Monthly Archives: April 2011

April 21, 2011 · 2:44 pm

Project 1/30 – April

Author: Kelly Porter O’Connor

Some of you may have heard of Project 365 – where you take one photo a day to document your life. Well, this is project 1/30 where I will take a photo (or two) to document one day a month at Penn.

With a little thing called Alumni Weekend around the corner, the majority of my month is spent in the good old Franklin Building, which is indeed not the most desired place to spend your warm spring days! At the first sign of a sunny day I somehow find my way to Locust Walk. Yesterday just happened to be that day. Featured here is the image I selected to represent April. What does it mean to you?

Spring on Locust Walk

For me, this image represents one of the most beautiful days, when campus really comes alive. Daffodils are in full bloom, the sun is shining and Locust Walk is flooded with the bustle of our Penn community. The prayer tent is up, observing this week’s holidays, student-led tours for potential freshman are at every corner, folks are out on the Green enjoying the sun shining through the trees, and, of course, we get our first sightings of flip flops (and for some, the lack thereof…)!

The first true sign of spring: flip-flops

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April 21, 2011 · 9:14 am

Every Step is for Owen

Rachel Marchand, C’12

April 26, 2010 will be a day that I will never forget.  I had just walked in to Van Pelt Library to escape the torrential downpour that was engulfing Philadelphia that day.  I had a 10-page final paper due the next day and had plenty of snacks from Wawa to get me through the long night that lie ahead.  Just as I was finishing my opening paragraph, my phone began to vibrate.  My little sister in my sorority had sent me a text that I will never forget, “Rach, Owen Thomas died today.”  In utter shock, I refused to believe that she was telling the truth.  She must have heard a bad rumor or I hoped it was a cruel joke, when in fact he was completely fine and alive in his Baltimore Avenue home.  I’ve never wished for someone to lie to me more than in that moment, because my little sister had in fact told me the truth. My beloved friend Owen Thomas had died that day.

I met Owen the first day of my freshman year, when I realized the red-headed football player lived two doors down from me.  He was and still is one the most amazing people I have ever met in my entire life.  Not only was he a great and loyal friend, he was captain of the Penn football team and a student in the prestigious Wharton School.  He excelled both on and off the field, and everyone that knew him loved him.  I remember having to find and tell my friend, Jackie Haas, the news of his death in the middle of the second floor lounge of the library, and both of us unable to accept the news.  We both believed that he just had to be alive.  A few minutes later, the rumors were confirmed.

The Penn community lost an amazing person last spring and every step since that day we have walked in honor of Owen.  We all hung on to each other for love and support in that difficult time.  The football team went on to win the Ivy League Championship this season in honor of #40, and my friends and I wanted to do something to honor Owen as well.  We decided to plan a commemorative walk to remember Owen and to raise money to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  We had the walk this past Sunday on Franklin Field and raised over $16,000.  It was a beautiful spring day in which we all gathered together to laugh and cry about the good times and the bad.  I will never forget that day, and I hope that we made Owen proud and will continue to make him proud each day.  Knowing Owen made me a better person, and he will forever hold a place in my heart, where I carry him each day.

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April 20, 2011 · 7:32 pm

Up in the Air: Penn Pictures from Around the World

Author: Hoopes Wampler

There are over 25,000 Penn alumni living outside the United States.  While that is only roughly 8% of the total Penn alumni population, these numbers are significant and represent a growing trend for Penn.

Tiananmen Gate, Forbidden City, Beijing

As head of Alumni Relations, I spend a fair amount of time “on the road” (or I really should say “in the air”) traveling to meet, support, inform and engage our alumni around the world.

The London Eye

Our international alumni have become key ambassadors in promoting the Penn brand abroad – and they do great work!  Penn is now truly a global institution and our alumni infuse Penn into their communities every day through a series of club events, student admissions interviews, professional networking seminars, and Penn celebrations and conversations.  With all deference given to Jacques Brel, Penn truly is alive and well – and living in Paris – amongst other places.

l' Opéra, Paris

I am especially looking forward to our return trip to Asia this May with visits to Korea, Taiwan and Singapore (remember your ABP – Always Be Promoting).  My visit this year represents a return trip to these great places, and I am looking forward to being immersed in these amazing international alumni communities once again.

Taipei 101, Taiwan

What I find most intriguing about international travel is the importance of learning about and working with the customs and cultures of each country. There is much to learn and each trip represents an opportunity to become more skilled at operating in the international environment. Even things like how to present and receive business cards are important practices and signs of respect in Asia. First impressions are important and you have to work hard to get it right.

