Being from Philadelphia, you could say I’m used to the snow. I’ve been around snow my entire life. I would look forward to snow days every year. Playing in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, plus no school! But after I finished high school I assumed that all the fun filled snow days were far behind me. So, you can imagine my surprise when on Tuesday we got so much snow in such little time that the university closed early! At 9 am on Tuesday morning I was walking to class and there wasn’t a snow flake in sight. By the time my class finished at 10:30 There was already snow on the ground. And it didn’t stop. By 1 o’clock there was enough snow to cancel classes for the rest of the day. It was one of the best feelings in the world. Being snowed in with my lovely roommates, watching TV, and drinking hot chocolate! It felt just like I was little again. And then, to my surprise, that night the univeristy actually cancelled classes for Wednesday too! It was such a treat and I hope I see one again sometime soon!
Happy New Year, Quakers! I hope you all celebrated accordingly 🙂
Since we’re only into the second day of 2014, I don’t believe it’s unreasonable to look back on the many fond memories I had in good ol’ 2013. However, this is, after all, a Penn blog. That’s why I’m using this post for My Top 12 Penn Moments of 2013, one for each month. Enjoy, and try to think of your Top 12 Penn Moments as well!
12. JANUARY
I get invited to become a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority! I celebrated my acceptance with my new sisters all through the night, right into my 19th birthday the next morning. Talk about a great birthday present!
I finally meet my Big!
11. FEBRUARY
Big-Little Week for Sigma Kappa! (For those who are unfamiliar with the term “Big-Little Week,” click here for more info.) After a FULL WEEK of anonymously-sent baked goods, gifts, and guys, I discover who my wonderful Big is: Tara!
10. MARCH
Spring Break has arrived at Penn, and what better way to spend it than with my fellow Quakers! I take a weekend trip to Tenafly, NJ with my good friends Charlotte and Gabby, both of whom I met through the freshman seminar “Katharine Hepburn Films.” I also travel to New York City with a few members of Counterparts: Lilly, Scott, and Nina.
9. APRIL
Enjoying Fling with some SK girls and Mask & Wig guys!
CP about to take the stage
Ok, so I’m cheating a little bit here. I have two big moments from April 2013. The first, of course, is Spring Fling. I mean, how can I leave that out? It’s the largest collegiate carnival on the eastern seaboard! Not to mention, it was my first one. The second moment: Time to Shine, of course. Counterparts was one of the many student groups to perform before the Train and John Legend concert. What was even cooler was that we were the first group to sing on the same stage as these artists!
8. MAY
My freshman year at Penn finally comes to a close, but not before I start recording for the new CP album! In the midst of studying for final exams, we all come in at various times to record various songs from first and second semester.
7. JUNE
A beautiful day to see the Arc de Triomphe
Bonjour de la France! Already having departed in late May, I am entering my third week in Tours, France with the Penn-in-Tours summer abroad program. For six weeks, I study a year’s worth of French at the Université François-Rabelais with about 30 other Penn students. We all live with host families and go on weekend trips around the Loire Valley, visiting castles, exploring museums, and tasting wine! After mid-terms, we are given a three-day weekend to travel anywhere in France. I, along with my friends Rachel, Emily, Fola, and Faith, decide to spend those days roaming the magnificent city of Paris.
6. JULY
A summer is not complete without a trip to the beach. In addition to my family’s annual vacation in Strathmere, NJ, I spend a weekend in Wildwood with my good friend, Alexa. She’s one of the first friends I made at Penn!
5. AUGUST
BACK. TO. SCHOOL. After another summer of not tanning at all, I am ready for Sophomore year to begin! Before NSO even starts, however, I kick off the new school year as a student leader for the PennArts pre-orientation program. I participated in PennArts as a freshman, and it’s just as fun to experience it again as a leader. The 50-60 of us explore all the arts that both the Penn and Philadelphia communities have to offer.
The PennArts leaders are ready to welcome the freshmen!
4. SEPTEMBER
CP welcomes its newest members: David, Emily, Michael, and Andrew!
3. OCTOBER
Date Night? More like Neuro Night! A Wharton junior in SK has partnered with the drink company, Neuro, for a class project. As a thank-you for all of her hard work, Neuro brings in manicurists and hair stylists to the SK house to help the girls get ready for our Date Night downtown!
Sarah, Virginia, and I try some Neuro while we wait to get our hair done
2. NOVEMBER
After weeks and weeks of rehearsal, Counterparts performs its Fall show, “Private ‘Parts.” I sing a jazz song by Melody Gardot called “Baby, I’m a Fool.”
