the back of the head during a training exercise at Fort Riley, Kan.
Doctors at the time provided memory exercises, mental health support, and physical rehabilitation to improve his gait, but nothing brought him back to baseline.
Edgell managed to push through his memory problems in college by putting in extra effort into studying, and ultimately became an electronics engineer.
However, it became harder to cope with the symptoms as he got older.
Even brief outings would exhaust him to the point of needing days to recover.
When his wife, Tami, would ask what she could do to help him, he wouldn’t know what to say.
One therapist at the program offered him a helpful analogy: If a normal brain is like a six-burner stove, then having a brain injury is like being down to only three burners.
“You’re trying to do everything with two or three burners that you would normally do with six, and your brain just becomes very fatigued and overwhelmed,” Edgell said.
The program teaches participants to adapt to their brain’s new way of functioning, whether through physical rehabilitation for symptoms such as dizziness, or cognitive rehabilitation to address issues affecting attention, concentration, memory, and mood.
“We’re basically retraining the brain to do something that it’s having difficulty doing because of an injury,” said Yevgeniya Sergeyenko, a physical medicine & rehabilitation physician and clinical director of the program.
Since treatment for TBIs revolves around managing the symptoms — which can vary widely between patients — the program has staff across an array of specialties that patients see throughout their three-week stay.
One provider helped Edgell, who was struggling to get more than a few hours of sleep a night, find medication to help him sleep.
A physical therapist, meanwhile, assisted with his balance and core structure, so he could walk and move around more easily.
Others taught Edgell exercises to improve his dexterity, speech, and memory.
Army veteran Scott Edgell participates in a cohort session at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Some forms of therapy were less conventional.
There was horticultural therapy — a therapy that involves working with plants — which Sergeyenko said has been shown to lower blood pressure and is intended to help with emotional regulation.
Patients also did yoga and other mindfulness and movement activities intended to calm the nervous system.
Edgell said yoga wasn’t his favorite, but he found art therapy helped him communicate more openly.
One of the exercises at the start of the program asked himto draw a tree. He drew one that “was not doing very well,” he said.
At the end of the three weeks, he drew a lush version full of leaves. The framed drawing now hangsin his dining room.
“I look at that everyday to see where I came from,” he said.
Army veteran Scott Edgell shows drawings of trees representing himself during a cohort session at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Outcomes
Program organizers say returning to a pre-injury baseline is not always a realistic goal.
“There’s not a medicine that you can give that’s going to make all of your brain injury symptoms subside,” said Kate O’Rourke, the program director at the clinic.
The program aims toimprove function and quality of life.
As of September, the last time outcome statistics were compiled, 82 patients had gone through the three-week intensive. Sixty-five percent saw significant reduction in their symptoms, as measured bytheir Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory scores — which assesses a patient’s severity of neurobehavioral symptoms from 0 to 88. The average reductionwas 13.26 points.
Ninety-nine percent of patients reported that they personally felt they improved after the program.
Current patients (Jeff Todd Malloch and Jessica Mack) and Army veteran Scott Edgell participate in a cohort session with his therapy dog, Lars, at the MossRehab Institute for Brain Health.
Edgell regularly reaches out to staff for advice, and meets with the program’s alumni in monthly conference calls.
He still has bad days sometimes, but he’s able to manage them better.
Before, when he would go to a grocery store or restaurant, he would become overwhelmed by the noise, lights, and commotion.
“I couldn’t catch my triggers before I fell off the cliff,” Edgell said.
He was only able to leave the house four to five times a month.
Working with a service dog at MossRehab inspired him to get one of his own.
Now, when he starts to react, a golden doodle named Lars will nudge him, giving him a moment to let his brain calm down.
Edgell and his service dog, a golden doodle named Lars.
Today, he’s able toleave the house more frequently and for longer.
He and his wife have reconnected with friends and engaged more in social activities.
“I still get tired, I still need breaks, but my recovery time is a lot faster, and it’s not nearly as devastating,” Edgell said.
Sonia Lewis endured the worst year of her life when she was a senior in high school — her mother almost died and Lewis had to step up to take care of her family.
But the principal and teachers at her Philadelphia high school lifted her up, helped her get to college, and Lewis took care of the rest — multiple advanced degrees, a thriving career, a national profile.
