News

• May 18, 2020

  Personal Documentaries Replace Performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

  The Edinburgh Project course at Penn, offered only every two years for about a half-dozen students chosen by the Theatre Arts faculty. They produce a one-act play, working in conjunction with a professional director and travel to Scotland to perform in the famous Festival Fringe in August. This year the focus shifted from what would have been the start of rigorous rehearsals together. Ferguson instead asked the students to find material from the novel and play and use it to create short videos each week that reflected their own transformations in this time of crisis, from their perspectives during the global coronavirus pandemic.

• May 11, 2020

  Professor of Music James Primosch Receives 2020 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music

  The Virgil Thomson Foundation, recognizes an American composer of vocal works. James Primosch is a Penn professor and also active as a pianist. His latest music releases include, "Carthage" a survey of his choral music by two-time Grammy-winners "The Crossing," and "Descent/Return," which features five of his songs.

• May 11, 2020

  Junior Paul Lin Named a 2020 Udall Scholar

  The Udall Foundation, which awards scholarships of as much as $7,000 each to college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment. He is especially interested in the development of geospatial technologies for the study of vegetation and land-cover changes. Lin hopes to pursue a career in the defense sector and to research the implications of climate change on national security.

• May 11, 2020

  Nikil Ragav 2020 President’s Innovation Prize Recipient for InventXYZ

  Nikil Ragav wants to bring high-tech, hands-on learning to all students. InventXYZ, is a program where high school students from all backgrounds across the country take on projects in which they develop 21st-century technology. “Nikil has marshalled the resources to create a ‘wow’ space in which art, electronics, robotics, social studies, coding, and more come together in a dynamic, exciting, and interactive way,” says Dr. Gutmann.

• April 30, 2020

  Improv With an Impact, Using the President’s Engagement Prize

  Seniors Philip Chen and Meera Menon will create a nonprofit to bring improv training to Philadelphia public schools. They teamed up to pursue the challenge of the President’s Engagement Prize and won. The Unscripted Project is designed to run 10-week improv courses for students in grades 6 to 10 in Philadelphia public schools taught by teaching artists from the Philly Improv Theater, which was founded and is headed by a Penn alum.