Passion Projects
Paul Downs EAS’85 and Jacob Lief C’99 have each had just one job since graduating from Penn—the former as the owner of Paul Downs Cabinetmakers and the latter heading up the nonprofit Ubuntu Education Fund. While their ventures are very different, these two alumni share an extraordinary degree of persistence and a rare candor.
The Roundabout Way
Todd Haimes has the career he dreamed about and sits at the top of his field. When can he stop worrying?
The Gift
When a Penn-CHOP team performed the world’s first double hand transplant on a child last summer, the landmark operation generated headlines around the world and young Zion Harvey became a YouTube star. But there’s a lot more to the story.
Building Blocks
A talk with the authors of Becoming Penn, which traces the University’s development over the tumultuous half-century from the Cold War to the Millennium.
‘Special Player’ Enjoying Record-Breaking Season
Sophomore phenom Alexa Hoover has the Penn field hockey team flying high.
Arts and Culture: Homecoming Edition
Previewing some of the arts and culture events coming up this year.
Streak Busters
First-year head coach Ray Priore guides the Penn football team to the program's first win over Villanova in 104 years -- and then dances in the locker room.
“Naked Knotted Neurons”: Penn Theatre Arts at the Edinburgh Fringe
A group of theatre arts students and their professor brought two shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last month.
A Penn Quaker For Life
The Penn men's soccer team has a new secret weapon for the upcoming season — a 7-year-old named Tanner Falato.
From Bloomers to HBO Fellow
Yolanda Carney C'12 is one of nine writers in the inaugural HBOAccess Writers Fellowship Program.
Extreme Makeover: Debate Edition
No argument: Presidential debates need fixing.
Fast Companies
NSF Innovation Corps attracts student entrepreneurs.
Want to Quit Smoking? Care to Make It Interesting?
Is gambling on quitting smoking a smart bet?
Crimes of Punishment
Q&A: Marie Gottschalk on America’s sky-high incarceration rate.
Politics and Poetry in Kashmir
English Professor Suvir Kaul on Kashmir’s rich poetry and tragic politics.
Ultimate Champions
Out of the Void, a “life-changing” championship.
Football and Family Ties
New coaches in football (in a way) and women’s soccer
Baby Mama
After overcoming her own infertility, Melissa Brisman has helped hundreds of couples become parents as a legal entrepreneur in the little-discussed realm of pregnancy for pay.
Healing Invisible Wounds
Yochi Dreazen had seen his share of death and combat trauma
as a military journalist in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it wasn’t until he
met an American general and his family that he learned how deep
that trauma can go, and what needs to be done to heal it.
The Many Songs of David
Rabbi David Wolpe is an admired writer, the popular leader of one of the largest Conservative Jewish congregations in the country, and one of the “50 most influential Jews in the world.” His latest book, David: The Divided Heart, delves into one of the Bible’s most fascinating—and human—characters.
Plastic Fantastic
Penn Medicine’s Frances E. Jensen is a leader in studying how the brain develops and what that means for learning, behavior, and the treatment of disease at different ages. For her book on the teenage brain, she drew on the latest neuroscience findings—and the experiment going on in her own home.
Rivalry Renewed
For just the second time ever, Penn will "travel" to Drexel for a men's basketball game.
Pennsanity!
Five Penn professors team up to win 24-hour ultramarathon relay.
Jazzing Up the Music Scene
Saxophonist Matthew Clayton directs the Penn Jazz Combos—and his vision for the program is far from improvised.