As Lewis racked up accomplishments, it was always in the back of her mind to return the favor to her school, somehow.
“For me, who I am today is really a huge part is Bodine High School,” she said.
Bodine High School for International Affairs senior students cheer after learning former student, Dr. Sonia Lewis, donated $16,200 to cover senior school fees on Friday, December 19, 2025. Dr. Lewis is giving back after the Northern Liberties high school helped her during a difficult time, while she was a student 20-yrs-ago.
So on a December day, Lewis walked into the auditorium of the Philadelphia School District magnet school with a surprise — the largest donation ever given to the nonprofit that supports Bodine. She gave $16,200 to cover the bulk of every senior’s class dues — funds that most students struggle to pay.
Aaliyah Bolden, a Bodine 12th grader, was jubilant after the announcement.
“I’m just so grateful,” Bolden said. “Coming from an underrepresented community and having financial hardships, this just makes a big difference to me.”
‘Can you work with me?’
Lewis was a standout student at Bodine, an international affairs high school in Northern Liberties. She was class president, active in student government, a strong student in the Class of 2005, a leader.
She was raised by her single mother and grandmother, both Philadelphia teachers, told from a very young age that she was college-bound.
But when Lewis was 16, her priorities shifted, out of necessity. Her mother was gravely ill with bacterial meningitis and other complications. Her grandmother had just beaten cancer, but it fell to Lewis to advocate for her mother, to take her to appointments, to navigate the healthcare system on her behalf. She worked three jobs to help bridge financial gaps.
School just could not be at the top of her priority list.
Dr. Sonia Lewis takes a seat before speaking to Bodine High School for International Affairs senior students on Friday, December 19, 2025. Dr. Lewis gifted $16,200 for the 2026 senior class, to cover senior school fees. Dr. Lewis is giving back after the Northern Liberties high school helped her during a difficult time, while she was a student 20-yrs-ago.
“I had to tell my high school, ‘These are my circumstances. I’m going to have to leave school to make some of these appointments,’” Lewis said. “I was just really clear with everyone at Bodine about what I needed, and I said, ‘Can you work with me?’”
They did. But some deadlines are firm, and Lewis missed the federal student-aid loan deadline because her mother had just gotten out of a coma, had cognitive issues, and was unable to gather the necessary information or complete the form.
“I had to become the mom,” Lewis said. “I would have to ask her, ‘Did you brush your teeth today?’ Nobody was thinking of the FAFSA.”
As students’ college acceptances were rolling in, Bodine’s principal noticed that there were none for Lewis. The principal asked her what was happening.
Lewis’ grandmother contemplated taking out a mortgage on her house to send her to college, but Lewis was too practical for that.
“I told the principal, ‘We don’t have any money. We missed the deadline,’” she said. “There was no money coming in from my mom. We had my grandmother’s retirement, but that wasn’t enough.”
Lewis figured she would work for a year, saving money and filling out the FAFSA form for the next cycle. But Karen P. Hill, the principal, just shook her head.
A busybody for good
The principal’s plan became evident at Bodine’s senior awards ceremony, Lewis remembers, when “they just kept calling my name” as prizes were announced.
At the end of the evening, Lewis walked off with an envelope full of checks totaling $16,000 — enough to allow her to enroll at Bloomsburg University and pay her first year’s tuition.
Once she got to Bloomsburg, Lewis continued to grind, working multiple jobs, earning scholarships, making connections. Then, after she earned her bachelor’s degree, Lewis moved on to working in higher education, spending time at Peirce College and elsewhere as an academic coach and in admissions.
She earned her master’s degree, and eventually her doctorate. Now, she’s “the Student Loan Doctor”; Lewis believes her 13-employee company is the first Black woman-owned student loan repayment firm in the United States.
Dr. Sonia Lewis stands with the Bodine High School for International Affairs mascot Amby during a a senior class assembly on Friday, December 19, 2025. Dr. Lewis gifted $16,200 for the 2026 senior class, to cover senior school fees. Dr. Lewis is giving back after the Northern Liberties high school helped her during a difficult time, while she was a student 20-yrs-ago.
