GRADUATION ISSUE
BAMELAK DUKI
On April 29, the Pan-Asian
Com
munity House invited students to a celebration in
in collaboration with the
American Studies program. On May 19 — the day of Commencement — the center will continue its celebration of graduates with a reception for family and friends in the ARCH building immediately following Commencement, starting at 12
p.m. The LGBT Center also welcomed all graduates and their families to its 11th annual Lavender Ceremony on May 9 in the ARCH building. All students who are graduating in the 2024-25 academic year were invited to participate.
Makuu: The Black Cultural Center will invite graduates and their families to a reception on May 17 that includes an awards ceremony to recognize students for leadership, service, and artistic achievements. Students are nominated for the awards by Penn community members, with a committee of staff members voting on the final recipients.
The annual ceremony honors students moving “on to their next phase in life,” along with “the entire senior class for all that they have done together on campus,” according to the Makuu website.
La Casa Latina, the main center for Latinx
students, is hosting a celebration of graduates in Zellerbach Theatre on May 18, followed by a champagne reception in Annenberg Plaza. The celebration will be bilingual, hosted in both Spanish and English. The center’s website described the event as a “culturally empowering celebration of graduating
students that honors the many traditions that encompass Latinx identities.”
“We are proud to uplift our students’ successes, express gratitude to those who work with all members of our communities and provide space for all who wish to participate,” McCaffrey added in her statement.
JESSE ZHANG | DP FILE PHOTO
PAACH, Makuu, and La Casa Latina are located in the ARCH building.
Five things to know about Commencement speaker Elizabeth Banks
Penn announced Banks, a 1996 College graduate, as this year’s Commencement speaker on March 24
EMILY SCOLNICK Editor-in-Chief
Get to know 1996 College graduate Elizabeth Banks, the actress and film director who will deliver Penn’s 269th Commencement speech on May 19.
She was the first in her family to graduate from college
At Penn, Banks — who was known as Elizabeth Mitchell before changing her name when she joined the Screen Actors Guild — majored in communication, minored in theatre arts, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She held a work-study job at the Faculty Club, participated in extracurricular theater groups, and was a member of the Friars Senior Society.
She graduated magna cum laude in 1996.
She also met her husband, 1995 College graduate Max Handelman, while at Penn.
After graduating from Penn, Banks attended the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco for her master’s degree, before becoming an award-winning actress, director, and producer.
Penn will award Banks an honorary doctor of arts degree during this year’s Commencement ceremony.
She produced, starred in, and directed the “Pitch Perfect” franchise
Banks produced and starred in “Pitch Perfect,” a 2012 film that follows an all-female a cappella group competing in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. Although not explicitly based on Penn’s robust
a cappella community, Handelman told The Pennsylvania Gazette in 2010 that the comedy was based on “the type of people … he and Banks knew at Penn.”
Following the success of “Pitch Perfect,” Banks made her feature directorial debut with “Pitch Perfect 2.” She also co-produced and starred in the film and its followup, “Pitch Perfect 3.”
Banks arranged for Penn Masala to make a cameo in “Pitch Perfect 2,” which was released in 2015.
Banks initially made her film debut in “Surrendering Dorothy,” a 1998 independent film. She went on to appear in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, “The Lego Movie” franchise, and “The Hunger Games” film franchise — in which she starred as the character Effie Trinket. On television, Banks is best known for her roles on “30 Rock,“ which earned her two Emmy Award nominations, and “Modern Family.”
She and her husband co-founded a production company In 2002, Banks and Handelman co-founded the film and television production company Brownstone Productions, Inc. The corporation is best known for producing the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, the 2019 film “Charlie’s Angels,” and the 2023 films “Cocaine Bear” and “Bottoms.”
Banks attributes her interest in storytelling to her time at Penn, where she took classes on William Shakespeare that allowed her to develop theatrical skills, including
Meet the four individuals receiving honorary degrees at the 2025
Commencement ceremony
This year, Penn will honor actress and director Elizabeth Banks, historians Lonnie Bunch and Barbara Savage, and physicist Lene Hau
ETHAN YOUNG News Editor
The 269th Commencement ceremony on May 19 will feature four honorary degree recipients, recognizing their contributions in fields ranging from film and television to physics and history.
Elizabeth Banks 1996 College graduate Elizabeth Banks, who is also the Class of 2025 Commencement speaker, will receive
an honorary doctor of arts degree. Banks — an actress, director, and producer known for her starring roles in “The Hunger Games” and “Love & Mercy” — has been nominated for three Emmy Awards for her roles in “30 Rock” and “Modern Family.” Banks has also directed hit films such as “Charlie’s Angels” (2019) and “Cocaine Bear.” Banks made her directorial debut with “Pitch Perfect 2” in 2015 and co-founded Brownstone Productions with
being able to “tell the difference between a comedy and a drama.” Handelman told the Gazette that his and Banks’ “complementary skills” allow them to collaborate and search for the perfect story to tell through the company’s films. Banks described storytelling as “a tradition that goes back to when we were living in caves and acting out the history of our people … or when we’re teaching our children by telling them stories, or just as a way of trying to make sense of the world around us.”
She founded an online platform for female comedians In 2016, Banks partnered with Digital Media Management to found WhoHaha, a creative space for digital content that “celebrates and elevates women and genderexpansive creators in the comedy space,” according to its website. The organization aims to “center women+ in front of the camera, behind the scenes, and in the audience” and has partnered with companies including the American Heart Association, Universal Studios, and Amazon Prime.
her husband in 2002. She is also a passionate advocate for women’s rights and reproductive freedom. In 1998, Banks earned a master of fine arts from the American Conservatory Theater.
Lonnie Bunch
Lonnie Bunch, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. He has served in his position at the Smithsonian since 2019 and is the first African American person and first historian to serve in the role. Bunch previously served as the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In his role as secretary of the Smithsonian, Bunch oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, and the National Zoo, among other education centers. He received the Legion of Honor in 2021 — France’s highest award.
Barbara Savage Penn’s Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Africana Studies Barbara Savage
The platform includes video content that highlights the behind-the-scenes processes of franchises like “Pitch Perfect” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” along with a comedic series catered towards non-male audiences. “I was tired of hearing the quote that women were not funny,” Banks told CBS News in 2017. “I wanted women to hear and understand a different message like, ‘I think you’re really hilarious and if
will also receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Before retiring from Penn in 2020, Savage was a member of the History Department from 1995-2013. She then served as inaugural chair of the Department of Africana Studies.
While on faculty at Penn, Savage taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in African American history, Black women’s political history, and the history of American social and religious reform movements. She has also authored three books.
Lene Hau
Lene Hau, who currently serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University, will receive an honorary doctor of sciences degree. Hau was a senior scientist at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Mass. prior to her time at Harvard.
She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2001 and has also been elected to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other accolades.
PHOTO FROM PENN TODAY Banks will deliver the 269th Commencement address.
I had barely made it to the closing scene of my housemate’s play when the text came through.
“OFF OFF OFF the record,” I was told, “big news” was coming imminently.
I didn’t make it to the final bow. While bouquet-bearing friends fanned out into the Annenberg Center lobby, I was sprinting down Locust Walk.
The president of Penn was resigning. By nightfall, hours after we broke the news, The Daily Pennsylvanian’s prescheduled end-of-semester party felt quite different. But the party, as it so often does at Penn, went on.
My personal experience on Dec. 9, 2023 pales in comparison to the story at hand. In fact, I would much rather you read the DP’s authoritative coverage of the crises affecting campus than my account of reporting on them.
Yet this is how I experienced Penn: through phone calls from administrators while apple picking with my boyfriend, jawdropping statements from Jon Huntsman Jr. while at dinner with my dad on fall break, and pleas to my professor to reschedule my final so I could make it to Liz Magill’s testimony before Congress.
