The House That Joe Built

The new National Constitution Center is billed as a museum of ideas rather than artifacts—but it might have remained just an idea if not for alumnus Joe Torsella.

The University as Discourse Community

In this essay from the book, Public Discourse in America, Penn’s president lays out a vision of universities as “exemplars of a new kind of thoughtful civic engagement and robust public discourse.”

The Kindness of Strangers

Diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, alumna Ruthie Spector faced long odds but was saved by an experimental drug treatment that made a bone marrow transplant possible. The donor drive organized in her behalf will save many more lives in the years to come.