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Undergraduate Students
Two Yenching Scholars for Penn
Senior Patrick Beyrer and 2020 graduate Brook Jiang have been selected as 2021 Yenching Scholars, awarded full funding to pursue an interdisciplinary master’s degree in China studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing.
Increasing access for students on ‘Faculty Fridays’
For the past few years, PennCAP has hosted “Faculty Fridays” as a means to better connect first generation, lower-income students with the University’s professors. These efforts have continued virtually during COVID-19.
Penn Glee Club becomes fully gender inclusive after 159 years of all-male singers
The Penn Glee Club and Penn Sirens are merging, meaning that for the first time since its founding 159 years ago, the Glee Club will include singers of all genders and will perform repertoire for soprano and alto voices, in addition to tenor and bass, and for all four voice parts.
‘Opening doors’ to a Penn education
A virtual celebration showcased the Undergraduate Named Scholarship Program and its importance, especially in strengthening the vibrant, diverse community that exists on the University’s campus.
Student financial ambassadors promote financial wellness
A new team of student financial ambassadors offer peer one-on-one counseling and workshops on personal finance basics as part of the program launched this spring.
A Q&A with Trina Sokoloski, house director of New College House West
As New College House West prepares to welcome its inaugural residents this fall, House Director Trina Sokoloski talks with Penn Today about what to expect and what it means to build a new community
Celebrating women of color ‘At the table’
The annual Women of Color award ceremony celebrated its 34th year in an online event led by the Women of Color at Penn Planning Committee and the African American Resource Center.
Husnaa Haajarah Hashim sees poetry as transformative
As poetry is in the national spotlight following the Biden inauguration, junior Husnaa Haajarah Hashim, a Philadelphia Youth Poet Laureate, reflects on her writing and scholarship.
Niko Simpkins: At the nexus of engineering and music
For Niko Simpkins, a musician who performs, produces, and engineers his own tracks, the most exciting processes combine structure and flexibility, creativity, and rigor. As a third-year student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, he sees his mechanical engineering education as a framework for problem solving that might serve him across a broad set of endeavors, and for now, he’s more interested in learning than narrowing to any one particular career path.
New Projects for Progress prize designed to promote equity and inclusion
Applications are now open for a new University initiative, Projects for Progress, which will award prizes of as much as $100,000 to support proposals by teams of students, faculty, and staff designed to promote equity and inclusion and make a direct impact in Philadelphia.
In the News
College internships matter more than ever — but not everyone can get one
Almost 90% of students who graduated from Penn in 2023 completed an internship during college. Barbara Hewitt of Career Services says that the race to get talent early has resulted in a focus on getting early practical experience through many ways in students’ academic careers.
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Harvard University applications fall by 5%
Penn received more than 65,000 undergraduate applications for the Class of 2028, the most in its history.
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Penn will remain SAT optional for the next admission cycle
Penn will remain standardized test optional for the 2024-25 admissions cycle, with remarks from Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule.
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With one jump, Scott Toney set a Penn pole vault record, and topped his late brother’s mark in a fitting tribute
Scott Toney, a Wharton School fourth-year and pole vaulter from Mountainview, California, recently broke the Penn program record in a tribute to Marc Toney, his late brother and fellow pole vaulter.
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Meet the Masterman junior who just represented Brazil in the Youth Olympics
Masterman junior and Youth Olympics speedskater Lucas Koo, the son of Hyun (Michel) Koo of the School of Dental Medicine, hopes to attend the Wharton School after graduation.
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How severed cockroach legs could help us ‘fully rebuild’ human bodies
David Meaney of the School of Engineering and Applied Science oversees an undergraduate bioengineering lab that uses cockroach legs to teach students to work with human prostheses.
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