The relentless breaking news superseded any personal priority — my studies, my family, and even my love life. The DP simply had to cut through the noise and double down on producing an accurate first draft of Penn history.
As I found myself energized (and
exhausted) by questioning those in power and chasing a fulsome portrayal of Penn, it was the small moments that validated my choice to explore Penn through the DP — like catching the sunrise after an all-nighter prepping a major sports investigation, yapping endlessly with Molly, Saya, and Imran in the Blue Room, and welcoming the 141st Board at the annual banquet.
Yet even the very activity that should have ensured that I’d see all there is to see at Penn — four years of intensive reporting on ordinary and extraordinary news across campus — was not enough to make me the well-rounded student that this University boasts about producing. When I reflect on what truly fueled my DP experience — 123,000 Slack messages, 89 Daily Grind smoothies from Saxbys, 59 spirited A1 debates, coverage of four Penn presidents, and all — I realize that I only found fulfillment with my work because of what I experienced outside of the Pink Palace, as the DP’s pinktrimmed office is fondly called.
Opening myself up to my first-year hallmates, dropping my computer science major, joining another club, writing a thesis, and spending time with Friars Senior Society taught me important lessons. And these experiences shielded me from losing myself within the palace chambers of 4015 Walnut St. — in all its mystique perched atop Metropolitan Bakery and guarded by windowless walls.
This column isn’t an attempt to defend myself against being nicknamed by my
Dear Penn, you’ve nurtured my
SENIOR COLUMN | I hope I’ve done the same for yours
On Nov. 1, 2020, I submitted my early decision application to Penn. It was closer to the midnight deadline than I’d like to admit, but I was up late perfecting my supplemental essays. Now, almost five years later, I’m perfecting a different kind of essay: my parting thoughts on four years at Penn squeezed into 650-800 words. More words, but also so much more to say. Back then, I tried to imagine myself during these four years. In response to the question on what I planned to contribute to campus, I shared my dream of joining The Daily Pennsylvanian. I confidently declared, “I’ll write stories to nurture the minds, hearts and stomachs of the Penn community.” I included stomachs because I had previously mentioned my plan to join Penn Appétit, which I never got around to.
But little did I know how much Penn would, in turn, nurture me. Not only my mind, but also my heart. And occasionally, my stomach (shoutout to the OG McClelland bowls).
Many of us had lofty ambitions of what we might do at Penn once we arrived, how we would leave our mark after four years, and most importantly, how that fit into why the admissions committee should give us that chance. But in the end, my time here was defined by the mark Penn left on me, not the other way around.
My journey of deep appreciation for Penn started my sophomore fall. I vividly remember moving into Rodin College House that year, a dorm whose motto “To be rather than to seem” was imprinted on the glass window and always resonated with me. On a campus where SABSing and Penn Face reign supreme, that call for authenticity was a challenge to break free.
As I said goodbye to my dad, he asked me if I knew the origin of the word sophomore. I told him no, and he responded that it meant “wise fool.” It was the first humbling reminder that though I was comfortable enough at Penn to take on more classes, clubs, and commitments, I was still inexperienced enough to struggle handling
it all. Our departing conversation was a precursor to the most challenging semester of college that remains my favorite out of all eight.
Just a few weeks later, I met my very best friends who I will cherish forever. I was fortunate enough to have experienced the unconditional love that is true sisterhood, and I can never thank Penn enough for bringing these girls (BABO) into my life. Our late night hangouts in 311, where the shabby couches saw me more than my own bed in 1608 did, are some of my fondest memories.
That same month, I joined the Kite and Key Society. As an opinion columnist at the DP (the Quirky Quaker, to be exact), I was accustomed to using my voice to put words on a page. Becoming a tour guide forced me to go outside of my comfort zone, but what I gained most was a second humbling reminder, this time of who I once was.
As I looked into the crowd of wide-eyed prospective students and their families, I saw my younger self. Anxious, full of hope, and in awe of all that Penn had to offer. I could only dream of attending Penn, and now I was lucky enough to be living that dream.
Those 90-minute tours became my sanctuary, an escape from the chaos that often is a busy and successful life at Penn: endless midterm seasons, internship recruiting, club deliverables and more. You seldom get the chance to pause and take it all in, let alone do so every single week. No matter what was going on, I was there with a smile on my face, full of energy (or at least trying to be), and sporting Penn merch. With every stop and story about my experiences, I was filled with gratitude. At Williams Hall, I took an Amharic class where I was the only student — yes, it was just the professor and me the entire year. At Claudia Cohen Hall, I read my late grandfather’s book in an Ethiopian history class. No, I was not the only student there.
On Locust Walk, I walked through a sea of 10,000 undergraduates and realized
and didn’t work, at the DP.
And in my final year at Penn, I reclaimed some semblance of the “student” in “student journalist” by writing a thesis (albeit on university president communications). In Friars, I not only put faces to names of athletes who headline the DP’s sports section, but also met people who are just as crazy about their passions as I am about mine.
All of these experiences ultimately made the Pink Palace all the more majestic — despite having fluorescent lighting, rather than glistening chandeliers; newsroom tabletops with stacks of pizza from Zesto Pizza and Grill, rather than banquet halls with golden goblets; spinny red chairs, rather than gilded furniture; and historic DP print issues, rather than tapestries, lining the palace halls. By keeping the palace gates open, it was easier for me to grasp that it was not just my mom reading my newsletter on Tuesday mornings, but also basketball players, CIS 160 teaching assistants, marketing professors, and Philadelphia community members.
housemates as simply “DP” or to deny the truth that I was married to my work — at times to a fault. It is a belated acknowledgement of a simple truth: I could not have ridden the wave of each news cycle without a sturdy life raft, one built as much from my experiences in the DP as those outside of it.
In the fall of my first year, I deconstructed my own palace walls by coming to full terms with my sexuality. When my hallmates welcomed me (and my newfound middle part haircut) to the other side of the gates — then cheered me on after I was elected administration desk editor — I grew comfortable in my own skin and with new people, preparing me for leadership in the DP.
In my second semester, I came to understand not only graph theory, but also the scope of Penn. As Slack pings about Amy Wax interrupted my (then) CIS 160 office hours, I realized that the DP’s stories might be more important than anything else to me, but many students simply had different, and just as valid, priorities — their own palaces to enter and explore. When I dropped my computer science major, I learned to accept failure. Little did I know that my CIS 160 groupmate, Anna, would one day be my executive editor and best friend.
In my sophomore and junior year, I joined Penn Labs, introducing me to an entirely different club culture and way of engaging the University community. I came away with a better understanding of what worked,
mind and heart
The lessons I learned from leaving my comfort zone, finding space in Penn’s preprofessional culture for my passions, grappling with failure, and building friendships outside work are not only applicable to becoming a trustworthy, empathetic, and successful journalist at this University. They are applicable to every student. I encourage you to explore Penn in your own way — find what your palace is, pink-trimmed or not. But while you enjoy the splendor, don’t let the gates close behind you — or you’ll shut yourself off to the most fulsome Penn experience.
I kept the Pink Palace doors open and had the experience of a lifetime. While I’ll most remember sprinting down Locust Walk when the story demanded it, I’m more than ready to stroll down the cobblestones one final time — with a full appreciation for the palace of Penn..
***
Thank you to Jesse, Molly, and Anna for being my rocks these past four years; Jonah, Peter, Ben, and the editors on the 140th Board for building me into the journalist I am today; and every student journalist who has inspired me with their perseverance amid unprecedented challenges.
JARED MITOVICH is a College senior from Woodcliff Lake, N.J. studying communication, data science, and political science. He previously served as DP editor-in-chief on the 140th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. He also served as news editor, administration desk editor, data desk reporter, and an audience engagement staffer. His email is jaredmit@sas.upenn.edu.
after publishing my first column that what I had to say mattered. As an 18-year-old who had just arrived in Philadelphia, it was a heady experience: the power of having a platform, receiving mostly support (but some backlash) from alumni and administration, and getting recognized on campus.
