Darby Creek remains a thoroughfare with some of the region’s lushest pastoral vistas. But it also is one of the country’s most flood-prone streams and a national lesson in what can go wrong along a developed waterway. “The Darby encapsulates about every problem attendant in stream management,” said Jeff Featherstone, director of Temple’s Center for Sustainable Communities.

Students in “HR on the ground,” a class at Temple’s Fox School of Business, serve as human-resources consultants to a group of regional Target stores. “This class gives kids a real bird’s-eye view of what the real work world is like,” said professor Katherine Nelson. That’s key at a time when many college graduates are struggling to find work while employers complain that many graduates lack soft skills, such as a professional attitude.