Category Archives: Interview Program

January 10, 2014 · 9:26 am

For the Blue

Author: Liz Pinnie

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Short of smearing blue paint on your face and wearing a kilt, it can be challenging to capture the attention of many, and urge them towards a singular goal.

However, this remains one of my broader goals within my position as Assistant Director for the Penn Alumni Interview Program.  Like much of Penn, the Interview Program is a complex swirling vortex of ideas, passions, data, collaboration, integration, and the slightly wild goal of offering interviews to 100% of applicants.  In order to try and explain this, I decided to test out a (slightly) new free platform called Prezi.

Prezi provides users a blank slate with which to create a presentation that is aimed at capturing the attention of its viewers with its outside-of-the-box options.  For a great example, check out this awesome resume from Prezi all-star Pascal.  Outside the box, right!?  I must admit that ours is a bit more stayed than Pascal’s, but I think (and hope!) it gets out point across.

The Interview Program hopes to offer an interview to each and every one of Penn’s undergraduate applicants by 2015.  Why?  You’ll just have to watch our Prezi to see.

And!  If you find yourself inspired, excited, willing to join, or just plain curious, let me know!  Sign up to interview on our member registration page, or email us.

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Filed under Alumni Programming, Interview Program, Liz P.

December 25, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Great Outcomes

Author: Patrick Bredehoft

Well done is better than well said.

~Ben Franklin

As we look to the winter months ahead, I’d like to to acknowledge the extraordinary achievements of our alumni interviewers around the world.  In Early Decision this year, Penn admitted the most accomplished cohort of applicants in the school’s history.   Our alumni interviewers helped to make that possible.  In the span of just a few short weeks in November, Penn alumni interviewed more than 5600 Early Decision and QuestBridge applicants, covering all 50 US States and 78 countries on six continents.  The total interview coverage for Early Decision applicants was a tremendous 97%, compared with about 81% the year before.

Of course, there are many interviews still to come.  Penn’s Regular Decision applicant pool will likely include more than 25,000 students from over 140 countries, and our extraordinary alumni will work to reach as many of these students as possible throughout January and February.  We are enormously proud of the way our past Penn students contribute to future classes at the university, and we’re optimistic that this will continue to be a record-breaking year!

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Filed under Alumni Programming, Interview Program, Patrick B., Uncategorized, Volunteering

September 12, 2013 · 12:14 pm

Penn Presents Prezi

Author:  Liz Pinnie

A benefit of working at Penn (besides the close proximity to Insomnia Cookies) is the opportunity to take free classes at Weigle Information Commons in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.

Short and sweet classes are offered there on everything from Excel to Photoshop to Prezi.

Don’t know what Prezi is?  Neither did I, so I decided to take a class in it!

Turns out that Prezi is new alternative to building presentations on PowerPoint that allows for greater flexibility and boundless creativity.  After learning the basics at Weigle from our awesome teacher and testing my prowess on a presentation about corgis, I decided to get a bit more professional and try my hand at a work related presentation.

If you have a minute, check out my “Why Interview” Prezi here. Here is a screen capture to get you interested.

prezi pic

…and if you like it, let me know by signing up to join the Penn Alumni Interview Program!

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Filed under Campus Life, Interview Program, Liz P.

July 3, 2013 · 8:34 am

The Power of Alumni

Author: Stacey Deutsch Shoer, C’89

I have been the Chair of the Miami Alumni Interview Program for the last six years or so. Last year, two new volunteers joined our group. As I met them to discuss the interview process, we discovered that we had all attended the same high school.

When Danny Lafuente , C’10, and Wilfredo Fernandez, C’09, met in middle school at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, Florida, they could not have imagined that within a few years of graduating from Penn they would have a start up- The LAB Miami.

A number of both Penn and Ransom alumni sit on the LAB’s advisory board, and also serve as the main investors, in addition to the support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, led by Alberto Ibarguen, L’74. The Penn investors include Faquiry Diaz Cala, W ’97.

“The LAB Miami is a 10,000 square foot collaborative space for innovative entrepreneurs in Miami’s Wynwood Art District. The LAB Miami is a startup focused on providing an interactive space to learn, act, build, and create under the guidance of experienced mentors combined with an educational curriculum to foster collective inspiration and entrepreneurship ecosystem,” states one such investor.

In the photo from left to right: Wilfredo Fernandez, Mack Shoer, and Danny Lafuente.

In the photo from left to right: Wilfredo Fernandez, Mack Shoer, and Danny Lafuente.

According to a press release, “The campus is seeding a diversified mix of tenants that include tech start ups, programmers, designers, investors, serial entrepreneurs, non profits, artists, and academics to create a dynamic environment.”