From feeling excluded at the Social Ivy’s racialized party scene to reckoning with the DP’s own exclusive history, my column became a home for me to grow up at Penn, to process everything as I was experiencing it. By tackling race and identity and critiquing campus culture and social politics, I challenged myself, my peers, and this institution to do better. It sometimes came at a cost: from bashing messages on Sidechat to threads dragging me on Reddit. I knew not everyone’s mind or heart would be nurtured, but I wrote anyway. By the time I became opinion editor, I was helping new columnists do the same: find their voice and experience how rewarding it could be. Looking back on my time at Penn, I’m starting to understand why many people
refer to college as the “best four years of their lives.” I used to believe that title was only reserved for those who peaked in college. But I can say with certainty that August 2021 to May 2025 marked the greatest period of my life thus far. Although each individual year was certainly not perfect, the sum of all four was truly special. As I embark on the next chapter of my life and craft a new kind of admissions essay (this time to the world), here is my revised declaration: I hope to nurture hearts and minds, just as dear old Penn did for me.
YOMI ABDI is a Wharton senior from Chicago studying finance and management. She served as opinion editor on the 140th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Previously, she was a deputy opinion editor and opinion columnist. Her email is yomiabdi@ wharton.upenn.edu.
JACKSON FORD | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
PHOTO COURTESY OF YOMILEIGH ABDI
I needed the DP. Penn needs the DP more SENIOR COLUMN | My silly little newspaper and its immense impact on the University we all love
I never was supposed to be president of The Daily Pennsylvanian.
When I first arrived at Penn, the faux competency and never-fading self confidence of my classmates appalled me. A little fish in a pond bigger than I could imagine, I told myself I would never make it at Penn, never find the group of friends or community promised to me, never leave an impact, and never find what I needed. Then, several turns of fate led me to the helm of the DP, Inc., Penn’s 140-year-old, student-run, independent, award-winning newspaper of record.
The DP taught me to believe in myself and to stand by what I believe in unconditionally. Over Zesto Pizza and Grill and Daily Grind smoothies (R.I.P. Saxbys), the DP became my home, my community, my lifeline. The DP gave me my thing at Penn.
As I awoke every morning to check Slack during my term as news editor in 2023, I realized how much I needed the DP to fill my time, give me a sense of purpose, and cultivate my vision of a fulfilled Penn student.
The DP filled the margins in my Penn experience and edited the narrative I had decided for myself.
My friends and family still do not know what I did cooped up in 4015 Walnut St. for over 40 hours a week. Most people reading this don’t. They will never understand my $1 million company (read: corner of the world) that I got to run (read: wipe down every table of) for a year. None of that matters though. I am one student, and if turns of fate led me to a different organization, I could be writing a rather similar column about that club’s impact on my life.
But the DP is different. It is not a club; it is a company, and the work of my 400 staffers mattered to thousands of readers. Day in and day out, I saw how the DP affected Penn. Shaped Penn. Tore Penn apart and put it back together. The DP’s effects on Penn are not turns of fate like my rise to the presidency; rather, this relationship is a necessity.
The DP provides an invaluable source of fair, honest, and dogged journalism about the Penn community,
holding our beloved institution accountable for all of its flaws and highlighting its miraculous successes.
Student journalists know the communities they report on better than anyone. In 2023 and 2024, when national media flocked to Penn, the DP held its ground — reporting the facts with an eye for detail and relaying the information that the student body needed. The DP documented the events taking place on campus while paying attention to what really mattered to the stakeholders — not what headline would garner the most retweets.
Faculty and staff have cited the DP as their go-to source of information, filling in gaps from administration and the ensuing rumor mill. When left in the dark about behind the scenes operations of the donors, staff, and officials that pull the strings of College Hall, the DP pursued detailed investigations and scooped decisions before the University was ready to tell you.
The government’s attacks on the freedom of the press represent a chilling possibility of a future without journalistic autonomy. At the DP, we have grappled with administrators denying reporters access to Universitywide events, withholding police warrants, and telling
Read someone else’s story
SENIOR COLUMN | Why engaging with your community matters
I think it’s fitting to begin my senior column by acknowledging two people who witnessed the joys, challenges, and sacrifices of being in The Daily Pennsylvanian, even without experiencing it themselves. To my roommates Cindy and Kaily, thank you for understanding that there were days when we could only see each other through our Ring camera. Thank you for putting up with intense phone calls in the living room, my alarms ringing at all hours, and the countless excuses when I was running late from the office.
After over three years of fully embracing the DP as a defining part of my college experience, my final semester here has been a journey of navigating Penn without it. To not be sprinting across campus when breaking news hits or sneaking out of class to call our lawyer, but to be grabbing dinner with old friends, SABSing on Locust Walk, and going to bed before 11 p.m. As my roommates can attest, these so-called “normal” Penn activities had once been few and far between.
Still, if the past few months of freedom have taught me anything, it’s that being a “normal” Penn student is overrated.
Because at Penn, “normal” often means staying in your circle. It means caring about your classes, your friends, your coffee chats — and tuning out the parts of this campus that feel irrelevant to these personal and professional goals. After stepping back from the DP this semester, I realized how easy it is to live here without ever really noticing more.
The DP made sure I never had that problem. As the former executive editor on the 140th Board and photo editor on the 139th Board, I received the opportunity to deeply engage with our Penn community every day. I photographed hundreds of news and sporting events, helped
cover campus unrest in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and met with countless readers and community members over the years. It was exhilarating to have a front-row seat to Penn’s unfiltered story — chaotic and overwhelming as it may have been.
Student journalism gave me that privilege — and with it, the responsibility to tell the truth, ask hard questions, and hold powerful institutions accountable, even when it meant looking critically at our own newsroom’s decisions. A free press isn’t just a campus accessory. It’s how a community stays honest with itself — how it pushes toward something better.
I may have dedicated my four years to telling someone else’s story, but I couldn’t have done so without a team that equally believed in this mission. To Kylie, Chase, Jonah, and Imran — thank you for being my earliest mentors at Penn, for sharing your time, experience, and wisdom when I didn’t know how to ask for it myself. To Molly, Jared, and Zain — thank you for bearing the weight of a newsroom with me and keeping me sane with Saxbys smoothies and Zesto Pizza and Grill calzones. And to the future leadership of the DP — thank you for carrying forth this powerful legacy and believing in something bigger than yourselves.
I also want to recognize the individuals outside our newsroom who helped me feel seen and heard when I thought no one else was paying attention: the roommates who kept me grounded, the professors who overlooked a late homework assignment, and the team at the Annenberg School’s Center for Media at Risk who gave me a platform to share my story. To every person who cared enough to read, question, or engage with our coverage — thank you. To our faithful newsletter subscribers, to the hate commenters on a controversial Under the Button post,
| Everything you should do before you graduate from
1. Hand out issues of 34th Street Magazine on Locust
(Rejection therapy is good for the soul.) 2. Befriend your classmates. The girl you share your writing seminar with and struggle through Intro to Calculus with could remain a great friend of yours. The spirit runs on the joy brought from class friends! 3. Always wear shower shoes in the communal Quad showers.
4. Join a club sport or play an intramural sports tournament.
5. Go for a run down Locust Walk and onto the Schuylkill Banks. If you’re lucky, you might snag an invite to the Kelly Writers House run club.
6. Take a creative writing class.
Make use of the Marks Family Writing Center! It’s the best free resource on campus.
Take handwritten notes in at least one of your classes.
Nap on the Moelis Family Grand Reading Room’s blue recliner chairs with the afternoon sunlight streaming in through the trees and big windows onto your face. 10. Mispronounce the Moelis Family Grand Reading Room as “Mo-ellis.” Humbly let your Wharton School roommate finally correct you, two years into mispronouncing it.
