WHO:           Cynthia Figueroa, newly appointed commissioner, Philadelphia Department of Human Services

Two doctoral students from the University of Pennsylvania were selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as inaugural Health Policy Research Scholars. They are Jasmine L. Blanks Jones and Sondra Calhoun. 

At 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, just three days before the University of Pennsylvania kicked off another school year’s classes, 40 or so students gathered in the green next to Harrison College House for wings, ice cream and sodas. They weren’t simply hanging out but rather there to talk to and learn about more than half a dozen mental-health groups on campus.

Just as summer was winding down, around the time when many students were wrapping up internships and checking packing lists for a return to campus, 13 University of Pennsylvania undergraduates flew across an ocean and began acclimating to the thin air of the Swiss and Italian Alps.

To ensure the global population is food secure, it’s estimated that food production must increase at least 50 percent by 2050. One of the best means to achieve that increase is by boosting yield, that is, producing more food on existing cropland with fewer resources.

The English Language Programs at the University of Pennsylvania often teaches in traditional classrooms, but, in a unique situation instructing international professional athletes, the language laboratory is sometimes on a soccer field. 

Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania has named 25 undergraduates as the inaugural cohort of World House Student Fellows.  The group of sophomores, juniors and seniors will participate each week in seminars, research projects, leadership opportunities and activities focused on pressing global issues. 

As the inaugural Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, alumna Stephanie Herrmann has already had access to