Seventy incoming freshman are getting a rigorous introduction to academic and extracurricular life at Penn before the start of the school year.

The Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen exposes students to an intensive one-week course of study about major intellectual themes in 19th, 20th and 21st century African, African-American and other African Diaspora studies. Distinguished Penn faculty teach classes about race, the media and politics; the experience of minorities at elite colleges and universities; and music and culture, among other topics. This year’s group of students is the largest and most diverse in the Institute’s 23-year history.

The week’s highlights include a dinner, held on July 29, and attended by Penn President Amy Gutmann (pictured). There, students were able to interact outside of the classroom with faculty and graduate students from the Institute and the Center for Africana Studies.