11. Go to Lyn’s food truck (outside the Lower Quad gates). Get a bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel. When the bagel is hot and ready and she beckons you to the window, asking you what seasonings you want, go all in — “salt and pepper, hot sauce, and ketchup please!” She’ll bundle up your treasure in a perfect wrap-job and send you on your way with a sweet smile. Eat your bagel outside, embrace the beautiful mess, and make liberal use of the napkins.
Speak personally about your life experiences in class
Williams Cafe
DP reporters to stop recording audio at events in public spaces. The Penn community deserves strong reporting, regardless of who attempts to shape these narratives, and I am confident the DP will continue to do that far beyond my graduation.
My favoritism for the News department aside, the DP also provides space for nuanced perspectives to debate contentious topics, visually captures the moments that matter, gives us a reason to cheer for the Red and Blue, serves a breakdown of the best takes on campus, and makes us laugh when we need it most.
The immeasurable impact of the DP on my life dwarves the numerous ways my silly little newspaper impacts the lives of the Penn community everyday. You can disagree with the journalism we produce, but you cannot argue that the DP, 34th Street Magazine, and Under the Button do not hold weight on this campus — even more weight than the DP held in my own Penn career.
The news editors of the 139th Board — Saya and Jared — showed me the power of teamwork, and the rest of my Big Three — Anna and Zain — illustrated the
strength of support. My mentors before me — Jonah, Imran, Jesse — and the leaders of today — my successor Abhiram — exemplify the pride of continuing and fostering an undying legacy. But, more important than my individual experience, the DP reliably sent timely news stories, engaging sport recaps, thought-provoking opinion columns, creative puzzles, and more straight to your inbox every day without fail.
To the professors who gave us extensions, touring students who gasped at the cover on Quaker Days, and avid subscribers to our newsletters, thank you for your readership. Our work would not be possible without supporters like you. Please consider donating today to uphold the DP’s mission.
To everyone who questioned the ethics of our journalism, got offended by a UTB post, wrote an angry Sidechat message, and ignored the paper distributors on Locust Walk, thank you also. I hope you continue to engage diligently with your news and critically consume media for years to come.
Despite fulfilling a great need, the DP did not make my life at Penn perfect. Perhaps it was too much to ask a student organization to remedy my imposter syndrome and hand me a golden ticket to a senior society. But alas, the DP does not make Penn perfect. As journalists with full course loads and no “real” experience, we will still make mistakes in our reporting. I ask that you continue to work with us as we strive to uphold our mission as a learning institution.
When I was in need, the DP was there for me. And as Penn is in need, the DP will be there for the Red and Blue — as it has been for the past 140 years.
MOLLY COHEN is a College senior from Elkins Park, Pa. studying communication and political science. She was the president of the 140th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Previously, she served as news editor on the 139th Board. Her email is mollyco@sas.upenn.edu.
and to the bystanders who checked in when police officers threatened our reporters — thank you. You remind me that our work has impact, that it is always for someone else. You show me that other people are as passionate and invested in this University, its good and bad. While the DP gave me a close-knit community at Penn — one I’ll always be grateful for — it also taught me that the most meaningful stories are rarely your own. As graduation nears and I prepare to leave campus, I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to be in the newsroom to keep noticing and caring about the people and moments that make this place what it is.
So to anyone who still has years of Penn ahead of them:
If you’ve never charged the Palestra floor after an upset over Villanova, witnessed a flash mob at the Perelman School of Medicine to celebrate Nobel Prize winners, or participated in something else outside your “normal,” I
urge you to seek out these moments. Move beyond your own version of Penn and meet a different corner of our University. Engage deeply in your community and in discourse about it. Penn has never been about just my experience. That’s exactly what made it worth loving.
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL is a College and Engineering senior from Saratoga, Calif. studying communication and computer science. She previously served as executive editor on the 140th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. She was also the photo editor and sports photo editor on the 139th and 138th boards, respectively. Her email is avazhae@sas.upenn.edu.
as you can.
16. Run up the “Rocky” steps in dramatic fashion, at least once.
17. Go past 40th Street! If you don’t, you’re missing out on some other worldly Ethiopian food, hot apple cider donuts in Clark Park, and some of the best iced coffee from Alif Brew & Mini Mart or Knockbox Cafe.
18. Attempt the 20-taco challenge at Loco Pez on dollartaco night. Fail at taco 12. Laugh all the way home with your friends.
19. Make the L (formally, the Market-Frankford Line) your bitch. Pennsylvania has been cutting lines (transit lines, that is) more than a fraternity boy at a boiler room party. It’s your civic duty as a part-time Philadelphian to remind the state of how important public transportation is. TL;DR: Hot girls ride SEPTA.
20. Go to your professors’ and teaching assistants’ office hours. Befriend your TAs — they are wise, trust their advice.
21. Be strong but stay soft. The times of college will weather you, most certainly. But remain hopeful and tender, taking care of your little community that surrounds you — it will be your lifeline when you need it most.
22. Find a way to travel through a Penn program, be it a Penn Global Seminar, the Global Research & Internship Program, a semester abroad, or travel for research. Your education doesn’t have to be contained within the square footage of Penn’s campus.
23. Make up a new dialect with your friends. Speak it often. Laugh until it sounds like you’re crying.
24. Speaking of crying, a good cry on Locust Walk never hurt anyone. It cleanses the soul.
25. Even when your Google Calendar is booked from wall to wall, don’t just try to pencil your friends in between meetings and classes. Live life alongside them, study with them, and eat dinner with them.
26. Write home. Send postcards. Your parents will cherish them, as will those long-distance friends.
27. Learn how to cartwheel. Do it frequently.
28. Write a thesis, even if your major doesn’t require it.
29. Be sincere, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Whimsy is the greatest antidote for life’s ailments.
30. Take an Academically Based Community Service course. West Philadelphia was here long before this University was. This education we’re so lucky to receive can benefit so many more than just Ivy League students if we just look beyond Locust Walk.
31. Walk far; walk everywhere. Philadelphia’s urban design makes it one of the most walkable cities in the United States. The best way to find a city’s hidden gems is to walk its streets. Plus, before you know it, you’ll
JACKSON FORD | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
JACKSON FORD | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Over the past few years, the University has faced signifcant leadership changes, including a series of high-level resignations in the face of increasing national scrutiny
GABRIEL HUANG Senior Reporter
Over the past four years, Penn has faced significant administrative turmoil, including a series of highlevel resignations in the face of increasing national scrutiny.
In the summer of 2021, former United States President and former Penn professor Joe Biden nominated then-Penn President Amy Gutmann and former University Board of Trustees Chair David Cohen as U.S. ambassadors during his administration. In January 2022, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations confirmed Gutmann’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to Germany, and she soon resigned her position as Penn’s president. Gutmann’s 18-year presidency was the longest of any Penn president and was marked by significant campus and endowment expansion.
Scott Bok, a 1981 College and Wharton graduate and 1984 University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School graduate, was selected to replace Cohen as
chair of the Board of Trustees in November 2020. Former Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett was selected to serve as Penn’s interim president until June 2022. Pritchett was Penn’s first Black president and helped lead Penn’s transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic during his five months in the position.
In March of 2022, Liz Magill was unanimously confirmed by the Board of Trustees, beginning her term as the ninth University president on July 1, 2022.
At the time, Magill was described by the Trustees as the “clear consensus candidate” to replace Gutmann. Magill expressed a desire to increase the University’s interdisciplinary academic pursuits while also preparing Penn for greater engagement with the local Philadelphia community and the world.
