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‘The climate girl’ at Penn
A college-age person standing outside, with greenery blurred in the front of the image. She is wearing a jean jacket with the words "Re-earth IN," a globe in the shape of a heart, and other earth-related designs.

Second year Xiye Bastida, from San Pedro Tultepec, Mexico, has participated in Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for the Future movement. She and friends began the Re-Earth Initiative aimed at “reimaging the future, reconnecting with the planet, and redefining collaboration.” Despite six years of environmental activism under her belt, Bastida says she’s just getting started.

  • Q&A

    • ‘The climate girl’ at Penn

    In a Q&A with Xiye Bastida, the second year describes how she’s bringing climate activism to her college experience, how her Indigenous background influences her path, and why storytelling and protecting Earth go hand in hand.

    Michele W. Berger

    Learn, reflect, and act during Climate Week
    Three people speak at a lecturn outside

    Part of the Climate Week events, faculty and students will present their perspectives on the climate crisis during the 1.5* Minute Climate Lectures. Above, Simon Richter (center), a member of the week’s planning team, gave a lecture in concert with undergrads Kimberlie Dupiton and Brea Watkins in 2019. (Image: Brooke Sietinsons)

    Learn, reflect, and act during Climate Week

    Climate Week at Penn, sponsored by the Provost’s Office, offers a variety of events—both in-person and online—that invite the whole University community to learn about, reflect on, and address the climate crisis.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Exploring extracurriculars at the Fall Student Activities Fair
    students playing chess on a table outside

    The Penn Chess club table was busy all afternoon with students playing the game, asking questions, and signing up for the club on the laptop set up on the table. Freshman Lincoln Nyarambi plays club member and junior William Li, both in Penn Engineering. 

    Exploring extracurriculars at the Fall Student Activities Fair

    For the first time Penn’s annual Fall Student Activities Fair was both in person and online over a three-day period. Nearly 600 groups registered to participate this year, and thousands of students signed up for organizations.
    Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke
    A person sitting outside on a silver metal bench wearing a black and white skirt, a white shirt, and blue blazer. Plants are visible to the right and to the left. Junior Gabriela Montes de Oca from Houston has a background working on public health issues and supporting marginalized populations as part of Penn’s United Minorities Council, as a member of the First-Generation, Low-Income Dean’s Advisory Board, and through her role as a Penn Civic Scholar. This summer, in addition to interning in the lab of Andy Tan, she worked on Covid-19 testing and vaccinations at Sayre Health Center.

    Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke

    Sophomore Oulaya Louaddi and junior Gabriela Montes de Oca interned this summer with Annenberg’s Andy Tan, helping the research team design and test culturally appropriate anti-smoking campaigns for young women who identify as sexual minorities.

    Michele W. Berger

    A ‘surreal’ experience as students move into New College House West
    Penn President Amy Gutmann and a student elbow-bump as a greeting

    Alberto Abad, a new resident of New College House West, elbow-bumps Penn President Amy Gutmann. President Gutmann welcomed new students during Move-In and toured the house alongside students and staff on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.

    A ‘surreal’ experience as students move into New College House West

    One-hundred and forty-three members of the first residents to live in New College House moved in on Friday, Aug. 27, marking the second phase of Move-In and the opening of a new facility on campus.
    Interact, adapt, repeat: A summer studying coevolution
    Students Nova Meng and Linda Wu tend to plants in a greenhouse

    To study coevolution, the responsibilities of Nova Meng and Linda Wu included caring for plants in the Penn greenhouse. (Image: From July 2021, when masks were not required)

    Interact, adapt, repeat: A summer studying coevolution

    Sophomores Linda Wu and Nova Meng spent the summer studying coevolution among plants, mutualistic bacteria, and parasitic nematodes in Corlett Wood’s biology lab.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room
    student standing outside with hill in the background

    Senior Ilyse Reisman, an English and cinema studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was a summer intern at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.

    Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room

    An aspiring comedy writer, senior Ilyse Reisman got a chance to be on set and in meetings to pitch production ideas during her RealArts@Penn summer internship at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.
    A joyous Move-In at Penn
    move in at the quad Students began moving onto campus this week, beginning to fill up Penn’s 13 college houses. From now until Sunday, nearly 6,000 undergraduates will move into campus housing.

    A joyous Move-In at Penn

    Moving onto campus for the first time, students share what they are most looking forward to in the year ahead, while their family members beam with pride.

    Lauren Hertzler