As a workforce development consultant at Penn Medicine Academy, Kerry Nihill is passionate about creating opportunities. Through on-site degree programs, a learning ambassadors program, managing new employee orientation, workshops, and other initiatives, Nihill strives to help Penn Medicine employees reach their professional goals.
Naturally, this dedication to helping others reach their potential extends to the community.
“In college, I did a lot of Habitat for Humanity, weekly service at the local level, and international service trips, and since then, giving back to the community has been very important to me,” said Nihill. “I’m fortunate that I have a great education, great job, and it’s important for me to pay it forward.”
Nihill volunteered for the last five years at Camp Erin with Penn Wissahickon Hospice. The weekend overnight camp offers fun camp activities and grief education and support to children who experienced the death of a close person in their life.
It is this desire to support the community that attracts Nihill to the Drueding Center, an organization offering transitional housing and support services to single mothers and their children.
Nihill and her mom both assist the Center’s hour and a half, weekly “Homework Helper” program. Each volunteer is assigned to one elementary school aged child only for the entire school year length program.
“We help with arts and crafts, reading, writing; every week is different, but the child is the same,” says Nihill. “The overarching mission of the Drueding Center aims to provide permanent housing for these families. You can work with someone for four months and then they’re placed somewhere—which is great, but bittersweet for us.”
The kids thrive through the one-on-one attention they receive in the program.
“The most recent girl I tutored said she would tell her friends at school about how tutoring was not just ‘doing boring homework’ but was actually a lot of fun!,” Nihill notes.
The center also offers resume workshops, funding for women to buy professional clothes, and other career support. The goal is for each other mother to receiving housing with her child(ren) and employment within two years.
“The most important thing is education,” says Nihill. “Penn Medicine offers employees the opportunity to go back to school and invest in themselves through great benefits. What I do at the Drueding Center is all around education, helping kids create a future for themselves through education.”
If you are a Penn Medicine employee sharing your time and talents in our community, or want more information on how you can support outreach, please visit the Penn Medicine CAREs site!