Just over a year into her presidency, Magill was met with mounting criticism as allegations of antisemitism escalated. In September 2023, the University hosted
the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, eliciting national criticism. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, several members of the Board of Trustees — already critical of the Penn’s response to the festival — called for Magill and Bok to resign. Dozens of major donors withdrew their financial support in protest of University administration. Marc Rowan — the chair of the Wharton School’s Board of Advisors — alleged that Bok pushed trustees critical of Magill to resign.
On Dec. 5, 2023 Magill testified before Congress in a hearing on campus antisemitism that prompted widespread criticism from students, alumni, and politicians. Four days later, Magill stepped down as president. Bok announced his resignation minutes after.
Magill’s 18-month term was the shortest of any permanent Penn president, and her resignation was the first of any non-government-appointed Penn president. Magill later expressed regret over her testimony, describing it as “a mistake.”
In December 2023, the Board of Trustees appointed current Penn President Larry Jameson to serve as the University’s interim president. Jameson was the fourth person to lead Penn in just two years. A month later, Ramanan Raghavendran was selected to replace Bok as chair of the Board of Trustees.
During Jameson’s 15-month tenure as the University’s interim leader, Penn faced significant student activism, federal policy changes, and national scrutiny.
In April 2024, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment
was erected on College Green by pro-Palestinian student organizers and members of the Philadelphia community. Jameson issued multiple statements about what he described as “blatant violations of University policies” and “credible reports of harassing and intimidating conduct” from the protesters.
After 16 days, Penn and Philadelphia police officers swept the encampment and arrested 33 individuals — including nine Penn students — at the discretion of senior University administrators.
In the wake of the encampment being disbanded, then-Faculty Senate Chair Tulia Falleti resigned from her position, and faculty members expressed concern about the legitimacy of shared governance systems at Penn.
Jameson defended the sweep as an “unfortunate but necessary step.”
In January, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump began his second presidential term. Soon after, the Trump administration announced a cap on indirect costs research funding from the National Institutes of Health, which could cost Penn $240 million.
In March, the White House froze $175 million in federal funding to Penn, citing the University’s decision to allow 2022 College graduate and transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to participate and compete on the women’s swim team during the 2021-22 season.
On March 13, the Board of Trustees voted to install Jameson as Penn president in a permanent capacity through July 2027. During the announcement, Raghavendran praised Jameson’s leadership through “challenges facing higher education.”
to make a “positive, lasting difference in the world.” All prize recipients collaborate with a Penn faculty mentor, and the projects receive up to $100,000 as well as a $50,000 living stipend for each team member.
“There is a lot of process behind this to select these amazing winners,” Jameson told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an April 17 interview. “I am in total awe as I meet … the incredibly talented people. All of these efforts are intended to spark creativity, teamwork, and collaboration.”
According to the President’s Engagement Prizes website, the prizes “are competitively awarded annually to academically excellent and civically engaged Penn seniors to design and undertake fully-funded local, national, or global engagement projects during the first year after they graduate from Penn.”
The 2025 President’s Engagement Prize was awarded to four Penn seniors. College seniors Ejun Hong and Jack Roney won the prize for founding PIXEL — the “Project for Inspiring eXpression, Education and Leadership” — which aims to connect different creative industries. College seniors Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio, Inaya Zaman, and Rashmi Acharya also won the President’s Engagement Prize for their project “Nourish to Flourish.”
Engineering seniors Melanie Herbert and Alexandra Popescu, along with Wharton and Engineering senior Nami Lindquist, were awarded the President’s Innovation Prize for their project “Sync Labs.” Wharton and Engineering senior Piotr Lazarek won the President’s Sustainability Prize, a subcategory of the President’s Innovation Prize, for “Nirby,” a project intended to counteract inefficiencies in how fertilizer is managed.
and work “to lead on the great challenges of our time, foster leadership and service, and deepen connections with our neighbors and the world.”
The teams, chosen from a pool of 68 applicants, will collaborate with a Penn faculty or staff mentor on their work. PIXEL will be mentored by Jarrett Stein, who serves as the director of health partnerships and social ventures for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. “Nourish to Flourish,” “Sync Labs,” and “Nirby” will receive mentorship from Penn professors Heather Klusaritz and Jeffrey Babin.
“Congratulations to this inspiring group of students,” Jackson added. “[Their] innovative ideas will shape our future.”
PHOTO FROM PENN TODAY
Jameson announced the President’s Engagement, Innovation, and Sustainability Prize winners on April 17.
How Penn has responded to
pro-
Palestinian protests one year after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment
The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled Penn’s responses to pro-Palestinian student protests in the 12 months since the demonstration
SAMANTHA HSIUNG
Senior Reporter
In spring 2024, amid mounting student protests nationwide, pro-Palestinian students and community members launched an encampment on Penn’s College Green.
Over the course of 16 days, protesters issued three demands: for Penn to disclose its financial holdings “in the spirit of transparency and shared governance,” divest from corporations linked to Israel’s military actions in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories, and defend Palestinian students and their allies by “granting amnesty” for pro-Palestinian protesters.
On the morning of May 10, 2024, officers from Penn Police and the Philadelphia Police Department forcefully disbanded the encampment at the word of senior University leadership. Officers in riot gear arrested 33 protesters, including nine Penn students. The protesters were taken to the police station, processed, and released after being issued code violation notices.
One year after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled Penn’s responses to pro-Palestinian student protests.
Temporary expression guidelines
In June 2024, a month after the encampment was disbanded, Penn launched new temporary guidelines for campus demonstrations and initiated a review of the Guidelines on Open Expression.
The announcement of the new policy, which was signed by Interim Penn President Larry Jameson, Provost John Jackson, Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli and deans from all 12 Penn undergraduate and graduate schools, contained updated guidance on “when, where, and how open expression can take place” and announced the formation of a task force to review the existing open expression policies.
The task force is chaired by professor of medicine and Chair of the Committee on Open Expression Lisa Bellini and professor of education and Faculty Director of the SNF Paideia Program Sigal Ben-Porath. According to the University Council Committee on Open Expression’s recently published year-end report, the task force approved a revised draft of the guidelines in late February 2025.
A DP analysis of the temporary guidelines found that the policies increased the powers of Penn’s vice provost for University Life, redefined events on campus as inherently private to the University community, and prohibited many of the tactics used by demonstrators on campus in recent years.
Suspension of Penn students
In July 2024, Penn suspended four students who participated in on-campus pro-Palestinian activism, according to an Instagram post from the Freedom School for Palestine. The post stated that the students received semesterlong or yearlong suspensions in letters notifying them of their updated disciplinary status on June 27, 2024.
The suspensions came after Penn had placed six student organizers affiliated with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on mandatory leaves of absence in May 2024.
Barricades on College Green
In September 2024, Penn installed barricades around the perimeter of College Green and along Woodland Walk. The University attributed the decision to precautions related to the presidential debate that occurred the day prior to the installation.
Portions of College Green had also been fenced off during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Sixfoot fences surrounded much of the area, alongside heightened security presence, into the summer of 2024.
Shift to institutional neutrality
On Sept. 10, 2024, Jameson announced in an email to the community that the University would limit statements on local and world events that do not have a direct impact on Penn, in a shift toward institutional neutrality. Jameson cited aims to protect the “diversity of thought” central to the University’s mission as the primary motive of the decision.
“It is not the role of the institution to render opinions — doing so risks suppressing the creativity and academic freedom of our faculty and students,” Jameson wrote.
‘Raid’ of pro-Palestinian student activists’ home
On Oct. 18, 2024, Penn Police officers executed a search warrant at an off-campus residence belonging to pro-Palestinian student activists and seized a Penn student’s cell phone. The search was part of an investigation into Sept. 12, 2024 vandalism of the Benjamin Franklin statue on College Green, which pro-Palestinian organizers had previously claimed responsibility for on social media.