Lewis coaches clients to create plans to pay off their student loan debt — through repayment, loan consolidation and forgiveness, and more. She’s a sought-after expert, quoted in national publications, offering free weekly classes, growing her business by the year. She has 150,000 followers on Instagram.
Lewis is allergic to sitting still. Her nickname in her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, was “Busybody.” She has channeled that for good — the Student Loan Doctor has now served over 50,000 clients since 2016, helping get an estimated $55 million in student loans forgiven.
The business is hard work, but a joy for Lewis, who gets to know she makes a direct impact on her clients’ lives — like the surgeon who had $997,000 in loans, including loans that were in arrears.
“He didn’t know what to do,” Lewis said. “He got his loans forgiven. He wound up paying us like $300. We’re very affordable.”
The hardest worker
A few days before winter break, Lewis entered the Bodine auditorium with a massive smile on her face.
Her gift — hatched after Lewis presented a $1,000 scholarship to a Bodine graduate in the spring, then decided to go much bigger — was a surprise for the students, who knew only that a successful alum was visiting.
David Brown, the Bodine principal, reminded the students gathered in the auditorium that the small school was a special place.
“Our leaders don’t just leave with diplomas,” Brown said. “They leave with a global perspective.”
Then Marty Moyers, a Bodine teacher and president of the Friends of Bodine, a nonprofit that raises money for the school, presented Lewis: “Her journey has been a great one, and it started right here in this building,” Moyers said.
Bodine High School for International Affairs senior students cheer after learning former student, Dr. Sonia Lewis, donated $16,200 to cover senior school fees on Friday, December 19, 2025. Dr. Lewis is giving back after the Northern Liberties high school helped her during a difficult time, while she was a student 20-yrs-ago.
When he announced Lewis’ plan, there was stunned silence at first. Then, wild applause broke out. Students’ faces were jubilant.
Remember this, Lewis told them: She didn’t have a 4.0 grade-point average. But she showed up in every way possible.
“Even in my professional life as a super-successful entrepreneur, I’m not the best, but I’m a really hard worker,” Lewis said. “You guys got that. That’s the discipline and the spirit you want to have about yourselves as you’re leaving Bodine and you’re going into college, or you’re going into the workforce or entrepreneurship.”
De’Anna Drummond, a senior, is deep into her applying-for-scholarships-and-worrying-about-paying-for-college season. Class dues were another stress to think about, but she was delighted at the news that they are mostly covered, thanks to Lewis.
“Any donation is appreciated,” Drummond said. “It all adds up — senior trip, senior brunch, yearbook, everything.”
Bolden, Drummond’s friend, nodded.
“And someday,” Bolden said, “we should also give back when we can.”
The University of Pennsylvania launched a fund backed by $10 million from the university to make seed investments in companies founded by Penn researchers, officials announced Monday.
The fund, called StartUP, will invest up to $250,000 in companies founded by Penn researchers and based on innovations created at the university. Any profits will be put back into the fund, Penn said.
“This new fund addresses the critical need for seed investment capital at the earliest stages of company formation and will further accelerate innovation across the university,” Penn’s vice provost for research, David Meaney, said in a statement. Meaney is on the faculty at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The university’s Office of the Chief Innovation Officer will manage the fund. The innovation office will evaluate applicants with the help of external advisers. Factors in investment decisions include overall feasibility and commercial potential.
The new investment fund builds on efforts already underway at the Penn Center for Innovation, the Wharton School, and Penn Medicine, which in 2018 started a fund to invest $50 million in biotech companies.
Penn has led the nation recently in licensing revenue from faculty inventions, thanks largely to revenue from COVID-19 vaccines that were based on mRNA technology developed 20 years ago by Penn researchers Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó.
After serving more than two decades in the military, William Duffy found himself with no direction.
Duffy was coming from an environment where every day was planned for him, surrounded by people who shared his same experiences. Reentering civilian life was a shock to the system.
When one of Duffy’s former captains called him about a veterans hockey program the Flyers were starting six years ago, Duffy, who’d grown up playing goalie, jumped at the opportunity. “No matter where I was at, I was always playing,” he said.
Duffy is now the president of Flyers Warriors, a hockey program dedicated to providing a supportive community for wounded, injured, or otherwise disabled veterans and their families. The team started with a group of 33 veterans, and now spans five teams, from the elite level with former college and junior players to a learn-to-play program for those just starting out.