1. DECEMBER
I am invited to sing at the Mask & Wig Club’s annual Charity Ball! The band held auditions earlier in the Fall, and several girls (a bunch of them in CP!) were selected to perform. The guys were extremely fun to rehearse with, and the songs were so much fun! Of the three events I sang for, Charity Ball was definitely my favorite. Everyone dresses up in gowns and tuxedos for a night of great food, dancing, and music. What a classy way to close out the year!
Me and my date, Luke
And there you have it, 2013 through the eyes of a Penn Quaker. I hope 2014 brings just as many great moments like these, maybe even more! Enjoy the new year, Quakers 🙂
More than 80 photographers submitted 500 images of campus life to the University’s Flickr pool. In addition, photographers participating in the project posted 172 images on Instagram, as well as 260 tweets on Twitter, #PennDayinLife.
Members of the Penn community also sent images from the campus outposts of Botswana, Guatemala, and Seattle.
10:53 a.m. Jacqueline Harper and Linda Schnolis examine a neonate lying in a baby warmer shortly after its birth. Ms. Harper and Ms. Schnolis are second degree nursing students enrolled in the Nursing Care of the Pediatric Patient course. Photograph by Steven Minicola, University Communications. 6H0A7960
11:26 a.m. – Veterinary nurse practitioner Jessica Bosco comforts her patient in the fluids ward. Photo by John Donges
4:30 P.M. Quiet on the quad- image by Ian McCurry
5:15 PM- Designer and social activist Kenneth Cole stops by Penn to discuss his new book with College Fashionista founder Amy Levin. Photo by Jillian Kaltman
6pm: Studying at Starbucks in 1920 Commons, image by Sarah Tinsley
10:36 p.m. – Nighttime Laundry. No matter what time of the day it is, all the washing machines always seem to be in use. Photo by Hannah Rosenfeld.
Author: Stephanie Yee, C’08One thing I have learned this year is Penn alumni LOVE art! The Penn Alumni Club of Philadelphia hosted two events at The Barnes Foundation in early 2013, and bothevents sold out in minutes! We recently hosted an event at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis special exhibit. Alumni met at the PMA at 9AM on a Saturday. We were split into two smaller groups for our private tours. Our tour was given by the mother of Leah Popowich, C00 G06, from Office of the President at University of Pennsylvania. There is a Penn connection everywhere!
Penn alumni on a private tour of the Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis special exhibit
Beautiful fall day in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Following our tour, we met for brunch at Rembrandt’s, a restaurant within walking distance of the museum. Our brunch featured guest speaker and Penn Art History Professor André Dombrowski. We are big fans of Dr. Dombrowski at the Penn Alumni Club of Philadelphia. He is a phenomenal speaker and always excited to participate in Penn Alumni events. If you haven’t heard him speak, you need to ASAP! Dr. Dombrowski discussed the Léger and his contemporaries and how the Léger exhibit has been covered in the media. The Penn alumni in attendance were very knowledgeable about art and had great questions for Dr. Dombrowski.
Penn alumni enjoying a wonderful talk by Penn Art History Professor André Dombrowski
The event was so successful that we plan to host another event at the PMA in Spring 2014. We are excited for the upcoming special exhibits, and we hope you will join us for the event. Check our website for more details!
Sadly, grown-ups have fewer options than kids do to participate in the “dress up as a _______” part of Halloween. What a shame! It is so much fun, and I am reminded of this every year when the Halloween-themed salsa dance parties roll around. It is a special – ahem – treat for me and hundreds of others to have a socially-acceptable excuse to get in costume. I took advantage of one of these last weekend at Philadelphia Salsafest, an annual weekend-long event with classes all day, performances in the evening, and dancing all night. (Side note – if you want a crash course in salsa dance, come to this in 2014, or do a search for your city and “salsa congress” to see what similar weekend-long options are available near you. Most have class sessions for dancers of all levels. You can also search for a city plus “salsa lesson” to find a club or a studio that can get you started in the mean time. Worth it!)
Storm’s cape, attached at the wrists. A good idea on paper. 😉 Not so much for social dancing.