Penn Police utilized surveillance methods, including CCTV footage, Wi-Fi router data, and phone records, to identify suspects, according to three search warrants obtained by the DP. The warrants — the first of which was served on Sept. 24 and the other two on
In the months after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Penn implemented new temporary guidelines for campus demonstrations and installed barricades around the perimeter of College Green.
Oct. 18 — listed violations of criminal mischief and conspiracy.
Undergraduate Assembly resolution on disclosure
At a Jan. 26 general board meeting, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution calling for the University to formally disclose its investments and initiate a review of its securities in external funds. The resolution was passed by a 15-6 vote after months of increased discourse surrounding the transparency of Penn’s finances.
A UA member at the board meeting shared concerns that the passage of the resolution would be “a political statement” related to the ongoing IsraelHamas war.
The resolution came after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment called on Penn to divest from “corporations that profit from Israel’s war on Gaza and occupation in Palestine,” disclose its financial holdings under the Associated Investments Fund — the pooled investment vehicle for the majority of Penn’s endowment — and defend Palestinian students.
Months earlier, Penn’s Muslim Students
Association put forward a successful campus-wide divestment referendum and submitted a formal proposal to the University Council Steering Committee. The committee declined to advance the proposal, reiterating Penn’s opposition to boycotts, divestment, or sanctions against Israel.
Protest at Jameson’s house Penn students, alumni, and Philadelphia community members gathered at Jameson’s private residence on March 21 in opposition to the University’s “complicity in Palestinian genocide, violations of free speech, and refusal to protect Penn’s non-citizen community from invasive I.C.E. raids.”
A University spokesperson denounced the characterization of the event as a “protest,” and called the demonstration “an unlawful intrusion and a deliberate act of intimidation.”
“The right to protest does not include the right to threaten and harass,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to the DP. “This is not protected speech. These actions are not acceptable, and certainly not from members of our university community.”
DEVANSH RANIWALA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
THROUGH THE YEARS
2022-2023
During the 2022-23 academic year, Penn experienced several changes related to student activism, admissions, and residential and dining services.
STUDENT ACTIVISM
Penn’s campus saw heightened student advocacy in response to changes to University administration and the broader Philadelphia area. In August 2022, over 100 protesters interrupted former Penn President Liz Magill’s Convocation speech to criticize the eviction of University City Townhomes residents and demand University action.
In January 2022, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations confirmed Gutmann’s nomination, and Liz Magill
as
successor
day later.
was unanimously confirmed by the University Board of Trustees, beginning her term as University president on July 1, 2022.
As the fall semester continued, members of Fossil Free Penn held a five-week encampment on College Green. FFP members called for a University-wide divestment from fossil fuels, the preservation of the UC Townhomes, and payments to Philadelphia public schools instead of taxes. During Penn’s Homecoming football game, FFP protesters rushed onto Franklin Field to insist that University officials meet the group’s demands, pausing play for over an hour and leading to 19 arrests. In November 2022, students marched across campus in opposition to the proposed construction of a Philadelphia 76ers arena near the city’s Chinatown. The coalition of Philadelphia college students — Students for the Preservation of Chinatown — continued to organize through March 2023, when they demanded Penn cut ties with arena developers outside of a University Board of Trustees meeting. The increase in student activism sparked debate about the University’s open expression and free speech guidelines. In April 2023, FFP members objected to the Committee on Open Expression’s new proposed interpretation of the guidelines. In interviews with The Daily Penn
sylvanian, Penn administrators discussed the updated guidelines, and students expressed frus
tration with the University’s lack of clarity.
ADMISSIONS
2023-2024
The 2023-24 academic year placed Penn under an intensified national spotlight as campus controversies, rising student activism, and federal investigations into the University drew widespread publicity.
NATIONWIDE CONTROVERSY
In September 2023, the Palestine Writes Literature Festival drew criticism from students, alumni, and national Jewish groups who objected to the inclusion of speakers they alleged had made antisemitic remarks.
In response, then-Penn President Liz Magill published a statement acknowledging concerns about several speakers who had a “documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people” on Sept. 12, 2023, adding that she “unequivocally” and “emphatically” condemned antisemitism.
Following the statement, some faculty members urged Magill to more explicitly affirm the University’s commitment to supporting diverse perspectives on campus. Arab and Palestinian student groups defended the festival as “a long-awaited affirmation of their belonging and worth.”
On the day of the festival, Penn Hillel hosted a Shabbat Together event aimed at fostering Jewish unity in
the wake of antisemitic incidents on campus, including vandalism at Hillel and the discovery of a spray-painted swastika at Meyerson Hall in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Tensions over antisemitism on campus escalated following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Several members of the University Board of Trustees — already critical of Penn’s response to the festival — called for Magill and then-Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok to resign. In protest of University leadership, dozens of major donors — including Wharton School Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan, 1987 College graduate Jon Huntsman Jr., and 1965 Wharton graduate Ronald Lauder — withdrew their financial support. On Nov. 1, 2023,
pro-Palestinian views. That same day, more than 20 members of Congress sent a letter to Magill criticizing Penn’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel.
On Nov. 16, 2023, the Department of Education launched an investigation into the University over allegations of campus antisemitism.
STUDENT ADVOCACY
On Dec. 5, 2023, Magill testified before Congress alongside the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a hearing on campus antisemitism. Her remarks — including a statement that whether calls for the criticism.
Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, Penn students mobilized on a range of issues, often directing criticism at University leadership.
On Nov. 14, 2023, members of the Freedom School for Palestine began a multi-day teach-in at Houston Hall, protesting Penn’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. The group — consisting of Penn students, faculty, staff, and alumni — then organized additional demonstrations, including “study-ins” at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library that prompted disciplinary consequences for the involved students.
In February 2024, an investigation by The Daily Pennsylvanian revealed that the Wharton Graduate Association allegedly withheld at least $90,000 in promised charitable donations collected from its annual Penn Fight Night philanthropic event. In response, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly reduced funding for the event and attached new conditions to its financial support for the April 2024 Fight Night.
The demolition of University City Townhomes began in March 2024 following delays and community
In interviews with the DP in April 2024, eight individuals connected to Penn’s rowing program described a pattern of racist remarks made by members of the men’s lightweight rowing team and alleged that the University failed to adequately address the behavior.
On April 25, 2024, pro-Palestinian activists set up the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on College Green, mirroring similar protests at universities across the country. The demonstrators — made up of Penn students as well as Philadelphia community members — demanded that the University disclose its investments and divest from companies linked to Israel, among other calls for action.
After two weeks of protests, rallies, and negotiations with administrators, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment expanded to occupy both sides of College Green, despite increased pressure from the University to disperse. In connection with the demonstrations, six student organizers were placed on mandatory leaves of absence and referred to Penn’s Center for Community Standards and Accountability.
RESPONSE TO FEDERAL SCRUTINY
and U.S.
HOUSING AND DINING
Amid renovations to the Quad, Penn entered a three-year lease with the Radian to convert the apartment building into another upperclassmen housing option as first-year students moved into four-year houses. Over 700 rising juniors and seniors were placed on the waitlist for on-campus housing for the 2023-24 academic year, leading to student concern about their housing options. In response to student feedback from the Fall Dining Survey, Penn Dining expanded its food offerings to include breakfast smoothies, all-day breakfast sandwiches at Gourmet Grocer, more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more frequent made-to-order pasta at each dining hall. Penn Dining locations received 100 observations of health code violations during a winter inspection by the Philadelphia Office of Food Protection. Hill House and 1920 Commons failed to attain satisfactory compliance with the health code. In response, Penn Dining launched an action plan to target the named issues, and Hill passed its reinspection by April 2023. In an April 2023 policy reinforcement by Penn Dining, students were asked to show their PennCards to confirm their identity before swiping into dining halls. The policy prevented students from sharing swipes with peers, eliciting backlash from students who felt the policy was restrictive.