“It is a life-saving type of program, because some of these guys and girls wouldn’t have anything if it wasn’t for us, to be honest with you,” Duffy said.
Kevin Emore, the vice president of business operations for Flyers Warriors, can attest to its value.
“When I had my first episode with PTSD after running around the world doing contracting work or being in the military and deploying for the first time, I was surrounded by people on my left and my right that I didn’t know if I could trust,” Emore said. “When I made my way back to the East Coast, the Warriors was the first time that I found it again.”
Flyers’ Garnet Hathaway, a big supporter of military-based charities, took some time to talk with several veterans on the ice on Nov. 11.
The higher-level teams play tournaments across the country against Warriors teams affiliated with other NHL organizations. To eliminate barriers for all players to get on the ice, they provide childcare for families, and there’s a large community of Warrior Wives.
But the Flyers Warriors also pride themselves on the community they’ve built off the ice. That extends to social events like their group Thanksgiving dinner and participating in community service.
“What we realized along the way was veterans are better when we’re serving others,” Duffy said. “If we can create pathways to allow veterans to get back to service, that’s where they’re going to start to feel at home again.”
That’s where the partnership with the Flyers organization proves helpful. In addition to ice time and support, the Flyers Warriors are active in local philanthropy through various Flyers Charities initiatives. The Flyers Warriors athletes are key volunteers at events like the Gritty 5K and the Flyers Charities Carnival.
Todd Fedoruk, a former Flyer who played in the NHL from 2000 to 2010, said he too feels like he’s found a second home with the Flyers Warriors. While there are obvious differences between being a military veteran and an NHL veteran, Fedoruk also found similarities to his life after retirement.
After retiring from pro hockey, where his life was similarly structured with a strict schedule, Fedoruk also found himself searching for who he was aside from a hockey player.
“There’s a common bond there,” Fedoruk said. “Working with these guys, it does become more [than just] about hockey, because with my own history with mental health and all those other issues that’ve come maybe because of hockey, maybe not because of hockey, but the dynamics of change that happen to a former athlete are very similar.”
To help veterans make that adjustment, the Flyers Warriors connect their members with mental health services and support. Navigating the services available through the Veterans Affairs office can be a deterrent for those seeking mental healthcare, Emore said. They prioritize connecting their members with behavioral health, addiction, and recovery services.
The space Duffy and the executive board have built on the ice through Flyers Warriors helped build the foundation of trust for veterans to seek those resources out, all based on their shared love of hockey.
“It makes me feel proud about the game that I played,” Fedoruk said.
When Christina Vassallo was head of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, she landed several substantial grants from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Now she is moving to the other side of that donor-recipient relationship.
Vassallo is the newly named executive director of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, starting Jan. 5, Pew announced Monday.
“The center embodies everything I value about arts leadership — intellectual curiosity, rigorous support for artists and arts organizations, and a true commitment to public life,” said Vassallo. “So for the center, I’m drawn to its dual identity as a grantmaker and as a hub for ideas, and for the opportunity to connect the arts with civic purpose.”
Leadership and operational changes at the Pew arts center are closely watched in Philadelphia’s arts and culture community since the center, along with the William Penn Foundation, accounts for some of the largest foundation giving in the area.
Pew’s center, for instance, also announced on Monday that it has awarded $8.6 million to 44 Philadelphia-area groups — nearly $180,000 to the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra for a project on Black women composers, $360,000 to Monument Lab for the creation of environmental soundworks as a “living monument to Philadelphia’s birds,” and to projects by Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadanco, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, theater companies, dance troupes, and museums.
After leaving the Fabric Workshop in 2023, Vassallo became director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Before the Fabric Workshop, she was executive and artistic director of the alternative art gallery SPACES, in Cleveland. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in New York City and northern New Jersey, and holds two degrees from New York University — a bachelor’s in art history and a master’s in nonprofit visual arts management.
Vassallo arrives as Philadelphia’s arts scene grapples with a number of challenges. Many groups are facing the double whammy of attendance numbers that are still lower than pre-COVID levels, and cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.
