DRIVE AROUND PHILADELPHIA on a Saturday morn-
ing and you’ll see dozens of similar tribes, many
wearing the signature “Students Run” T-shirts
and hoodies.
Runner and public-health advocate Heather
McDanel founded the nonprofit in 2004, mod-
eling it after Los Angeles’s Students Run L.A.
program, with the initial goal of preventing
childhood obesity. It’s evolved to show young
people their true potential through running and
mentorship. Around 1,200 middle school and high
school students train alongside mentors within
59 school-based teams, running together a few
times a week and preparing for races like the
Broad Street Run and the Philadelphia Mara-
thon—they earn a hoodie that says “Marathon
Finisher” for completing it. Student runners can
also earn new running shoes for showing up to
most of the weekly training runs.
A two-year impact study of the program by
Temple University and Drexel University points
to impressive results: Forty-one percent of par-
ticipating students increased their GPA, while
91 percent of seniors graduated high school. By
comparison, the School District of Philadelphia’s
most recent data lists a 69 percent graduation rate
for the city’s public schools.
With weekend and after-school practices,
SRPS also keeps teens out of trouble: The study
saw a 50 percent decrease in SRPS students’
violent behavior. Eighty percent of kids felt
the program sustained or increased their self-
confidence, and 90 percent were accepted into
four-year colleges.
Running alone doesn’t account for the program’s
continued success. Students like Kpou, who keeps
showing up because there’s not much to do at
home, could’ve just joined their high school track
team. But not everyone responds well to a coach
barking splits from a stopwatch.
SRPS mentors are more like equals, not superiors.
“You hear me moaning up every hill, saying ‘Lord,
have mercy,’” says mentor Jill Morris, 43, a school
counselor at Upper Darby High School. “The kids
are like ‘Oh, here’s an adult doing the same thing
I’m doing and that’s not easy for them either.’”
The organization sees teens from families
of all socio-economic backgrounds; it’s not just
kids from lower-income households who need
guidance. At a leadership training session, one
student told Morris, “I was so excited that these
adults kept showing up in my life!” And Morris
thought, “That’s all I have to do?” Compared with
her job as a school counselor, where she advocates
for students’ well-being to parents, teachers, and
administrators, it seems easy. Talking to kids about
school and relationships or just BS’ing is all that’s
required to forge relationships at SRPS. “When
you’re running,” Morris says, “what else are you
going to do for 15 or 18 miles?”
Even just showing up and BS’ing does more
than fill up the miles. It’s a way to connect. David
Castellanos, a senior at Academy at Palumbo, ran
last year’s Philadelphia Marathon in memory of
his late sister, with mentor and computer science
teacher Erik Wiessmann. Castellanos says he
doesn’t express his emotions to just anyone. Butduring the marathon, “I was just screaming at
Wiessmann,” he says. “Not only because of the
physical pain, but the emotional pain. I just said
it out loud that I can’t give up, that I have to finish
the race for my sister. I wasn’t embarrassed,
because I trust him enough.”
The program has even made runners out of non-
running adults. Audrey Russell began volunteering
with SRPS last year because she wanted to join her
daughters’ group. The 49-year-old wasn’t a runner,
but once Russell discovered the confidence it gave
her, she started a running group at her church.
She’s recruited 11 active runners, from a fifth-
grader to Sister Juanita, who is 60. For Russell’s
50th birthday, she wants to run the Philadelphia
Marathon, her first time at the distance.
“Wouldn’t it be a grand occasion?” she says.
“Fifty years old, and I run a marathon.”D
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