Diversity News

Penn GEMS is an example of Penn's pipeline approach to integrate more women in the field, creating learning opportunities from middle school years through college. Faculty and staff work with teachers and counselors to host workshops and after-school activities to generate interest in engineering and computer science, as well as to promote programs that explore the field in depth.

As director of the Greenfield Intercultural Center, Valerie De Cruz has had a guiding hand in the creation of cultural resource centers that many Penn student see as homes away from home.

Heather Andrea Williams has been named the sixth Presidential Term Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1.  Williams will be Presidential Term Professor and Professor of Africana Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Shaiyam Flavaney credits much of his success as a student at the University of Pennsylvania to the guidance he received from his mentors, growing up in Jackson, N.J.  Flavaney says he always had someone he could confide in for advice and wanted to be able to play that role in another young man’s life. That’s why the junior philosophy, politics and economics major in the School of Arts & Sciences decided to become a volunteer through the campus Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, officially known as the Bentley Penn Bigs Program.

Penn sophomore fencer David Xu competed in the USFA National Wheelchair Championships at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Competing in all three weapons, Xu took the title of champion in both foil and epee and finished tied for third in sabre.

Amy Sadao, the ICA's (Institute of Contemporary Art) Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director, will be recognized with the 2014 New Leadership Award at ArtTable’s Annual Benefit and Award Ceremony, on April 25.

Penn Medical Student’s Work to Heal Others Extends Beyond Health Care
Leah Seifu, a second-year University of Pennsylvania medical student, says that her Ethiopian heritage and Catholic school education instilled in her a deep cultural awareness and drive to help others through social activism.

Wendell Pritchett, chancellor of Rutgers University-Camden and an incoming Presidential Term Professor at Penn, has been named interim dean of the Law School for 2014-15.

Students from the Greenfield Intercultural Center’s Alliance and Understanding Program at Penn traveled to four southern cities where some of the most significant civil rights movement events occurred.

Pam Grossman has been named dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Grossman succeeds Andy Porter, a preeminent scholar and teacher who has served with distinction as dean since 2007.