The Pew arts center specifically has undergone a significant change with the 2024 collapse of the University of the Arts, which had been its operational partner. In June, Pew announced that the Barnes Foundation would take UArts’ place, and Vassallo suggested that the Barnes — which also had a hand in her hiring — could take on a more significant role.
“I think there is tremendous potential there programmatically beyond their administrative role,” said Vassallo, who called the relationship between the Pew center and the Barnes an “evolving” one.
Dancers from Philadanco, which received a grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
One significant change has already occurred. Vassallo will report to Barnes Foundation executive director and president Thomas Collins, whereas Marincola reported directly to Pew. The Barnes isn’t seen as getting involved with the Pew center’s grant-making process, but, rather, could work with the center on creating new programming.
“We could imagine partnerships between the [Pew Fellowships in the Arts] fellows … being able to engage in the collection at the Barnes, for example, we can imagine the center and the Barnes partnering on community conversations,” said Elinor Haider, senior director of Pew’s Philadelphia Program.
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage will continue to be based in its offices on Walnut Street, Haider said.
Vassallo called Philadelphia’s arts scene “incredibly rich and vital.” About its challenges, she said — while noting that she needs to relearn Philadelphia’s arts and culture community — that “we are having to find new ways to fund our work. I have seen this in the form of creating new business models, coming up with innovative ways to increase ticket sales and engage current and new audiences to create new revenue streams.”
She said she has “always been a strong believer in nurturing the next generation of art enthusiasts, ensuring that kids have access to the arts across disciplines.”
As for future funding priorities, the center has not yet determined whether it will undertake a strategic planning process, she said.
“Not only are we assessing feedback from grantees and external parties, but we’re also understanding the state of the city, and then you have the various partners involved — you have Pew, you have the center staff, and now you have the Barnes. So I think within that there’s going to be a very special alchemy that starts to further determine the future of center funding decisions.”
For more than an hour, one domestic violence survivor after another stepped up to the microphone with tales of pain and resilience.
“When people get close to me, I flinch because I’m afraid they are going to abuse me,” said one woman, speaking in Spanish, her words translated into English by a staffer at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a nonprofit social services agency in North Philadelphia that provides help with housing, education, medical needs, workforce training, and after-school activities for youngsters.
Congreso is celebrating its 48th year in operation, and for 30 of those years, it has maintained a program to support people dealing with, and trying to escape from, domestic violence.
“I was never allowed to go outside. He would show up at my job,” the woman continued in a room decorated with purple balloons, the color symbolizing domestic violence. Each year, Congreso honors survivors and mourns, in a few moments of poignant silence, the people who lost their lives to domestic violence. Last year, in Pennsylvania, there were 102.
“He would bruise my face so I couldn’t see my family. I worked in a nightclub, and he would drag me out … No one wanted to get involved,” she said.
No one, until Congreso did and helped relocate her to a new home.
Jannette Diaz, president and CEO of Congreso, outside the group’s offices in North Philadelphia.“We’re all feeling the crunch,” she said of recent funding challenges.
“It takes a lot of courage to come up here and share your story,” Ramona Peralta, Congreso’s director of family wellness, said as the woman finished speaking. “We’re very proud of you, and we are here for you all the way.”
In the main room, the mood vacillated between the heavy silence of shared pain and the cheerful clamoring of babies. Later, there was music, and before, a friendly lunch of rice with pork and chicken.
Across the hall, members of the Asociación de Cosmetologas de Pennsylvania offered free hairstyling to the women who attended the celebration.
Congreso, as part of its program to teach police, educators, social workers, and others to recognize signs of domestic abuse, had trained this group, as well, and because of the intimacy of their work, the stylists were uniquely positioned to do so. More than most, beauty salon operators could readily see the bruises hidden under hair and makeup. They could feel the cuts and scars on the scalp. And then there were the confidences confessed during shampoos and stylings.
Wanda Gómez, of the Blessings of God beauty salon, styles Franyeimi Abreu’s hair at Congreso’s offices.
Among the volunteers was Wanda Gómez, owner of the Blessings of God beauty salon in Northeast Philadelphia. “Thank God, I’m no longer in that situation,” she said, speaking through a translator. But because she survived domestic violence, she said she’s in a better position to help others. She tells them about Congreso.
