Penn’s Class of 2025: a journey of embracing failure, discoveringcommunity, and uncovering whattrulymatters—onestoryatatime. withlove,theSignalSociety Fall 2024: Dear Penn Freshman Edition
To our lovely readers,
We want to especially thank each and every one of our interviewees, each and every one of our beloved seniors, and each and every one of you—the dear humans of Penn. Throughout our interviews, we have laughed, cried, and (most importantly) learned. To our dear Penn freshmen, we have all experienced facing the types of questions that these seniors discuss. How do I find community? How do I choose what’s important to me? How do I create a future that makes a difference? The answers are found both inside and outside of this campus. You will find them in the most unexpectedly beautiful and most beautifully unexpected of encounters. There is a line by poet Gregory Orr: “If we’re not supposed to dance, why all this music?” With that, we leave you
EnneKim, AlisonYau,Erina Chowdhury, BillChen(sometimes Sukuna),Nadia D’Arrigo withallourlove,
(SIDECHAT EDITION)
Penn is fun and all but I miss my mom
I hate Philly but I love Philly, yk?
10,000 undergrads and i run into the same 5 people every day college is literally venmoing ur friends the same $20 back and forth
8:30am class in DRL is something I wouldn’t wish even on my worst enemies
I got a B in a class that should have been an easy A :^( I firmly believe writing sem exists so that after freshman year you can go like “oh that guy was in my writing sem” and that’s it
I genuinely don’t understand all the social hierarchies at this school. Like ur literally just a nerd
u can’t meet ur wife or husband in class if u don’t go to class
“avoid the area” bruh i have a final in that area
petition for houston hall to stop making me go on a quest to find an entrance that isn’t locked
when you thought you ate the exam but the exam ate you
1000 upvotes and i’ll ask my 1410 TA out
anyone else getharassedpersonally by the steam coming from SEPTA every day
Given the abundance of activities at Penn, how do you choose what’s important to you?
I grew up in Vermont, and it was very difficult being a minority student. I was often one of the only students of color in a lot of my classes, and one of the only South Asian Muslims in my school. Coming to Penn, I knew that one thing I really wanted to do was get more in touch with my cultural and ethnic identity.
I helped found the Penn Bangla Society freshman year, and since then I’ve been super involved with the Asian American cultural community and ethnic studies through the Asian American Studies [ASAM] program. I’m an ASAM Fellow this year, and it has been the light of my life. I think it’s so, so, important that ethnic studies exists here.
Number two, the arts have been a way of reconnecting with parts of myself that I really value and making sure that I’m keeping those parts alive. The Excelano Project [a poetry collective] has been probably the warmest group of people that I’ve met on this campus. It was like the one of the first places I really felt at home. Over the past three years, I’ve really come to understand the importance of self-expression in a community—learning how to be creative with other people has been so integral to me being happy during my time in university.
Any favorite classes or professors at penn?
This semester I’m taking “Testimony: Life Writing As Dialogue,” taught by Sarah Ropp, who’s one of my favorite instructors at Penn. The aim of the course is to collectively build a theory of testimony as a dialogic practice: what does it mean to testify about something? What does it mean to give testimony? The working definition that we’ve come up with is that testimony is just sharing a part of yourself simply for the purpose of expression. Sarah’s really lovely. She’s got, like, the best vibes. I think we’re close outside of class, and she has the coolest office and always has these lovely ginger cookies :-)
How have you sought community while at penn?
While being at Penn, I’ve actually learned how to seek community that exists outside of the institution. For the time that I’ve been here, I’ve really seen the way that Penn has often had a difficult and harmful relationship with the broader Philadelphia community. As students of a university that is so often complicit in these things, it is incredibly important for us to get involved.
I’ve learned that while I’m a student here, it’s my responsibility to engage with those communities, stand in solidarity with them, and organize with them. Whether it’s standing with the communities in Philadelphia that are advocating for their own rights and to exist in the way that they have been for so long, such as the fight for the UC Townhomes and the ongoing fight against the arena in Chinatown, or broader transnational solidarity with the movement for Palestinian liberation. For me, I’ve found some of the most loving, fulfilling, and sustaining relationships in these communities where folks join together in those fights for justice, equity, and liberation. I’m really happy and lucky to be part of those spaces.
What would you say is your favorite class and/or one that’s really and challenged you?
MODPO [Modern Contemporary and American Poetry], which takes place in Kelly Writers House [KWH], is very discussion based, very collaborative, and is the deep dive into poetry that I previously hadn’t found. It was also the first time I had a more personal connection to a class, and I just learned so much about like what it means to be in this type of college experience, a pedagogy I really wanted to take away from college. And my professor—Al Filreis—did two more classes, which were very similar and also amazing, like this class called “Representations of the Holocaust.” These classes helped me grow in theory, and how to really learn and grow as a person, and life in general. There are difficulties with a lot of reading, a lot of writing involved, and you really have to read and engage in these discussions. You really have to commit yourself. And I think that’s the point of coming to a university like Penn. I think if I’d taken a class with Al, or even MODPO, I would’ve really committed myself to being an English major earlier—but yeah, that’s the class that made me decide to major in English.
Is Kelly Writers House a home for you?
Absolutely. It’s so easy to walk down Locust, or be in a class of like 90 people, and not know anyone—like that’s a situation that a lot of people find themselves in. But coming here, it’s so easy to get to know a lot of people here. You share this space and, naturally, a lot of times people come here and just share what’s on their minds. KWH is very caring about others in a way that I really appreciated, very intentional, always providing pillars of support.
on dylan fritz
What do you think changed the most before you went abroad and then after you went abroad?
