Penn’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Symposium on Social Change
The annual event, held this year on Jan. 20, includes educational and volunteer opportunities, along with events for children and young adults.
The annual Day of Service begins with a kickoff breakfast in Houston Hall.
Every year, hundreds of Penn faculty, staff, and students gather with community members to celebrate and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. This year marks 30th annual Day of Service, which will be held on Jan. 20.
Toliver says that since then the symposium has become much more than “one day of service, with significant programs, lectures, and events connecting Penn to King’s ‘beloved’ community. His teachings offer a strategic blueprint for building partnerships that focus on envisioning an inclusive society in which people collectively live in harmony, with mutual respect, equality, and compassion.”
The Jan. 20 Day of Service will begin with a kickoff breakfast at 8:30 a.m. in Houston Hall’s Hall of Flags before branching off into a variety of educational and volunteer opportunities.
Following breakfast, volunteers can meet for A Pocketbook Full of Toiletries Project and the Sock Stuffing Project in Bodek Lounge from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to fill bags and socks with personal items people staying in local shelters. Also in Houston Hall at 10 a.m. is the Class of 1980/Sayre Mentoring program, a partnership that goes back 20 years. This year’s beautification project will be held at the Laura Sims Skate House in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood at 2 p.m.
The Day of Service always includes youth activities. In the Penn Reads Literacy and Children’s Art Project, children ages 3 to 8 are invited the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library to explore the stacks, participate in a theatrical story time, eat pizza, and create a book to take home. For older children, the virtual workshop “So You Want to Go to College?”will walk students and their caregivers through the college admissions and financial aid application process.
Penn Vet will continue hosting its annual Free Dog and Cat Wellness and Vaccination Clinic, run by appointment only. Call the Penn Ryan Veterinary Hospital’s appointment desk at 215- 898-4680 between 8 and 10 a.m. on weekday to schedule a visit.
The Day of Service will conclude with an online educational event, “MLK 101: The Man and His Legacy,” followed by a candlelight vigil beginning at the W.E.B. Du Bois House at 7 p.m.
Symposium events will continue through Feb. 3. Highlights include the annual MLK Social Justice Lecture on Jan. 21 with Orlando Patterson of Harvard University, the MLK Nursing Program on Jan. 22 with Sheldon Fields, president of the Black Nursing Association, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Interfaith and Awards Commemoration on Jan. 23.
A complete listing of Symposium events can be found online or on the events page of the AARC website.
The Polyhedral Structures Laboratory is housed at the Pennovation Center and brings together designers, engineers, and computer scientists to reimagine the built world. Using graphic statics, a method where forces are mapped as lines, they design forms that balance compression and tension. These result in structures that use far fewer materials while remaining strong and efficient.
From ancient tombs and tiny robots to personalized gene editing and AI weather models, Penn’s 2025 research portfolio showed how curiosity—paired with collaboration—moves knowledge into impact and stretches across disciplines and continents.
Centering joy in AI development and implementation
PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton—of Annenberg and SP2—and collaborators introduce a joy-informed framework designed to initiate conversations among engineers, designers, and researchers.
Reflecting on Jane Austen, 250 years after her birth
English professors Michael Gamer and Barri Joyce Gold have been teaching courses specifically dedicated to Jane Austen for years. They spoke with Penn Today about their approach to teaching her novels, how they challenge common readings and myths, and what makes Austen’s work so enduring—and adaptable to the screen—more than two centuries later.
Electronic medical records help save lives of HIV patients
Wharton’s Leandro “Leo” Pongeluppe and colleagues found that HIV clinics in Malawi that switched from paper to electronic medical records saw an estimated 28% reduction in deaths in five years.