Elisa Zaro Doran, owner of Dominican Divas Beauty Salon in Olney, twisted a strand of hair around a curling iron as she styled Maria Rodriguez’s long, dark hair. Like Gómez, Doran survived domestic abuse. “The first time, when he hit me, we were having a lot of problems, so I thought it was normal,” Doran said.
He’d even come into her beauty salon and hit her. “My clients would try to defend me,” she said. Eventually, when her son tried to protect her, she knew she had to take the necessary steps to get away and be safe — for herself and her children.
Rodriguez was there yesterday to support her daughter, who survived domestic violence, but still lives in fear — which is the reason she would only agree to be interviewed if her name was not used. “He told me that it doesn’t matter how many years — he will come and burn down my house with me in it,” she said.
Hairdresser Domaris Rodriguez shows her artistry on Raquel Mendez’s hair.
Rodriguez’s daughterturned to Congreso for help after Thanksgiving a few years ago. Her oldest son told her that day that he would no longer live with her, because every night he dreamed of killing his father. He couldn’t stay and watch the beatings or watch his father, in a rage, destroy the furniture in their home.
“I don’t know how many dining room tables I bought,” the daughter said.
On that Thanksgiving, she told her husband he had to leave. It was the end of the relationship, but the beginning of a new nightmare. He followed her to work and even stood in the pharmacy, watching her as she managed the office.
Counseling at Congreso helped her name her situation for what it was — abuse. “They made me see that I was in danger,” and that what she thought was normal was anything but. In group sessions, she learned a critical lesson: “I understood that I wasn’t the only one. They made me know it wasn’t my fault.”
She’s still afraid to leave her home. “I’m going through anxiety, PTSD. It still affects me.”
As she watched her mother get her hair styled, Rodriguez’s daughter hoped her mother would absorb a lesson from the stories she would hear. The daughter wanted her mother to understand the intergenerational legacy of abuse because she believes her mother also suffered from domestic violence.
That abuse, Rodriguez’s daughter believes, impacted both her and her sister, whose abuser stopped hitting her only when he thought she was dead. She teaches her sister lessons learned from counseling at Congreso. Counseling includes helping women develop a safety plan.
Rodriguez’s daughter brings her own little girl, 13, to Congreso’s counseling groups for children impacted by domestic violence. “I’m saving my sister’s life, and I’m saving my daughter’s life,” she said. As for her sons, “I’m not raising abusers,” as she reminds them to respect their girlfriends.
Last month’s celebration in honor of the survivors of domestic abuse took center stage that day at Congreso, but Congreso’s programming benefits many more people in the community, 75% of whom are Latino, said Jannette Diaz, president and chief executive.
Diaz grew up a few blocks from Congreso, and her father relied on the nonprofit for help with the family’s utility bills.
These days, she spends time working on strengthening relationships with fellow nonprofit agencies and with Congreso’s friends in the donor community.
“We’re all feeling the crunch,” Diaz said, describing a double whammy in mid-October of the state’s failure to pass a budget as the national government moved into another week of shutdown. Congreso gets much of its funding from government reimbursements for services provided.
At Congreso, “we’re very mindful of our spending. So far, we’re continuing to provide services at 100%, but there’s only so much we can do, tapping into our reserves and our line of credit.”
“Sometimes it’s heavy, but I’m also hopeful,” Diaz said, explaining that the twin state and federal budget crises required a sharper focus even as demand for services increases. Changes in Medicaid regulations may impact finances at Congreso’s health center, for example.
But, she said, donors can be confident their dollars are being spent wisely.
Why? Because as nonprofits come and go, Congreso has survived, thanks to providing trauma-informed and culturally responsive services that are informed by data to its clients, Diaz said.
“We’ve been around for 48 years, and there’s a reason for that. And that is how we operate within our community,” she said. “We forge a trusting relationship, and we try our best to do what they need. It’s important that we make sure our programs have impact.”
And that impact, Diaz said, goes beyond help given directly to clients. When Congreso assists a first-time home buyer in qualifying for and landing a mortgage, that homeowner becomes a Philadelphia taxpayer, benefiting the community.
When someone like Gary DeJesus-Walker earns a CDL truck-driving license through Congreso’s workforce training program, he can go on to build a trucking business. Now he employs three people.