Co-founder Fernandez says, “We are building a platform for innovation exchange, a place to learn from the best, act on your inspiration and build great companies.”

The LAB space has been used for Penn Alumni Club sponsored events, board meetings, and hosts a weekly farmers market which is part of the Youth LEAD Miami program, run buy fellow Penn alumna Erin Healy, C’00, who is also an alumni interviewer.

The possibilities are endless. Lafuente and Fernandez expanded to include an intern program that follows the same model of innovation exchange, learning, mentoring, and inspiring. Naturally, many of their interns are from Ransom Everglades School, including my son Mack, who will be a high school senior this fall as well as summer interns who are currently Penn undergrads.

The power of alumni is amazing as the friends use both their high school and college relationships to find investors and mentors for this hot new start up. As my son and his high school buddies work as summer interns, they are also finding a collective inspiration.

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May 22, 2013 · 4:49 pm

Discovery

Author: Patrick Bredehoft

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.

~Benjamin Franklin

As we consider the reasons why alumni stay engaged with the Penn community after they graduate, perhaps the most compelling one is that Penn is a place where great minds come together. The love of learning brings extraordinary students to campus each year, and, as the director of the the Penn Alumni Interview Program, I love that our efforts can foster that lifelong enthusiasm for the exchange of ideas.

LGBT: Speed Mentoring

This year, prospective students and Penn alumni sat down together (or connected via Skype) in all 50 states and in 127 countries. These discussions served two pragmatic purposes: to inform applicants about Penn, and to inform the Admissions Office about applicants.  However, a far less utilitarian benefit exists as well: in the span of a few short months, more than 20,000 unique conversations took place, each one starting from an affiliation with (or aspiration to attend) the University of Pennsylvania.

Consider this: in the Penn alumni population, you have an uncommon group of graduates—global leaders in the fields of science, industry, and the humanities.  Among Penn applicants, you find tens of thousands of the world’s most talented students: young people who will shape and improve our world for decades to come.  Through Penn’s alumni interviews, these incredible people meet as strangers, but walk away having shared extraordinary ideas, deep-rooted passions, and powerful experiences. Ostensibly, these conversations are about the student, their interests, and the University of Pennsylvania, but inevitably, they blossom into more fruitful discussions.

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Below are just a few of my favorite quotes from our interviews this year.  Regardless of who shared these words, I’m glad just to know that these conversations happened:

“In addition to talking about Penn’s Computer Science Programs, we discussed English and Hindu literature, existentialism, Kafka, Camus, and ancient mythology.”

“…he spoke the challenge of providing clean water to families in Yemen…”

“Although we have very different interpretations of the currently political climate, I was completely convinced by the points he raised about financing public education…”

“…she shared her passion for books on quantum mechanics…and Ayn Rand, but she confessed that her favorite author was J.K. Rowling.”

“There were very few questions and answers, but in the course of our hour-long conversation, we shared stories, big dreams, our frustrations about the world, and even our recipes for preparing Turkish coffee!”

“He explained a few surprising connections between Spanish and Chinese, the languages he’s currently studying…”

“We spoke for over an hour and a half, almost like old friends, before I realized that I was running late for my next interview!”

Great thought is not conceived in a vacuum.  The best revelations spring from collaboration;the result of smart people sitting down to share ideas that send sparks out into the murky fields of possibility. It’s thrilling to think about these exchanges as the first in a series, and to imagine that a cohort of these students will continue these discussions on Penn’s campus this fall as members of the incoming Class of 2017!

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Filed under Academics, Interview Program, Patrick B., Volunteering

April 26, 2013 · 8:52 am

Tradition

“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”

~Benjamin Franklin

Author: Patrick Bredehoft

Future Interviewers

As we look ahead a mere few weeks to the graduation of Penn’s Class of 2013, those of us at the Penn Alumni Interview Program are taking Ben Franklin’s thoughts about opportunity to heart.  With the Interview Program now under the umbrella of Alumni Relations, we’ve found a host of opportunities to engage these alumni-to-be in our global efforts to offer an interview to every Penn applicant.

Yesterday was Hey Day, where current Penn juniors mark a collective rite-of-passage in becoming seniors. It was also Final Toast, where current seniors look ahead to their lives beyond Penn, and to their new roles as university alumni. Final Toast prompts no shortage of nostalgia for the hundreds of students who attend, but it’s also a venue to discuss what it means to be an alumnus or an alumna of America’s first university—these young alumni will have opportunities to serve, to join new communities, and to make profound contributions wherever they go.

