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Undergraduate Students

Combating urban heat
Sarah Sterinbach

Combating urban heat

Through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, rising junior Sarah Sterinbach has spent the summer learning about the policies Philadelphia has used to protect its citizens from extreme heat and how those efforts might improve in the future.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students
Timothy Rommen next to a piano and a podium teaching a class full of students.

Timothy Rommen (right) teaches a class on Dominica’s popular music, one of several in this year’s Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen.

‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students

The Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen brings new students together with experienced faculty and graduate students to discuss cultural themes in Africana studies.

Kristina García

Martial arts and Asian American identity
Angela Shen smiles in front of the red steel sculpture on Locust Walk

Angela Shen, a rising junior in the Huntsman program, is researching Asian American identity and martial arts. 

Martial arts and Asian American identity

Rising junior Angela Shen researches the ritual and practice of judo, taekwondo, kung fu, and karate.

Kristina García

Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology
Scientists Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter use a 3D printer to make shell shapes

Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter both earned their doctoral degrees in paleontology from Penn, employing pioneering techniques, such as 3D printing to replicate the forms of ancient creatures. In a new publication, they share advice for attracting and retaining students and trainees from underrepresented groups to paleontology. 

Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology

Drawing on research as well as their experiences as women of color in paleontology, Aja Carter and Erynn Johnson, who earned doctoral degrees from Penn, coauthored a paper offering advice for making the field more inclusive.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Educating community-oriented biologists
A student smiling in a lab wearing a lab coat.

Reginald Kwarteng is an undergraduate student researcher in the Wagner Lab. (Image: Wil Prall)

Educating community-oriented biologists

Mecky Pohlschröder of the School of Arts & Sciences reflects on an SNF Paideia course that connects research conducted in the STEM field to the broader community, allowing students to observe the influences of their work outside of the lab.

Penn Abroad: Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio in Switzerland
Ricardo Del Rio standing outside with snow-covered mountains behind him

Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio -- an electrical engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from Guadalajara, Mexico -- studied abroad at ETH Zurich in Switzerland during the spring semester.

Penn Abroad: Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio in Switzerland

Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio, an electrical engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, studied at ETH Zurich during the spring semester.
Wharton students go international
Six Wharton students riding bikes on a bridge at night.

Wharton students go international

Undergraduate students participated in a 10-day Wharton International Program to visit business and cultural sites in England and Ireland.

Dee Patel

A cleaner, greener airport of the future
Six students stand around a poster with wind turbines and airplanes on it

A cleaner, greener airport of the future

Six students from across the University presented their vision of an airport equipped with carbon-capturing technology and an electrified vehicle fleet at a NASA competition, garnering the “Most Intriguing Concept” award.

Katherine Unger Baillie