Sayre ninth-grade science teacher LaRon Smith (center) is a former landscape gardener from South Philadelphia who switched careers to mentor a younger generation. “I think my passion is for them to be better individuals, better human beings,” Smith says.
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Rivers in a changing world
A new Academically Based Community Service class brings Penn and William L. Sayre High School students together to learn environmental science and engineering.
Sharing a love of nursing with West Philadelphia high school students
The School of Nursing worked with the Educational Pipeline Program, facilitated by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, to bring high school students to the nursing simulation lab for hands-on activities and education about health care careers.
The Penn community gathered on campus throughout the fall semester, including at Family Weekend.
(Image: Sylvia Zhang)
A semester of community on campus
Penn’s fall semester officially began in August, as many students returned to campus. While staff, faculty, and postdocs are largely in West Philadelphia year-round, the fall marks a reset and starting point for many. The late summer and mild fall weather brings the natural beauty of campus to life.
A team of researchers led by Aman Husbands of the School of Arts & Sciences has uncovered surprising ways transcription factors—the genetic switches for genes—regulate plant development, revealing how subtle changes in a lipid-binding region can dramatically alter gene regulation.
Alexandra (Sasha) Zborovsky traveled to countries including Lithuana, Georgia, and the Netherlands for her research into Soviet Jews’ emigration from the USSR.
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Patterns of Soviet Jewish emigration in the post-Stalin era
For four decades, more than one million Jews left the USSR despite the Soviet Union’s complex bureaucracy and opposition to emigration. Doctoral candidate Sasha Zborovsky explores the intricate dynamics.
Penn’s new Quaker Commitment, which increases financial aid packages, affect all aid-eligible undergraduate students, not just entering first-year students.
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Penn expands financial aid for middle income families
The initiative expands Penn’s long-standing commitment to need-based financial aid, guaranteeing no-loan financial aid packages to eligible students and families since 2008.
As a Thouron Scholar and a Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics, Will Chan also works as an advocate for building Asian communities at Penn as president of the Pan-Asian Graduate Student Association and the sponsorships and partnerships lead at the Ginger Arts Center, a youth-led organization in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
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Chinatown and community as a cornerstone
Will Chan, a Thouron Scholar and Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics, is also an advocate for building Asian communities.
Brie Gettleson, Latin American studies librarian in the Center for Global Collections, is now offering office hours at the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies.
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A Q&A with Penn’s Latin American Studies Librarian
Brie Gettleson speaks about her role as a subject librarian with the Penn Libraries and liaison for the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies.