“Congreso — they changed my life,” he said. “From trucking, I started two other companies.” With Congreso’s CDL program, “if you need a second chance, you can have one for the rest of your life. This is a way you can provide for and feed your family, forever.”
The stories are an inspiration to Diaz.
“Even in this season,” she said, “we can strategize and design services that our community needs. We’re not paralyzed by this crisis, and in terms of moving the needle forward, we’re progressing.”
This article is part of a series about Philly Gives — a community fund to support nonprofits through end-of-year giving. To learn more about Philly Gives, including how to donate, visit phillygives.org.
For more information about Philly Gives, including how to donate, visit phillygives.org.
About Congreso de Latinos Unidos
Mission: To enable individuals and families in predominantly Latino neighborhoods to achieve economic self-sufficiency and well-being.
People served: 13,435 unique clients served in fiscal year 2025.
Annual Spending: $30 million
Point of Pride: Trademarked Primary Client Model that drives Congreso’s bilingual and bicultural approach to delivering services in a client-centered, data-informed, and culturally responsive way, whether a community member is receiving support in education, workforce development, housing, health, or family services.
You can help: Become a monthly donor, a member of Congreso’s Corporate Advisory Council, or a volunteer in the Congreso Cares Program. Volunteers help with participating in program initiatives like Congreso’s free tax preparation, supporting program and agency events, and assisting with fundraising.
MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s richest women through her Amazon shares, has donated $25 million to Lincoln University, the college announced Friday.
The money — part of the billionaire philanthropist’s series of multimillion-dollar, unrestricted donations to historically Black colleges and universities — will support scholarships and initiatives, according to a news release.
Lincoln University officials said the no-strings-attached gift “exemplifies her confidence in the university’s mission, vision, and leadership.”
“Lincoln University was founded to break barriers and create pathways for African Americans to thrive,” president Brenda A. Allen said in a statement. “This investment honors that legacy and propels us forward, enabling us to build on 171 years of excellence and innovation.
“It is a powerful affirmation of the enduring value of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”
A spokesperson for the university and the board of trustees could not immediately be reached Saturday for additional comment.
This is Scott’s second donation to the southern Chester County university, the first degree-granting HBCU in the nation. The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave $20 million in 2020 — then the school’s largest gift from a single donor in its history. As of June 2023, the school’s endowment was $54 million.
A number of other historically Black colleges also received money from Scott in recent weeks, including Maryland’s Bowie State and Morgan State Universities and University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Scott’s total donations to higher education institutions this year have topped $1 billion, Forbes reported.
Quinta Brunson wants you to dig into your pocket to make free field trips possible for Philadelphia students.
The actor, writer, and comedian — along with Philadelphia School District officials and the leader of the district’s nonprofit arm — announced the “Quinta Brunson Field Trip Fund” on Tuesday.
District teachers and administrators will be able to apply for money for field trips by completing a short application subject to evaluation by an independent, internal group of educators. Field trip grants will be made twice a year.
“They opened my world, sparked my creativity, and helped me imagine a future beyond what I saw every day,” Brunson said. “Going somewhere new shows you that the world is bigger and more exciting than you believe, and it can shape what you come to see as achievable. I’m proud to support Philadelphia students with experiences that remind them their dreams are valid and their futures are bright.”
“Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson watches the Phillies play the Atlanta Braves during a taping of the show in Philadelphia in August.
Every Abbott Elementary season has featured a field trip episode, including visits toSmith Playground, the Franklin Institute, and the Philadelphia Zoo. Brunson’s fund “will remove the financial barriers that too often limit our children’s access to these enrichment opportunities,” officials for the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia said.
The GivingTuesday launch kicked off with an unspecified donation from Brunson herself.
Kathryn Epps, president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, said getting students out of their classrooms is crucial.
“We are honored to partner with Quinta to expand these experiences for children in Philadelphia’s public schools, helping them to envision and realize any future they desire,” Epps said.
Tony B. Watlington Sr., Philadelphia School District superintendent, said he was grateful to Brunson.
“We want our students to venture out and bridge what they’re learning in the classroom to engaging, real-world learning experiences,” Watlington said. “This commitment to equitably expanding opportunities for students to have experiences outside of their classroom will help accelerate student achievement and we are becoming the fastest improving, large urban school district in the nation.”