For more than fifty years, Penn alumni have been offering interviews to prospective students, in ever-increasing numbers. This past year, Penn alumni interviewed more than 22,000 students, hailing from all 50 states and from 127 countries. No matter where a young alumna is headed (and many are still trying to figure that out!), she will have the opportunity to meet with other alumni interviewers, as well as to offer something of her time at Penn to applicants who are eager to learn more.

We’re ecstatic to have registered so many Penn ’13 grads as alumni interviewers; we hope that by the time these students don their caps and gowns, more than 500 of them will have joined the Interview Program.

As we’ve spoken with these seniors, we’ve been amazed by the profound and lasting impact that this particular tradition has had on Penn’s students. Many of the seniors who sought us out had a similar refrain: “When I applied to Penn, my alumni interviewer made me even more interested in the university.  I swore that if I went to Penn, I would conduct interviews myself after I graduated.” Equally exciting for us is the second-most common comment we hear from seniors: “When I applied to Penn, I was never offered an interview.  I promised myself that if I went to Penn, I would make sure that I conducted interviews after I graduated.”

Whether young alumni join in this effort because they benefited from the experience directly, or because they want to offer future students an opportunity they never had themselves, we’re glad to be a part of a decades-old Penn tradition that provides a wonderful opportunity for applicants and alumni alike.

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March 28, 2013 · 4:08 pm

My Top Penn List: Engagement and the Campaign

Author: Casey Ryan, C’95

We raised $4,302,890,707 in our Making History Campaign. Wow, that’s a lot of money.  If you haven’t yet visited the final report website, you should in order to see how much of an impact the legacy of this campaign will have on the University.

The “Number”

The “Number”

Yet our campaign was crafted to be different; we emphasized engagement goals for ourselves that focused on increasing every alumnus’s access and interaction with the University whether it was on campus and out in the world.  We took these objectives seriously and created or retooled over 25 programs during the life of the campaign that increased alumni engagement.

I wanted to highlight 10 of my favorite engagement programs that have come about due to the campaign.

10. Trustees’ Council of Penn Women (TCPW) Summer Networking Receptions: Over the summer, TCPW, whose charge is to support, foster and promote the advancement of women’s issues within the University, hosts Summer Networking Receptions for Penn alumnae and current Penn students to make social and business contentions. Bringing Penn alumnae together and spotlighting a female executive from the region as the keynote speaker for the reception, TCPW provided exclusive opportunities for networking.

TCPW Summer Networking Reception – Chicago (2012).

TCPW Summer Networking Reception – Chicago (2012).

9. Social Media: Social Media has been around since 1994 started by now defunct brands like TheGlobe, GeoCities and SixDegrees. Sites like My Space and Friendster, which started in 2002-2003, were the watershed portals of the Social Media trends that made way for Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006. Facebook and Twitter burst onto the scene and soon became the ubiquitous means of staying in touch with over 500 million Twitter users and over one billion Facebook users. It was obvious that having a presence online would be valuable. While an ever-changing social landscape, this nexus of online communities and outlets will evolve and Penn will plan to stay in the forefront of new media.

Since the start of the campaign, seven years ago, Penn has since joined Twitter (with 4,244 followers) and Facebook (with 51,276 likes) in 2009. Also, that year, Penn started to manage its presence on LinkedIn with 26,728 members. As of summer and fall 2012, Penn has joined the ranks of Instagram and Pinterest.

8. Quaker Yellow Pages: The Quaker Yellow Pages were launched to help our alumni support businesses of Penn alumni. Alumni can find the products and services advertised by fellow alumni. Individuals are encouraged to post a listing to promote your own product or service for free. Simply select one of the choices below. Penn Dental was inspired to create their own Quaker resource, the Find a Penn Dentist tool, which will give you the names of Penn Dental alumni who practice in your area.

7. Penn To You: Penn To You: More than a School Night embraces Penn’s unofficial motto: Never stop learning. In the classroom, in the community, and in the wider world, Penn people bring an intense intellectual curiosity to everything they do. Penn to You is designed to bring Penn alumni, parents, and friends together for an evening of intellectual and social engagement. Each event will feature one of Penn’s 12 schools and will include conversation, presentations and panel discussions with select faculty—many of whom were recruited through the Making History Campaign.

: Penn To You – Chicago featuring Ezekiel Emanuel and Barbara E. Kahn (2012).

Penn To You – Chicago featuring Ezekiel Emanuel and Barbara E. Kahn (2012).

6. Penn Spectrum: In 2010, University held its first-ever weekend-long alumni conference devoted entirely to celebrating diversity, Penn Spectrum. After three years of taking the event on the road, Penn Spectrum returns to campus, capping the momentum of our diverse alumni. All alumni are welcome. More information will be available on the Penn Spectrum page.