The Great Wall

The easy part about international travel is receiving all the greetings and Penn passion from our alumni once we arrive. There is so much Penn energy in the world and alumni are incredibly proud of their Penn degrees. So I’ll go “up in the air” for Penn any day…

British Museum, London

Although, and for those who have seen the George Clooney movie of the same name, I am always thankful to arrive back home in Philadelphia and return to our beautiful campus.  Home is where the heart is and even when my heart is on the road – it’s always at Penn.

College Green, Penn

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April 20, 2011 · 6:36 pm

Campus for a Foodie

Author: Christine Uyemera, SEAS ’13

If I had to pick just one thing that I love, it would easily be food. Technology and sleep are close seconds, but a good meal has the greatest potential to make me absolutely satisfied with my life for the moment. Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds or time to eat delicious meals on a regular basis. This year I moved off campus and share groceries with my roommates (one of which who is vegetarian) in lieu of purchasing a meal plan. On a regular day I might eat oatmeal, some variant of an omelet and pasta (all vegetarian, much to the dismay of my carnivore instincts). However, on certain special occasions, my friends and I love to venture out into the world (really just University City) and spoil ourselves with something tasty.

Penn loves to boast the urban setting of our campus, and I think this is one of the main aspects of Penn that attracted me. City = lots of restaurants. Lots of restaurants = greater possibility of a fantastic meal. The offerings are incredibly varied in ethnicity, price, and atmosphere. Before coming to Penn, I had never considered food carts to be anything more than cheap, dirty food that people had to get sometimes when they were in a rush, but now I’ve discovered that they are cheap, tasty options for any time and any day. Magic Carpet, Koja, and Buis are three of my favorite. They offer Vegetarian Mediterranean , Korean/Japanese food, and sandwiches respectively, and you can get a good meal for $6 at all of them. The food cart culture is definitely a unique component of the eating experience at Penn.

Koja Truck

Apart from the food carts, there are also sit-down restaurants on campus that I love to go to any time I have the opportunity. Pari Cafe Creperie is located right in Houston Hall and makes one of my favorites since being here, a huge chicken pesto crepe.

Another fantastic place to get quite a few bites is a new addition this year near Hill College House: Baby Blues BBQ. This is where I escape my accidental vegetarian life and get my meat fix. My roommate and I were innocently walking down Sansom one night when the aroma of barbecued ribs pulled us into the restaurant like dogs. We ended up splurging and ordering full on meals (as opposed to the regular bbq pork sandwiches) and it was worth every dollar. Being from Georgia, I am a barbecue fiend, and the quality and flavor of the meat at Baby Blues was incredibly satisfying.

Baby Blues BBQ

One more restaurant that I have to mention in University city although it is not on campus (44th ish and Walnut) is another new one, Manakeesh. This restaurant/bakery serves lebanese “manakeesh” which are kind of like folded pizzas on pita-like bread with more delicious things on top. This restaurant is ridiculously cheap (which is dangerous to realize with an empty stomach) and everything is quality and authentic.

Manakeeesh

Writing this is making me really hungry, and these are just a few of my favorites. I wish I could write a blogpost about the restaurants that I love in all of Philadelphia, but I’ll save that for another day.  The take home point: college campuses in the city are the way to go for anyone who is excited by good food. And who isn’t?

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April 19, 2011 · 3:12 pm

What I Learned in Austin

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

Earlier this year, the Penn Club of Austin hosted a kick-off event for South by Southwest, the annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival.  Penn Alumni were invited to LIVESTRONG head quarters to hear from Philippe G. Hills, Executive Vice President for Development and Renee Nicholas, Challenge Director.

Phil and Renee spoke about Lance’s story with his battle with cancer – all before he even won a Tour de France jersey – and the mission of the Lance Armstrong Foundation – to inspire and empower people affected by cancer.  Lance took an active role in educating himself about his disease and underwent aggressive treatment to beat the disease into remission. From this experience, he funneled his work and research on cancer and its treatment into the Lance Armstrong Foundation, LIVESTRONG, in order to provide people affected by cancer, the survivors and their family, with information that they need to continue living with the security that they will be able to access treatment and life has they know it will continue.

Lance’s Seven Yellow Jerseys, one for each Tour de France victory

Renee told her personal story of her involvement with LIVESTRONG.  After losing her father to cancer, she joined her sister in Austin to settle down.  She started to volunteer for LIVESTRONG after hearing a story on the radio about the local Lance Armstrong’s work in cancer support.  Her volunteering led to her being hired as LIVESTRONG’s third employee.  “The sentence, ‘You have cancer,’ is one of the most frightening that you will ever hear,” she said.  Renee then explained how LIVESTRONG’s mission was to provide all the information to a survivor to make decisions for their treatment and well as continuing one’s quality of life after treatment is over.