Analyses by the DP on Penn’s local food truck and Bring-Your-Own restaurant scenes broke down student options outside of campus dining halls.
On May 10, 2024, Penn Police in riot gear — assisted by Philadelphia Police Department officers — dismantled the encampment on College Green and arrested 33 people, including nine Penn students.
POLITICS
Penn also had direct ties to candidates in both local and national elections.
In November 2023, Philadelphia elected its 100th mayor, 2016 Fels Institute of Government graduate Cherelle Parker. University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School lecturer Neil Makhija also made history as the first-ever
TITLE IX INVESTIGATION
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BENJAMIN MCAVOY-BICKFORD | DP FILE PHOTO
was announced
Gutmann’s
one
Then-Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett was selected as Penn’s interim president until Magill
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ANNA VAZHAEPARAMBIL | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
CHENYAO LIU | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
For the love of the game
SENIOR COLUMN | The moments that made writing worth it
I’ve written over 100 articles for The Daily Pennsylvanian. That means I have a lot of stories to share, so let me waste my word count on a funny anecdote.
It was a Friday night in October 2023 and “Halloweekend” was in full swing. While other members of the DP’s Only Section That Matters — DPOSTM — took off, I got saddled with covering the Penn vs. Brown football game, because I was playing with the Penn Band anyway. Many noteworthy moments took place.
One: Anna Vazhaeparambil, a former DP executive editor and photo editor, got an absolutely insane photo of then-sophomore, now-junior wide receiver Jared Richardson.
Two: Anna and I ranted to each other about how we were stuck covering the game as juniors.
Three: I won a costume contest just by wearing a construction vest and hat.
WOMEN’S
, from back page
had an 8-4 overall record and a 5-2 Ivy League record at No. 1 in doubles. In singles, she went 14-9 in the spring and was named Academic All-Ivy and an ITA Scholar-Athlete. Wang and sophomore Esha Velaga also qualified for NCAA doubles – the first pair of Quakers to do so since 2013.
Finally, this season, she finished with a 9-7 overall record, where she usually played No. 2 singles. She also had a 7-4 overall record at No. 1 doubles with Rutlauka. Their performance earned them an honorable mention for doubles in the Ivy League this season. Over the course of her college career, Wang’s skill at doubles has aided her team many times. Her connection with Rutlauka as well as her ability to partner with anyone and raise the level of their play has contributed to many Quakers wins. Her perseverance on the court was perfectly highlighted by her final match this season against Yale, where she clinched the victory for her team in straight sets, scoring 7-5 and 6-4. This win secured the team second place in the Ivy League.
Swimming — Izzy Pytel
Captain and senior breaststroke specialist Izzy Pytel has proved time and again that consistency Team captain and senior breaststroke specialist Izzy Pytel has proved time and again that consistency is
Four: Penn almost came back to win, but the gamewinning touchdown got intercepted. So, yeah, it was a deflating loss to say the least. And I forgot to bring a change of clothes, so I sat in the press conference room wearing my red-and-blue-striped band uniform. I stuck out like a sore thumb in an already depressed and relatively empty press conference room.
I stuck out even worse when the Penn Band walked by playing music with the Brown Band, and their music permeated through the windows.
“Sorry about them,” I said after a trumpet interrupted coach Ray Priore.
“It’s alright, Kristel,” Josh Liddick, the associate director of athletics communications for Penn football, said. It was not alright.
Regardless, neither Liddick nor Priore could knock me for my dedication to this article. It wouldn’t be the last
key. Throughout all four years of her career with Penn women’s swimming and diving, she has consistently qualified for the Ivy League championships. Her name has been etched into the record books, breaking the program times of the 100-yard breaststroke twice in 2023 and 2024 as well as the 200 breaststroke in 2023. She was named a College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America second team Scholar All-American and gained a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District selection.
More importantly, however, Pytel has comfortably stepped into the role of co-captain in her senior year, helping guide the women’s team through a season without the home base that is Sheerr Pool at the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center. Other swimmers on the team, such as junior freestyle and individual medley specialist Anna Moehn and freshman freestyle and butterfly specialist Kayla Fu, have cited Pytel as a source of strength and leadership as the women adapt to changing environments. Coach Mike Schnur has cited her influence on the newer swimmers, especially the freshmen, and her positivity as being what the team needed to carry home a much-improved fifth-place finish for the women’s team at the 2025 Ivy League championships.
A biologist in training, Pytel has both the skills and the character of a Quakers athlete. The words of her teammates and coaches are a testament to her dedication to the program’s success and lay the foundation for whatever road she takes in the future.
about the potential of the team’s scorers outside of then-junior guard Jordan Dingle, the team’s leading scorer during the 2022-23 season.
“You know, Kristel, that’s a good question,” Donahue said.
Dingle left after that year, Donahue was fired, and I’m going into nursing instead of journalism, so maybe none of that moment matters in the grand scheme of things. Maybe none of these stories or articles will even matter. But to me right now, a senior on her last day of classes, they matter.
Being in the undergraduate program at Penn is an interesting time to say the least. It felt like I always had to move or always be busy, or else I was behind somehow. The sentiment applied to clubs too. Most times, it felt like if you weren’t on the executive board of a club by your sophomore year, it was time to leave and invest your time into a club that you were on executive board for. But I never succumbed to that mindset when it came to the DP. I
time I had to play and write. Nor was it even the oddest of circumstances in which I’ve ever written an article. That honor goes to the curb of Lucas Oil Stadium, when the current Sports Editor Valeri Guevarra and I wrote about senior breaststroke specialist Matt Fallon qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. For that article, I flew into Indianapolis on my 21st birthday on Spirit Airlines. For another article, I stayed overnight in the shadiest hotel in Bethlehem, N.H.
See? You write enough articles, and you get some weird stories.
My first road trip was not as dramatic. Penn men’s basketball lost at Yale on the road, but we still had to do a postgame interview. So that meant Alexis — the sports editor at the time — and I had a little chat with former Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue in a hallway. I asked all my prewritten questions, and then, I asked him
GRACE CHEN | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
JUSTIN ABENOJA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Wang poses with a tennis racket and balls on March 27.
SYDNEY CURRAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Davies performs her floor routine on March 22.
Putting the ‘student’ back in ‘student journalist’
SENIOR
COLUMN | Even after my tenure as an editor ended, The Daily Pennsylvanian still had important lessons for me
I still remember it vividly. The call came after midnight on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. It lasted just over a minute, but it still managed to change my life. In so many words, I learned that I was not going to be podcast editor on The Daily Pennsylvanian’s 140th Board. Once my term as sports editor concluded the following month, my time in the DP’s leadership would be done.
Once the emotions had calmed down, I realized that I found myself at a crossroads. The time between that late Sunday night and the end of the semester were filled with deep personal reflection. Should I stay at the DP, an organization that had come to dominate my first five semesters? Or should I bid it farewell and attempt to chart a new course during the time I had left?
Ultimately, I opted for the former. And not only did I hang around, coming to meetings and writing here and there, but I also doubled down, joining new departments. I didn’t do it just because I felt that I had something to contribute to the DP. My decision to embrace my title of former sports editor came from a feeling that there was more the DP could give to me. My experience had been as much about learning as it had been about writing, designing, or editing. Class was not dismissed; I still had more room to grow.
In many ways, my journey to the DP — and my path to leadership within it — was quite conventional. I had been on the staff of my high school’s newspaper, rising to editor-in-chief after a stint as news editor. Several of my early mentors at Penn were involved in the DP, and I joined their departments. After one semester, I applied to be on the internal board of the DP and found myself as a deputy design editor. The summer after my first year, I wrote my first sports article. Just a few months later, I was elected sports editor.
These first three semesters were a whirlwind of learning and education. I was constantly in new circumstances and picking up new skills. I was surrounded by mentors whom I respected and who genuinely cared about my growth.
