Penn Arts & Sciences receives $8M commitment from The Robert K. Johnson Foundation

The Robert K. Johnson Foundation has contributed $8 million to name and endow The Robert K. Johnson Integrated Studies Program, the first-year curriculum for Benjamin Franklin Scholars students pursuing degrees in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Launched in the fall of 2011 as the Integrated Studies Program, this residential academic program invites highly motivated students to examine complex themes through the integration of multiple academic disciplines and methodologies.

“Working across disciplines is central to Penn’s ethos and to our strategic framework, In Principle and Practice,” says Penn President J. Larry Jameson. “The Robert K. Johnson Foundation’s gift will strengthen and expand one of the College’s most innovative programs for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. We are deeply grateful for their support.”

“If Bob Johnson were alive today, he would be the first in line to apply to the Integrated Studies Program at Penn,” says Anthony Belinkoff, an alumnus of the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Distribution Committee of The Robert K. Johnson Foundation. “Bob’s philosophy was to always broaden one’s mind and to take in the world around oneself.” 

The gift will provide a perpetual funding stream for the Integrated Studies Program and enhance its support for orientation programming for pre-first-year students and ongoing engagement beyond the students’ first year. It will also fund scholarly, professional, and service-learning opportunities during students’ breaks and establish a speaker series. The Robert K. Johnson Foundation has previously supported education initiatives, the arts, and conservation efforts across the United States.

“The program is designed around an idea that goes back to the University’s founder, Benjamin Franklin: that no single discipline, method, or perspective can solve complex problems and challenges,” says Peter Struck, Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vartan Gregorian Professor of Humanities, and founding director. “This generous gift ensures that we will be able to continue fostering intellectual agility in these bright minds for years to come.”

To create a collaborative learning environment, the students, numbering around 80 every year, reside together in Hill College House and take a pair of innovative double-credit courses that explore a broad central theme under the guidance of eminent Penn faculty from varied disciplines. Past themes have included “The Anthropocene,” which was examined through the lens of earth science and history; “Curiosity,” tackled from the perspectives of cognitive science and ancient philosophy; and “Body, Image, Spirit,” taught by faculty from religious studies and history of art.

“I am profoundly grateful to The Robert K. Johnson Foundation for its confidence in the Program,” says Benjamin Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Term Associate Professor of History and Program director. “The Foundation’s investment in our vision of bringing multiple disciplines to bear on challenging problems and issues of our time will allow us to expand, deepen, and enrich the living-learning community we foster for select first-year students at Penn.”