The wall of all the LIVESTRONG employees

Renee illustrated the work with examples.  Cancer and its treatment can leave a survivor with the need to review current and future financial goals.  Knowing that dealing with financial matters is overwhelming, the organization can help define one’s present financial status, as well as prepare for future needs through planned spending and refocusing of one’s budgets. Chemotherapy can render survivors infertile.  Therefore, the organization developed the Sharing Hope program to connect recently diagnosed cancer patients to discounted fertility preservation options before beginning cancer treatment.  In addition to teaching patients, LIVESTRONG has programs to teach doctors how and what to speak to their patients about in addition to their diagnosis.

A piece from the STAGES exhibition (on loan from Mark Parker, President & CEO of Nike Inc.)

Ten years after she started working with LIVESTRONG, she found herself on the receiving end.  “ ‘You have cancer, ’ my doctor told me,” Renee shared with us.  She, however upset and devastated, didn’t lose hope.  The work that she had been doing for a decade immediately gave her strength.  All the research that she did and the relationships that she forged were going to be at her service to help her survive.  With the resources at LIVESTRONG, she has now been in remission for over three years.

This story instantly affected all of the Penn alumni in the room.  Everyone seemed to exhale at once in awe of Renee’s story.  Some people were wiping their eyes and others were grabbing the tissues on the table.  She is the example of what LIVESTRONG is all about.

Deeply moved, we continued with a tour of the LIVESTRONG facility, including the office space, the event space and the amenities for staff, volunteers, and cancer patients and survivors.  The location in East Austin is a rehabilitated warehouse, and the architects reused most of the original materials to earn a LEED Gold certification for renovations.  The headquarters house several pieces of art from Lance’s private art collection, includes some from STAGES,  LIVESTRONG’s  global, thematic art exhibit aimed at raising worldwide awareness.

At the end of the tour, Phil and Renee brought us back to the boardroom and let us know that any non-profit organization in the greater Austin area can contact LIVESTRONG to use their faculty outside of business hours to hold meetings and to host events since the foundation feels that it is its responsible to help other non-profits success when resources are scarce and meeting space is at a high premium.

The East Austin neighborhood

The evening ended with many people thanking Phil, Renee, and David Hanson, our Penn alumnus who worked with LIVESTRONG to make this event happen.  Several of the alumni attending the event went out of their way to note their appreciation of the access to LIVESTRONG and to express their gratitude to Renee for sharing her story.

A parking lot of food trucks in East Austin

I am always amazed at how connected our alumni are in the world.  Without a Penn alumnus volunteering to host an event for his fellow alumni on the eve of one of the biggest music, media, and film conferences and festivals in the world, we wouldn’t have shared in this wonderful tale of triumph.  Personally, I am grateful beyond words.

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April 19, 2011 · 12:35 pm

Before ENIAC…

Before ENIAC was the calculating machine pictured in 1935 at the Moore School of Engineering. According to the AP archives, it weighed three tons and contained 75,000 parts — makes me think twice about complaining about how heavy the iPhone 4 is…

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April 18, 2011 · 3:46 pm

Office Hours: The Royal Treatment

Author: Lisa Vaccarelli, C’02

We all know that Penn is a globally renowned institution of research and higher education, home to the world’s greatest experts on everything from stem-cell research, neuroscience and genetics, to cultural anthropology, psychology, and nanotechnology.  But what makes Penn really stand out among its peers, in my opinion, is its character.  Rather than losing its distinct personality in the race to the top of that esteemed list of universities, my alma mater remains in touch with its fun, charismatic side.

One example: the Penn Alumni Office Hours series.  While these online webinars often feature faculty speaking on highly intellectual, academic content – including evolutionary psychology, bioethics, and cutting edge robotic technology – they also feature scholarly perspectives on timely, cultural topics.

Join us on Wednesday, April 20 at 1 PM EST

Need another example?  This Wednesday, April 20 at 1 pm EST, Office Hours will take a look at Royal Weddings: Past and Present.  Rosalind Coward, visiting researcher at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication and a recognized expert on the Royal Family, will share her perspective on the pomp, circumstance and tradition surrounding Great Britain’s royal weddings, with a special focus on the pending nuptials of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

Britain Royal, Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton

What better way to indulge that guilty pleasure for celebrity gossip than with an academic perspective from one of the world’s greatest institutions for higher learning?

For more information on this and other online webinars, visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/education/officehours.html.

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April 15, 2011 · 11:00 am

Milk, Cookies, and Sculpture

Author: Lynn Carroll, C’93

Penn is a fertile breeding ground for those unlikely juxtapositions that would never happen in real life.  They’re so much fun to watch.  Like when the Balalaika Orchestra and the Amorphous Jugglers perform on College Green at the same time, or when a professor in a tweed blazer with (obligatory) elbow patches runs a gauntlet of students hawking Vagina Monologues tickets.

