Penn Perspectives

As a second semester senior, a lot of my extracurricular involvements over the past four years have inevitably died down. However, I’ve actually gotten involved with a new student-led group this semester called Penn Perspectives. Every Wednesday for an hour and a half, a lecture hall full of seniors meet and listen to a popular professor talk. The professor changes every week, and the choice of professor was solicited by seniors Penn Perspectives. The students who lead the group claim that the seniors in Penn Perspectives encompass all of the majors at Penn. This gives seniors a chance to learn about different disciplines from amazing professors and to foster curiosity beyond what we currently know. I really enjoy the experience every week because every professor has a very interesting story to tell about their life and career path, and they’re all really fun and genuine people.

Here are the professors who we have listened to so far:

  • Professor Paul Rozin: He teaches a popular class at Penn called “Psychology of Food.” He’s been teaching at Penn since 1963 (!!).
  • Professor Jeffrey Babin: He teaches Engineering Entrepreneurship in the School of Engineering, though he graduated from Penn with an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and later received his MBA at Penn. After undergrad, he actually was a drummer in a band and eventually ended up in entrepreneurship.
  • Professor Fariha Khan: She teaches in the Asian-American Studies department, and her commentary was especially relevant since she talked to us a few days after the debacle with President Trump’s immigration ban. I learned a lot about Asian-American refugees in the Philadelphia community, which was super interesting.
  • Professor David Eisenhower: He teaches a seminar about Political Communication in the Annenberg School of Communication. He takes a class to the Republican and Democratic conventions on election years and described his perspective on elections over the years to us. Oh, by the way, he’s the grandson of President Eisenhower and is married to President Nixon’s daughter.
  • Professor Jamie-Lee Josselyn: She teaches Creative Writing and majored in English at Penn as an undergrad as well. In her lecture, she incorporated one of her essays, in which she wrote about an experience teaching in class.

Obviously, these little blurbs do not give these professors justice, and I am not accurately listing out all their lengthy credentials -- but regardless, I have loved listening to these incredible professors that I have heard great things about over the course of four years in a more informal setting. One of the best things about Penn is being an arms-length away from experts and scholars in all sorts of fields and taking advantage of that learning opportunity. 

Emma Hong, C'17