Penn Spectrum on the Road – Washington, DC (2011).

Penn Spectrum on the Road – Washington, DC (2011).

5. Frankly Penn: Frankly Penn, the Penn Alumni Blog, was established in March 2011 to represent life at the University of Pennsylvania. The team of bloggers consists of alumni, students, staff and faculty from around Penn –both on campus and beyond. This mixture of voices illustrates the dynamic and robust spirit of the University to all who read it. Led by the communications team at Penn Alumni, the blog has had 89,992 views and 564 posts, plus the blog has been continuously updated, Monday through Friday, since its launch.

4. Family Programs: Penn Alumni Families provides Penn Alumni family-specific events for our Philadelphia area alumni with children ages 12 years and under. This new series provides an opportunity for alumni to enjoy Penn events with an emphasis on programming for their children. With the success of Family Day at Mask & Wig and 40 Winks with the Sphinx, look for more events in Philadelphia and in the regions.

40 Winks with the Sphinx (2011).

40 Winks with the Sphinx (2011).

3. Penn Quotient: The Penn Quotient was developed at our Winter Board Retreat as an easy way to determine how you can best show your loyalty and support for your alma mater. It’s a simple checklist to identify those things you are already doing and to explore those you have yet to try.

Complete the checklist once a year to achieve a perfect score:

  • Attend Alumni Weekend in May
  • Explore arts and culture at Homecoming
  • Join or attend events with your local club
  • Visit QuakerNet and update your profile
  • Promote Penn to prospective students
  • Participate in an Alumni Education program
  • Donate to one of Penn’s many annual funds
  • Read The Pennsylvania Gazette
    The real reason for reunions, Alumni Weekend (2011).

    The real reason for reunions, Alumni Weekend (2011).

    2. Penn Alumni Office Hours: As a student at Penn, you could take part in the opportunity to ask in-depth questions and to explore points of interest with your professor outside of class during his or her office hours. Penn Alumni Office Hours provide this same opportunity to alumni by hosting a virtual Office Hours webinar presentation featuring one of Penn’s dynamic faculty members, who will focus on a topic or issue of their choice.

    From the ease of your computer, you can attend these free webinars and submit questions and comments both in advance of and during the program.  If you are unable to visit the Office Hours live, all Office Hour webinars will be recorded and made available through the Penn Alumni Relations site.

    1. Penn Alumni Interview Program: The Penn Alumni Interview Program involves the largest number of Penn Alumni who volunteer for a single project. During Making History, we were able to transition seamlessly the program from the Admissions to Alumni Relations. Capitalizing on the synergies that exist in the Alumni Relations office as well as the leadership of our dedicated staff, the Interview Program was able to steward our Interview Program chairs and interviewers to conduct 21,750 interviews which represents 68% of the total candidates that applied to Penn.

    Penn alumni interviewers help high school students learn more about Penn, and they help the Admissions Office learn more about applicants to the university.  As the Interview Program has the goal of being able to offer an interview to every student who applies as a prospective undergraduate, the Interview Program team will be traveling out to our alumni to help provide training and the information our alumni interviewers will need to help Penn see its goal come true.

    Look at all this Penn Pride. (Homecoming, 2011).

    Look at all this Penn Pride. (Homecoming, 2011).

    Author’s note: I am currently out of the office on a business trip. At the time I submitted this entry, all statistics sited in this blog were accurate.

     

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Filed under Alumni Weekend, Campaign, Casey R., Homecoming Weekend featuring arts and culture, Interview Program, Making History, Top Ten, Uncategorized

March 8, 2013 · 4:09 pm

Good Fortunes: Interview Program Edition

Author: Liz Pinnie

Well folks, interviewing season for the Penn Alumni Interview Program has wrapped up, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with our inaugural year in Sweeten.  With the help of our fabulous volunteers and supportive co-workers (and lots and lots of coffee), we have managed to have a red letter year: over 22,100 applicants were offered interviews in all fifty states, as well as 123 countries.  We have over 2,440 new members, as well as ten new Virtual Interview Committees.  Interviewers have spent over 5,600 hours in Starbucks across the world and our longest participating interviewer just hit the 50 year mark! There is now a new Portal, our fancy new website is in the works, and trips are being planned to all corners of the earth to spread the interviewing word and provide training.