At the intersection of salsa dancing and Halloween, there is a catch: you have to be able to dance in your costume. Among other things, according to my own personal rules, such a costume must leave me with good range of motion in the arms and legs, must not endanger me or a dance partner when forced into rapid rotation, and must not inhibit my ability to cool off between songs in a hot room. The year I dressed up as Storm from the X-Men, I decided against strangulation and chose to forego the cape. It was a good decision. When the film Avatar came out, I was very excited about the possibility of dressing as the tall, blue character of Neytiri until I realized that my options were 1) blue body make up all over my arms, or 2) a high necked, long-sleeved, non-breathing blue body suit and blue makeup on my face. Option A could sweat off and/or leave my dance partners, and their thoughtfully-constructed costumes, covered in blue paint. Too inconsiderate. Option B would get makeup on people AND send me to the hospital with heatstroke. Too emergency roomy. I was a bit bummed, but ended up very happy to dance as The Bride from Kill Bill. It turned out that there were a few Neytiris at the party, so at least I was the only one in the costume I selected! That my yellow tracksuit left no remnants on anyone else, and didn’t make me pass out, were nice bonuses.
Did you get your body makeup on my costume? Why I oughtta…
While I brainstormed for this year’s costume, I considered the whole “era/decade” concept. I had done several variations of the ‘80s, and I once dressed as a ‘60s-era hippie, but – eureka! – never the ‘50s. And what is more dance-ready than the ensemble of an American teenage bobbysoxer? Decision made. My dream would have been to dance to a salsa remake of “Johnny B. Goode” as a tribute to Back to the Future, but I and my poodle skirt still had a great time spinning the night away with other fully-grown humans masquerading as superheroes, puns, celebrities, animated characters, and more.
Halloween 2013! I haven’t worn saddle shoes since I was in kindergarten, so I’m just glad they come in my size.
Do you have an outlet for your burning desire to get into costume as an adult? Next year you can dress up to answer the door to your trick-or-treaters. Or you can take up an activity that draws eccentric types who share your dream of walking around as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. You can also host – or encourage a friend to host – a Halloween party where costumes are expressly encouraged for the adults. Someone out there will thank you for the opportunity.
Have you ever been to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology? Have you ever wondered about the Sphinx – a 15-ton single piece of red granite, the largest such stone sculpture in the Western Hemisphere and the sixth largest in the world? How did it get there, and why is it at Penn?
Wonder no more. Check out the Penn Current for the full story of how the Sphinx arrived in Philadelphia in 1913.
Penn Picked to Repeat as Ivy League Football Champions
Media Contact: Mike Mahoney | mahoneyw@upenn.edu | 215-898-9232 | August 7, 2013
Looking to accomplish the unprecedented, the University of Pennsylvania football team was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League title on Tuesday at the annual Ivy League Football Media Day teleconference.
Penn has won three of the last four Ancient Eight titles. All outright. No school has ever won four outright titles in a five-year span.
The Ivy League Football Preseason Media Poll has 17 total voters consisting of two media members from each school and one national media representative. Eleven members of the poll picked Penn to repeat as Ivy champions.
The Quakers have now been selected among top four of the preseason poll for 21 consecutive seasons. The last time the Quakers were not predicted to finish in the top half of the Ivy League was in 1992, one month prior to the program’s first game under the direction of head coach Al Bagnooli.
Penn earned the top spot in the preseason media poll for the second time in the last three years and garnered 129 points. That was just eight points ahead of Harvard, who received five first-place votes. Brown earned the other first-place vote and finished a distant third in the voting with 88 points. Dartmouth rounded out the top four with 76 points and was followed by Princeton (73 points), Cornell (57), Yale (46) and Columbia (22).
For the fifth straight year, Penn and Harvard claimed the top two spots. In each of the last six seasons, either Penn or Harvard has claimed at least a share of the Ivy title.
The Red and Blue will be looking to buck a trend, however. The team slated to finish second in the Ivy preseason poll has gone on to win the league title in each of the last four seasons, including the the Quakers in 2009, 2010 and 2012.
Picked to finish as the runner-up last season, the Quakers (6-4, 6-1 Ivy) won their last four games – all in dramatic fashion – to earn the program’s 13th outright title. Penn returns 40 letterwinners and 20 starters from that championship team, including eight All-Ivy players (four offense, three defense and one specialist).
The Quakers report to preseason camp on Monday, Aug. 19 and will officially open their 137th season under the lights at historic Franklin Field when they host Lafayette for a 6 p.m. kickoff on Sept. 21. That matchup will serve as the only night game at the nation’s oldest collegiate football stadium this year will also mark the first game on Franklin Field’s new SprinTurf.
