A political science major from San Francisco, California, Banker will be working on Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict and Governance program. She is the fourth Penn student to receive the fellowship since the program, formerly known as the Carnegie Junior Fellows Program, started more than 30 years ago.
The Gaither Junior Fellows Program is designed to provide a substantive work experience for students who have a serious career interest in the area of international affairs. Junior Fellows are paid a monthly salary and receive a benefits package.
She has worked on local, state and federal policy initiatives at the American Civil Liberties Union, Philadelphia City Council, the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and as a 2025 Henry A. Wallace Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She also led two successful education policy campaigns to increase public school funding in Philadelphia and California, the latter of which was profiled in the 2024 book “Don’t Wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won.”
Junior Fellows assist Carnegie Endowment senior scholars with research and editing in areas including nuclear nonproliferation, foreign policy, economics, technology, and democracy and governance. They have the opportunity to conduct research, participate in meetings with high-level officials, and contribute to books, reports, Congressional testimony, and other works.
Novel plant-based approach to a better, cheaper GLP-1 delivery system
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell investigates the use of a lettuce-based, plant-encapsulated delivery platform as a new oral delivery of two GLP-1 drugs previously approved by the FDA in injectable form.
No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.
In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.
In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.
Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.
