Patience Lehrman, director of Temple’s Project Shine, has been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal. Project SHINE matches college students with older immigrants, who often have language barriers. The students also help immigrants work toward citizenship. One of the benefits of immigrant integration, says Lehrman, is that it can help close a gap in the workforce created by America’s aging population. “And immigrants, like me, are willing to do everything possible to participate fully in shaping the future of this country.” 

A new project by Temple’s Kornberg School of Dentistry and United Healthcare will help young children living around Temple get the dental care they need. Amid Ismail, dean of the School of Dentistry, says families need to know care is available and understand why it’s important. “We are going to contact these children and visit them at home, talk to the caregivers about what we can provide, and if there are any barriers we will discuss how we can help them,” he said.

Temple's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History is holding "a two-year-long conversation about food, ethics, sustainability and eating Jewish" called "What Is Your Food Worth?" (WIYFW). Bryant Simon, the center's interim director and a history professor at Temple, said WIYFW's organizers "wanted to create a program that would reach beyond the university, one that would engage the various segments of the community." The center has collaborated with Congregation Rodeph Shalom, the National Museum of American Jewish History and the Gershman Y.

In an opinion piece, Christopher Harper, a professor of journalism at Temple, criticized network news coverage of the pope's resignation. "One of the problems is timing," he wrote. "The pope’s announcement of his resignation occurred nearly 11 hours before the evening broadcasts, meaning almost everyone already knew about the story." The difficulty facing network newscasts "is whether such broadcasts can reinvent themselves to become more relevant in a 24/7 news cycle."