Season tickets are available by calling the ticket office at 215-898-6151. Individual game tickets go on sale August 15.
For the better part of the last two years, I’ve garnered concerned looks whenever I start to talk excitedly about a floating boardwalk on the Schuylkill.
“There are great plans underway!” I exclaim to anyone who will listen. “Someday, we’ll be able to walk from the South Street Bridge all the way up to Walnut Street, on a boardwalk perched above the river!” As is often the fate of prognosticators and sooth-sayers, my promises for a brighter future have been met with fear, suspicion, and uncertainty, particularly if I make these statements to utter strangers whizzing by on their bikes.
Actually, I do not make such proclamations vocally, but I am irrationally excited about the Schuylkill River Trail extension currently under construction. The trail now ends just below Walnut Street, with a convenient overpass to access the nearby park: bikers are forced to end their ride in an abrupt cul-de-sac, while runners find themselves veering off of the river’s bank and filing back onto Center City streets. For those of us who live south of South Street, it’s tempting to wish that the trail would extend just a little further, although it’s also easy to understand why it doesn’t. At that point on the trail, the river bank narrows sharply as a more industrial set of buildings encroach, meaning that the only path along the river would quickly land you in the river.
That’s why this most recent construction project is such a thrill: they’re putting the Schuylkill Trail directly over the river. The boardwalk won’t float, but it will perch on pylons a few feet above the water, extending evening walks by another half mile, tempting fishermen into deeper waters, and royally freaking out my scaredy-cat of a dog, who has to be coaxed across even the sturdiest of bridges.
Here is Lilli, unresistingly being used as a pillow by the cat, Mac.
Over the past few months, every addition that has been made to this multi-stage construction project has led to some new thrill/temptation for me to shout:
Wow, the pipe they’re using for that concrete pillar is HUGE!!
Hey, the ramp is almost done!
OH, MY GOSH, HOLY COW, THEY HAVE THAT CONSTRUCTION CRANE FLOATING ON A BARGE!!!!
So far, I have continued to restrain myself, but I don’t know how much more I can take.
I love to walk in Philadelphia. You can get nearly anywhere in this city if you’re willing to put in a half hour at a steady pace. I like that if you own a car here, you rarely need to use it. I also appreciate that the Philadelphia “Powers that Be” seem to nurture these pedestrian impulses. Only recently did I discover that you can walk (or bike) essentially uninterrupted from Center City to Valley Forge on the Schuylkill River Trail, and that when completed, this trail will extend almost 130 miles, from Philly to Pottsville, from the University of Pennsylvania’s campus all the way to the Appalachian Trail.
I think Ben Franklin would be proud of the face that part of his legacy was a footpath with the power to lead people out into Penn’s Woods, following the banks of a river that he hoped would one day become easier to navigate.
In Dutch, Schuylkill means “hidden river,” and, while I certainly advocate for keeping rivers wild and free, I think Ben had this one right: the Schuylkill is a river that should be easy to navigate, and easy for people to enjoy.
And with every passing day, the trail gets a little closer…
Penn co-rec intramural summer softball is back! Penn Park is a beautiful place to play softball, but sometimes the Philly weather doesn’t cooperate. Check out the photos below from the Tuesday and Thursday games last week.
A beautiful day in Penn Park on Tuesday
Playing softball on a rainy Thursday
Rainy, cloudy, and gloomy on Thursday. Do you see the umbrella?
So I’m on the Market-Frankford El, minding my own business, when I sit down and notice fellow Penn alumna Stephanie Renee, W’91 smiling from the wall. In addition to being a volunteer on the Penn Spectrum 2013 Steering Committee, Stephanie is the Program Director at WURD 900AM, and hosts Wake Up with WURD Monday through Friday from at 7am-10am. How wonderful that she uses her influence to promote important programs like this one on internet connectivity in Philadelphia .
I say goodbye to Stephanie at 15th Street and head to my destination on Broad. Just moments later, I stop short at the sight of yet another Penn alumna, Pennsylvania Ballet Principal Dancer Julie Diana Hench, LPS’08. When she isn’t busy serving as President of the University of Pennsylvania Association of Alumnae, she is lighting up the stage at the Academy of Music, showing audiences how the human body can become its own expressive instrument. And I thought my job kept me on my toes.
Thanks, Stephanie and Julie, for accompanying me on my trip to the Avenue of the Arts!
![Sphinx-story1[1]](https://franklypenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/sphinx-story11.jpg?w=500&h=397)
Frankly Penn 