But as sports editor, I felt myself stagnating. I had more responsibility, more trust, and instead of having every piece of my work critiqued, I now found myself doing the critiquing. For a while, this felt nice.
But what went completely over my head is that my style — as a leader, an editor, and a colleague — wasn’t for everyone. A string of poor decisions nearly cost me everything. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I now know that I didn’t do the best job as sports editor. The responsibility of the job and my quick accession to it fed my ego and gave me what I thought was confidence but now realize was cockiness. A quicker lesson to learn was that despite having achieved a position of power, I was nowhere near done learning.
People say that “failure is the best teacher,” and I couldn’t agree more. I missed being critiqued, having my work scrutinized, and being called out when I needed it. I also felt listless and trapped in my comfort zone, like I had stopped taking risks. This hunger for lessons motivated me to begin writing for 34th Street Magazine, which I have kept up throughout the second half of my Penn career, first as a staff writer and then in the Features section. The same need to expand my comfort zone influenced decisions I
MEN’S, from back page
Pacific Blue of the Seattle Sounders Football Club. The senior signed a contract with the Seattle Sounders FC on Dec. 9, 2024, after previously playing for United Soccer League League Two team Ballard FC from 2022 to 2024, during which he co-captained the squad during its 2024 Northwest Division titlewinning campaign.
Lacrosse — Brendan Lavelle
All-Ivy, All-American, and now off to the big leagues: Senior defender Brendan Lavelle has accomplished everything for Penn men’s lacrosse. In a star-studded career for the Red and Blue, Lavelle burst onto the scene, earning a second team All-Ivy nod and being a consensus All-American honorable mention in a 2022 season that ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Continuing his dominant trajectory, his 2023 season would see another All-American honorable mention as well as an upgrade to unanimous first team All-Ivy while starting in every game for the Quakers. In what would turn out to be the best season of his career, his 2024 campaign would end in a consensus first team All-American honor from three different publications.
Now, finishing off his Penn career with a lackluster team record in his final season, Lavelle has been rewarded for his years of service by being drafted fifth overall in the Premier Lacrosse League to the Utah Archers — a testament to his national acclaim.
Baseball — Will Tobin
Will Tobin, a senior left-handed pitcher from Spring Hill, Tenn., has been a steady presence for the Quakers.
In his four years playing for Penn baseball, Tobin has stood out for the Red and Blue with his confident and calm demeanor. Evolving his role over time from primary reliever to a starter in 2025, Tobin’s Swiss Army Knife-like asset has given the
made outside of the DP, like deciding to write an honors thesis, a yearlong research project with many sources in a language I barely knew a word of before coming to Penn.
In January 2024, as I returned from winter break as a former sports editor, I began to see things in a new light.
I continued my work, but my focus was on learning and improving, rather than the getting-by that characterized my attitude as an editor.
By having my articles edited, I became a better writer. By working on pieces about specific topics — from lacrosse recaps to Street features on bees, ChatGPT, and climate science — I learn about them. And seeing new leaders gave me a new perspective on leadership.
My time in the Copy department this semester sums up my new attitude. I was the most experienced person on my shift. I helped answer questions the other associates had, providing guidance on where to find box scores or whether an acronym should be spelled out on first reference. But I also received guidance from others on a litany of matters.
Despite being an associate and having a deputy editor to answer to, it seemed like we were all there for the same purpose: to edit articles and have fun along the way. The hierarchy seems to melt away in the face of mutual education. By now, most people I interact with at the DP are younger than me, but it doesn’t matter — regardless of age, we all have something to teach.
Now, in May 2025, as my time at Penn comes to a close, I know that I have learned a lot from my nearly four years in the DP. But only a tiny fraction of it came from selfreflection; most would not have been possible without a fantastic set of teachers.
Thank you to Matt, Esther, Eashwar, Alexis, Walker, Vivian, Sean, Valeri, Brandon, Lachlahn, and everyone else in the Sports department for pushing me. I will remember DPOSTM forever; from the first Sunday Shift PIG game to the last Tuesday GBM, my times in the department will remain core memories.
Thank you to Brittany, Sophie, Allyson, Julia, Charlotte, Laura, Asha, Garv, and countless others in Kopy for helping me learn about AP Style, showing me Studio Ghibli movies, and keeping me young.
Thank you to Norah, Catie, Naima, Hannah, Jules, Bobby, Chloe, and the rest of Street for enduring my pitches and letting me write everything from a 1,400word diatribe on the Western genre to a visual story about greening Philadelphia lots.
Thank you to Abhiram, Derek, Weining, Jean, Lydia, Jackson, Chenyao, Sydney, and the rest of the Multimedia department for taking me in and teaching me how to embrace multimedia storytelling. I hope to one day be a fraction as talented as all of y’all.
Thank you to Isabel, Alana, Tyler, Collin, Lilian, Sophia, Insia, and everyone else in the Design department
Senior defender Leo Burney poses with a soccer ball on Sep.
Quakers flexibility in big-time games.
In 2022, Tobin started off his campaign with six appearances. This steadily increased to 17 in 2023, when he started to gain his footing in the program. Fast forward to 2024, and Tobin would play a key role in the helping the Quakers win back-to-back Ivy League championships as a relief pitcher. In 2024, he would make 22 appearances and have the lowest earned run average of his career, at 4.81.
This season, Tobin has made strong appearances as a starter on the mound. With 11 appearances and all of them coming as a starter, Tobin has gained the trust and respect of his teammates heading down the home stretch of the season. Despite Penn having an up-and-down pitching season, Tobin has remained integral in the Quakers’ hopes of a threepeat Ivy League championship win.
Basketball — Nick Spinoso
When you look back at the final years of former Penn men’s basketball head coach Steve Donahue’s tenure with the team, certain names will spring to mind — former Penn guard Jordan Dingle, 2024
College graduate and former guard Clark Slajchert, and now senior center/forward Nick Spinoso.
This past season, Spinoso averaged 13.3 points per game — the highest of his career. With star sophomore guard Sam Brown struggling at the start of the season, Spinoso was the number-two scoring option behind junior forward Ethan Roberts until the start of Ivy League conference play.
After Brown upped his production in the latter half of the season, Penn’s offense continued to run through its big man. Spinoso, known for his playmaking, led the Quakers in total assists with 84.
In Penn’s penultimate game, Spinoso surpassed the 1,000-point mark in a road win against Columbia, becoming just the 35th player in program history to reach the landmark. The New York native had the opportunity to celebrate the millennium mark with family and friends who drove into the city.
Spinoso was never “the guy” for Donahue’s squad, but he was always the team’s spark. His pure passion for basketball and his determination to win was evident to every attendee who clambered into the Palestra over the past four years.
for allowing me to embrace my creative side and dealing with all of my harebrained ideas for back pages, photo essays, and beyond.
And last but not least, thank you to the various senior leaders of the DP over the years — Alessandra, Anna, Diamy, Emily White, Emily Scolnick, Jared, Jesse, Jonah, Josh, Imran, Walden, and beyond — for believing in me and providing me with models of leadership I will attempt to emulate, no matter what situation I find myself in.
Thank you to my family, friends, and professors for your constant support and giving me tough love when I needed it. I hope you understood why I could never do anything on Wednesday nights for two-and-a-half years, or why I showed up to Thursday classes a little more tired than usual.
Most of all, thank you to the 137 years of DPeople from before I showed up. You created a wonderful institution, of which I am a mere steward. I am grateful for what you have done to give me space to write, to design, to edit, and most of all — to learn.
CALEB CRAIN is a College senior studying history. He previously served as the sports editor on the 139th Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. His email is ccrain@sas.upenn.edu.
JACKSON FORD | SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
WEINING DING | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
22, 2024.
WEINING DING | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Tobin poses with a baseball at Smokey Joe’s on Feb. 25.
SONALI