 

What does this mean?  This year, all over the world, Penn graduates and talented teenagers met to talk about Penn, and along the way had fascinating conversations about everything from Kafka to Cambodia, Fruit flies to Freakonomics, baking classes to Engineers without Boarders.  These conversations mean that more alumni are being engaged than ever before, more applicants have the chance to speak with an ambassador from Penn, and unique ideas and thoughts are being shared across generations and boarders.

 

One of our awesome chairs sent us the most giant fortune cookie ever- thanks Felix!

One of our awesome chairs sent us the most giant fortune cookie ever- thanks Felix!

While this has been a wildly successful year, we here in Interview Program Headquarters are not ready to rest (yet).  There is still (a lot!) of work to be done both on our end, and yours.  If you would like to help spread the word about Penn as an ambassador and member of the Penn Alumni Interview Program, please just sign up here.  If you are already a member, spread the word- we want to keep this momentum going to make this experience, for our alumni and prospective students, the best it can possibly be.

 

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Filed under Alumni Benefits, Interview Program, Liz P., Patrick B., Sweeten Alumni House, Volunteering

February 27, 2013 · 9:28 am

Community

Author: Patrick Bredehoft

BenFranklinBench_000We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

~Benjamin Franklin

I’d like to continue reflecting on some of the many reasons why people get involved in the Penn Alumni Interview Program.  With over 600 interview committees around the world, there’s no shortage of different motivations for people to join, but in each case, the opportunity to create a microcosm of the Penn community in some far-off place looms large.

To be sure, the Penn community is diverse: the Penn undergraduate population alone includes students from all fifty U.S. states, and more than 100 countries around the world.  Those students come to Penn as teenagers with unique backgrounds, opinions, and preconceptions, but they all leave with an essential commonality: they are all Penn alumni.  What’s astonishing is that this identity endures—it becomes an aspect of self, and that connection has the power to trump other aspects of one’s identity.  Whether you move to a new city, a new state, or a new country, the odds are good that there will be at least a handful of hopeful area students applying to Penn each year, and where there are Penn applicants, there’s also an opportunity to join an Alumni Interview Committee in that region. The Penn connection allows an alumnus to become an ambassador in any new place, and to meet other Penn graduates who likewise carry the banner of their educational experience with them wherever they go.

One challenge of being a Penn alumnus is that there are aspects of the university experience that are difficult to replicate after you leave campus.  Outside of the United Nations, it’s difficult to imagine finding a similarly diverse community outside of Penn—particularly one where an individual will almost inevitably encounter so many different people in the course of a single day (through classes, activities, meals, and residential life).  Alumni who join the Interview Program become a part of a community that is both local and global.  In meeting with prospective students, they’re also creating connections between past and future members of the university community.  So, while it’s probably sentimental to claim that the Penn community transcends space and time, it’s also accurate—serving as an Alumni Interviewer provides opportunities for our graduates to hang together.

0596-SHS-AlumWeekend

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Filed under Alumni Benefits, Interview Program, Patrick B.

February 7, 2013 · 4:29 pm

Interviewing Virtually for Penn

Author: Liz Pinnie

Here in the Interview Program Office, we think it is crucial for all prospective Penn students to meet with one of the university’s most enthusiastic representatives: a former Penn student.  This is especially critical for our international applicants who may have never had the opportunity to speak with someone who is or has been affiliated with Penn.  However, as large as the University is, we can’t always guarantee that there will be Penn Graduates in all of the areas applicants are applying from.

The Question: How to reach exceptional students from unique areas of the world?

The Answer: Virtual Interviewing Committees

Virtual Committees, new to Penn as of this year, are dedicated to offering interviews to Penn applicants from areas where there are fewer Penn alumni to meet in-person, and where we can connect these students to alumni via Skype or phone in order to help Penn achieve its goal of 100% interview coverage for all applicants. Thus far, these virtual committees have interviewed over a hundred applicants from areas without local committee representation.

Because of interest from alumni looking to support their home country, our office has recently added four exciting new international virtual committees: Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.  For the first time ever, applicants from countries like Cote D’Ivoire, Japan, Mexico, Romania, Cameroon, Germany, Cyprus, Antarctica* , Barbados, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Paraguay, Finland, Oman, Croatia, are given the chance to speak with a representative of Penn.

If you are reading this and are a Virtual Interviewer, 1. Thank you!  And 2. Let us know how it is going for you- we’d love to hear your stories.

If you are not yet an interviewer and would like to get involved or simply learn more about the program, please visit our website, or contact us directly at interviews@lists.upenn.edu.

*Just kidding. We have yet to reach any prospective Penn-guins. If you’re aware of any, let us know.

*Just kidding. We have yet to reach any prospective Penn-guins. If you’re aware of any, let us know.

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Filed under Interview Program, Liz P.