Case in point: Marian Puro Froehlich is an octogenarian sculptor who graduated from Penn in 1948. Marian was on campus for a tour of Addams Hall, the undergraduate fine arts building, and she graciously offered to talk to a bunch of 2-year-olds in my daughter’s “Rainbow Bears” daycare class about sculpture.  They couldn’t even pronounce “sculpture,” but they loved visitors, so I figured, what the heck?

She didn’t dumb down her work, or talk to them like little idiots—she just told them, pleasantly, that each of them could create sculpture if they wanted to.

All you needed was to use your imagination, then try to express what you see inside your mind.  Something about seeing those children, mesmerized as this woman created a figure with clay, made me smile.

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April 15, 2011 · 9:01 am

You’re the Inspiration

Author: Nicole C. Maloy, W’95

While dining at 1920 Commons with some fellow freshmen in the fall of 1991, I saw a sophomore named Tanisha carrying a stack of those ¼ size sheets of colored paper – you know the ones – from table to table. When she got to us, she looked at me and asked, “Do you sing?”

I shrugged and responded, “A little.”

She smiled, thrust an orange handbill towards me, and said, “Audition for The Inspiration!”

I struck a defensive posture, hands up, palms out. “Oh, no. You don’t want me,” I said.

I’d just heard The Inspiration (often mistakenly referred to as “Inspirations”) at Performing Arts Night. The audience was mesmerized by this incredibly smooth, polished, R&B a cappella group. My singing experience at the time consisted of high school musical showtunes with the drama club, and harmonizing with the radio. Let’s say my style (such as it was) seemed all wrong for The Inspiration.

Honing in on my concern, Tanisha replied, “I auditioned with an opera.”

My hands came down. “Really?”

She nodded.

Hmm…Hmm…

Had anyone else approached me, I would not have taken that flier. But I did. As a result, I would give up every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night for four academic years. In return, I would gain a room full of new siblings, and memories that still make me smile 15+ years after graduation. An example: a fire drill once interrupted our rehearsal in High Rise East. We gave a brief, impromptu performance for the growing crowd in Superblock until everyone could get back inside. We were asked to sing at all future fire drills, but politely declined.

The real Sopranos

Just being in the group made my singing better, but who knew I would learn how to arrange music for a cappella performance? By the time I was an upperclassman, the group gave me the amazing opportunity to produce full concerts as a Show Coordinator. Our events were meant to educate as well as entertain so, in addition to living a dream and writing sketch comedy, I got to arrange a song by supergroup Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Then I asked a hallmate from South Africa to translate the lyrics from Xhosa to English for us. This way, we could explain to the audience what they were about to hear.

Post-show Happiness

Duet with Byron. T-shirts designed by Ralphy Bead! I still have mine.

Each time I step back onstage with other alumni (lovingly dubbed, “oldheads”) at a show by the current group, I am moved by the significance of The Inspiration’s continuity on the Penn campus. Having been a part of it, knowing that our shows have added to the quality of life here over the years, is a source of great pride. I offer special thanks to Tanisha Lyon Brown’s background in opera for making it all possible for me.

The Inspiration’s 5th Anniversary show

 

FamilyFeud sketch: Evans (Good Times) vs. Banks (Fresh Prince of Bel Air)

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April 14, 2011 · 1:45 pm

Change is in the Air

Author: Colin Hennessy

On my walk from Center City Philadelphia to Penn this morning, I found myself noticing the increase in activity around the campus. As spring arrives, students are obviously outside much more–jogging, cycling, strolling or  lounging with open books along Hill Field and the Quad.

As I was reminiscing about my own college days and the sudden joy that comes when the sun warms your walk to class, I was brought out of my day-dreaming by the sound of a jack-hammer. You see,  in addition to the personal joys of spring, the warmer weather makes way for construction crews who are working on new buildings and parks.  Projects that were once just architectural drawings are beginning to emerge from out of the muddy ground.

It’s no secret that Penn’s campus is constantly changing and evolving to meet the demands of teaching and learning. At the same time, plans are well underway for new  and improved public spaces. What excites me most is the progress being made on the postal lands – the future home of Penn Park.

Penn Park will serve as a new gateway to University City connecting campus with Center City Philadelphia while also providing lush green space and updated recreation and outdoor activity spaces. Moreover, Penn Park will provide the area with increased storm water mitigation, a long-term plan for carbon reduction, smart land use planning, and increased green space – a sought after luxury at an urban university such as Penn.

Penn Park is one of many examples of how Penn is impacting the world, while starting at home in Philadelphia. I hope you’ll come back to campus soon to see everything that is happening on campus – and make sure to enjoy Penn Park and all it has to offer.

In another year, I imagine my walk to campus will again be transformed as this new initiative and others continue to grow and improve the already amazing campus at Penn.

Plans for Penn Park

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