Interim President J. Larry Jameson announced the recipients of the 2024 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prizes. Five fourth-year students received the President’s Engagement Prize and two fourth-years received the President’s Innovation Prize, comprising three teams in total. Said Jameson, “Educate to Empower, Presby Addiction Care Program, and Jochi exemplify Penn’s founding ethos: to pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake and to use it to do good in the world. I congratulate each of our Prize winners and look forward to seeing their ventures thrive.”
Anooshey Ikhlas, Catherine Hood, and Brianna Aguilar are team members of Presby Addiction Care Program, one of two winners of the 2024 President’s Engagement Prize. Proponents of harm reduction, they will work to train volunteers to offer emotional support and resources on evenings and weekends to patients with opioid use disorder who have been hospitalized. Their mission: reduce the likelihood of death or hospital readmission.
Kenneth S. Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, spoke as part of the School of Arts & Sciences’ Living the Hard Promise series about freedom of expression. “Reject anything that seems like groupthink or simplistic formulas. If you feel comfort from reducing complicated issues to binaries, alarm bells should be going off. Experiment. Be willing to be wrong,” Stern encouraged the audience toward the close of his remarks.
Third-year students Aravind Krishnan and Tej Patel, both in the Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, have received Harry S. Truman Scholarships, a merit-based award of as much as $30,000 for graduate or professional school to prepare for careers in public service. They are among 60 Truman Scholars this year.
Late April saw the 128th running of the world-famous Penn Relays. Several Penn students set records and attained top finishes. Penn Today was present to capture photo and video highlights.
Hundreds of students gathered on College Green on April 5 to celebrate Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors that signifies the start of spring. “We always love seeing how many people show up to Holi,” said Ashrit Challa, co-president of the Penn Hindu & Jain Association, which hosted the event. “It’s just a really great feeling getting to see people celebrate together and enjoy the day.”
Penn Today showcased what some of the more than 70 student performing arts groups on campus were working on for the spring semester. Productions ranged from “Heathers the Musical” by Quadramics Theatre to an upcoming show by a capella group Penn Masala.
Thousands gathered on campus on April 8 to witness the partial solar eclipse. “There’s so much energy here. College Green is decked out. There are students everywhere and it’s just so much activity,” said Toyosi Abu, a fourth-year in Wharton and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He described the scene as one of high spirits.
Penn Leads the Vote (PLTV) worked arduously to register voters and get out the vote for the primary election day, which is only held pre-Commencement once every four years. Sarah Alkhafaji, co-president of PLTV, says groundwork has already been laid for the fall. “We want to be as involved with as many portions of campus as possible, strengthening partnerships with college houses, graduate and undergraduate schools, and have partnerships nailed down [by fall],” she says.
The 25th Models of Excellence award ceremony brought together staff inside Harrison Auditorium, celebrating 52 Penn staff members for above-and-beyond accomplishments. “I’m honored, delighted, and excited to celebrate with all of you, Penn’s exceptional staff,” said Interim President J. Larry Jameson. “You make Penn move. You enable our excellence across every dimension of what we do.” (Image: Margo Reed Studio)
Penn Today photographer Eric Sucar captured students engaged in moments of creativity during fine arts courses throughout the year. Nearly 800 undergraduates take courses in fine arts in the College of Arts & Sciences each year, many of whom are non-majors. “Community is embedded in art making. It just is,” says Matt Neff, director of undergraduate fine arts and design. “I think especially now, it feels more important than ever that if we’re going to be in a space together, let’s be thoughtful about it.”
Mostafa Afr, a third-year in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, is president of the Muslim Student Association at Penn, and spoke about Ramadan as a time for community and a time when “you stretch yourself immensely,” through fasting, prayer, and good works. “Pushing you to your limits shows you that you can do more, and it helps you with that focus throughout the rest of the year,” he says.
Patricia Ruiz was selected to serve as the new executive director of Student Health and Counseling, as of March 1, 2024. She brings more than 20 years of experience in diverse higher education settings and is a certified advanced practice nurse with expertise in college health.
Students reacted to the 4.8 magnitude earthquake felt up and down the East Coast on April 5. “When my apartment started to sway a little bit and the floor was uneasy, it was a repeat of being back home in California,” said fourth-year Josh Valluru. “I was surprised because a 4.8 earthquake out here isn’t a small thing. It puts a whole new meaning to the Penn Quakers.”
Penn Upward Bound high school students from West Philadelphia toured the Penn Smart Aviary as part of a visit to Pennovation Works, organized by MindCORE, Penn’s hub for the integrative study of the mind. “Prior to this visit, students could not define cognitive science. The visit gave students the opportunity to explore diverse careers that are unfamiliar to them,” says Joann Gonzalez-Generals, director of Penn Upward Bound.
Wale Adebanwi and Deborah A. Thomas of the Department of Africana Studies were named 2024 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows. They were among 188 chosen from nearly 3,000 applicants. (Images: Courtesy of Penn Arts & Sciences and Shira Yudkoff)
Ten graduate students were recognized for excellence in teaching, with nominations submitted by undergraduates. “Teaching is hard, and good teaching is even harder,” says Steve Zdancewic, who chaired the selection committee. “And thankfully, at Penn we have way too many good Ph.D. and graduate students helping with teaching, but we should acknowledge them and their good work.”
Kristyn Palmiotto was named executive director of Penn Abroad in the fall. Here, she talks about her experiences in international education and expanding access to study abroad. “To be a hub for global opportunities, we have to be creative,” she says. “We made changes, for example, to our popular summer research and internship program, partnering with Student Registration and Financial Services to make sure we could support more students at higher levels. We also launched new programs, like Penn Global Research Institutes, to diversify the types of study abroad options available.” (Image: Greta Kazenski)
Irvine Auditorium filled with members of the Penn community to hear from Margaret Atwood, who joined in conversation with Professor Emily Wilson for the School of Arts & Sciences’ Dean Forum. Atwood discussed how she became a writer, what inspired “The Handmaid’s Tale” and its sequel, and her view of language and storytelling. (Image: Lisa J. Godfrey)
