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Debate as social empowerment
Member of the Penn Debate Society look at notes during a round with the Bard Prison Initiative Debate Union

Members of the Penn Debate Society discuss notes during their round against the Bard Prison Initiative Debate Union at Eastern New York Correctional Facility in April. (Image: Courtesy of Karen Pearson/BPI)

Debate as social empowerment

From debating a team in an upstate New York prison to helping the formerly incarcerated in Philadelphia, the Penn Debate Society sees debate as a tool to help others help themselves

Kristen de Groot

New gift brings design education to underserved youth
Teenage students working on a scale design model.

Design to Thrive gathers students ages 13 to 18 four days a week for an intensive design and making studio, where PennPraxis Design Fellows teach design skills and approaches, including welding with blowtorches, creating ceramic molds for porcelain bells, and building a precise topographic model. (Image: Gaja Papa for The Fresh Air Fund.)

New gift brings design education to underserved youth

Lori Kanter Tritsch and William P. Lauder, University of Pennsylvania Trustee, have created a new program for PennPraxis, the practice arm of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at Penn.
Commemorating Juneteenth
Person dancing at a Juneteenth celebration wearing a t-shirt that reads BREAKING EVERY CHAIN SINCE 1865.

Image: USAG-Humphreys

Commemorating Juneteenth

As Penn observes Juneteenth as an official University holiday, Penn Today chronicles events and resources across campus.

Penn Today Staff

SNF Paideia Program expands, thanks to new grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Group of people gathered together by a building entrance.

During a celebration in May 2022, current fellows in the SNF Paideia Program welcomed the 2025 cohort.

SNF Paideia Program expands, thanks to new grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Increased funding will enable the SNF Paideia Program at Penn to strengthen a commitment to the civic mission of higher education on campus and beyond with enhanced course offerings, an expanded fellowship program, and more event programming.
Penn Dental’s Penntorship connects with the West Philadelphia community
Two smiling women stand in blue medical scrubs on a sunny day.

Kylie Schlesinger (left) and Julie Berenblum (right) founded the Penntorship program to connect mentors from the Penn Dental school to students from West Philadelphia High School. (Image: Courtesy of Kylie Schlesinger and Julie Berenblum)

Penn Dental’s Penntorship connects with the West Philadelphia community

Amid the COVID lockdown, Penn Dental Medicine students Kylie Schlesinger and Julie Berenblum founded a mentorship program for high schoolers in West Philadelphia.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

How Penn Family Medicine forms a foundation of LGBTQ+ primary care
A masked doctor and patient speaking at a desk.

How Penn Family Medicine forms a foundation of LGBTQ+ primary care

The first primary care appointment for a patient who identify as LGBTQ is exactly like any appointment for any patient — clinicians are focused on treating them holistically and on listening to the concerns that brought them in for care.

Alex Gardner

Building Penn Medicine’s Pavilion helped launch his career. Now, William Griffin is going places
Vice President, Kamala Harris stands at a ceremony with William Griffin and his wife, who is holding their son.

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, with William Griffin and his wife and son. (Image: Penn Medicine News)

Building Penn Medicine’s Pavilion helped launch his career. Now, William Griffin is going places

Griffin participated in PennAssist, a program to help graduates of Philadelphia’s career and technical high schools and city residents enter the building trades, and made an impression on the construction management team for the Pavilion.

From Penn Medicine News

Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 
Manoj Simha and Rowana Miller standing on stairway

May graduates Rowana Miller (right) and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world, taught by college students. The new nonprofit is expanding to offer in-person workshops in Philadelphia and several other U.S. cities.

Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 

May graduates Rowana Miller and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world.
Lighting the way for rare disease
Magnolia Wang posing with Penn Pavilion with the roof lit up

To commemorate Rare Disease Day, Magnolia Wang organized a lighting of the Pavilion of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in support of the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

Lighting the way for rare disease

After finding out about STAC3, a rare disease without a cure, biology major Magnolia Wang of the College of Arts and Sciences set out to raise awareness and advocate for those struggling with the illness.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

A vigil in response to recent losses to gun violence
A crowd of people on College Green at Penn’s gun violence vigil.

A vigil in response to recent losses to gun violence

In the shadow of the LOVE sculpture, campus ministers and artists offered prayers, readings, and songs, supporting the community and imploring action in the wake of the lives lost in the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, in Laguna Woods, California, and in Uvalde, Texas.