My love for Paris definitely changed and developed. I am much more into travel now. In college, it’s so easy—you have the opportunity. And once you’re in another continent like Europe, travel within that space also becomes much more accessible, much less expensive. It’s just so much closer. And so I feel much more eager to travel now, because I really had not done much traveling at all before junior year. I feel much more confident about how I’m going out into the world—like I feel like everything is a little more attainable. Abroad, you’re kind of being ripped away from your support system and figuring yourself out, by yourself, in a much different way than you normally would. I feel like I learned a lot about how much I can do by myself and have that much free time to myself. I tended to spend time by myself, wandering around the streets of Paris, going to a random bakery—I felt like it was a semester for myself, which I hadn’t had in my life before. Looking back, it was one of my most difficult semesters, but also, the most fun and rewarding.
How many different iterations of your major have you gone through?
I was deciding between Political Science and Creative Writing, and then I got here and I discovered, like, Urban Studies and Criminology. Those were the main ones, and at the end of the day, it came down to Urban Studies, Criminology, or English. And then after, a broad attempt on a French minor as well. And there’s so many weird geneds that you can fulfill in the weirdest ways. I took an ancient Mediterranean history class to fulfill a gen-ed, and it was about empires, and now I think I’m going to write a paper for a different class about something I learned in that class. Speaking from the perspective of a humanities major, almost every semester, it’s crazy to see the connections being made between these different classes. I’m always like, wow, this is so cool—how these classes are informing each other in these really niche ways.
How has your idea on friendship changed throughout your time at Penn?
H: Freshman year I was just so eager to become friends with anyone and everyone, and I tried to sort of force friendships or friend groups to exist that weren’t necessarily the most cohesive or aligned with who I am and my interests and my values and everything. And as time has gone on, I’ve noticed who is investing in me as a person in our friendship, and those are the people who I choose to invest in.
What is one piece of relationship advice you’d like to give?
A: Communication is key, for any relationship beyond romantic relationships. Fundamentally, getting to know someone is the root of all. I was talking to my friends about this the other day, but it’s the most tiring thing to do in life to explain yourself to someone. Explaining why you do something requires rationale that is deeply rooted in your childhood. Your high school, the reason you are the person you are today, is because of all these experiences. Everything is additive in that manner. The best way to make a relationship fulfilling but also long lasting is by putting in the work and effort to actually get to know someone.
What do you guys do for fun and how do you find time to do it?
A: I enrolled in a painting class, so my way of having fun is literally by taking a class to make sure I put the time in to do it. And I’m taking it for a grade, because I know if I did pass-fail then I would also put it on the back burner. But it’s been probably the best decision I’ve made for myself this year and next year. If I take one step actively by dedicating six hours a week to painting, then next semester, I’ll hopefully have enough discipline to seek it out myself. I think I’ve always struggled with allocating time to creative aspects of my life. By taking an art class and enrolling in painting, it’s been very fun, enjoyable, and just a great use of my time. I don’t talk to anyone for three hours and that’s crazy for me.
H: I think the easiest way for me to incorporate fun and breaks into my life is through time with friends. I think that a lot of people overlook the importance of social wellness as a thing. The idea of getting a meal can get boring sometimes so it can be nice to switch it up and cook or bake together, go for a walk, join an intramural sports team, etc. All these things you can do as socializing with people and as an excuse to have fun.
If money wasn’t a factor, would you choose the same career path?
H: I would be a film maker in some capacity. I did a lot of film in high school and I loved it so much. Just like the whole creative process. Coming up with video, storyboarding, and being behind the camera, lighting—all of it. Nothing else has sparked quite like film.
A: I would be an influencer. Because I think I live like my life is a sitcom. Why am I holding five pounds of animal crackers right now, right? I’m scared of putting stuff out there. But I also feel like recently, maybe I could just do this—just try.
What’s the best and worst piece of advice you’ve received?
The best advice I’ve received is: it’s not that deep. I think that can apply to anything. Like friendships—it’s like, okay, if they want to hang out with you, then they’ll hang out with you. If you want to hang out with them, then you’ll hang out with them. Don’t overthink things that other people do. But at the same time, this could be the worst advice. My friend told me to win the IDGAF [“I don’t give a f*ck”] war, and I guess this advice applied to certain things that I did GAF [“give a f*ck”] about.
I used to follow this mindset, but then I realized that life’s a little bit too short. I don’t want to pretend not to GAF about something that I do. It’s like, in the future, I’ll regret not GAF-ing and putting more effort or time into relationships or things like that. I’ve learned that pride is an important part of everyone’s persona, but sometimes you just need to let go and care a little more. I think this is something my mom has taught me growing up because she’s someone that definitely gives endless love and care.
In your four years here, when were the moments you felt genuinely happy?
There was this moment last year with my core friend group. There’s seven of us, right, and two of them were going to go study abroad the next semester, so we all wanted to do something before they left. So after Thanksgiving, we all decided to do a potluck, and even though we didn’t really feel like cooking, we all kind of pulled through and it was really cute because it was like we were a family, watching movies, eating. I had been really sick during Thanksgiving, and it was at kind of a point where I felt at rock bottom, but that moment helped me enjoy life a little bit more again. There was another moment, during Christmas, when we were all just exchanging gifts at Secret Santa around the fireplace, and you could just feel the care everyone had for our friendship.
How did you meet these friends?
So I met one of them at the Penn meet-up in New Jersey before freshman year, and he’d forgotten about me until during NSO, and then we met somebody at NSO, and then somebody else lived in KCECH with us, and then during spring semester, we kind of combined friend groups with another group that we’d met at a mixer. They’d also met during NSO. This is when I realized: it’s never too late to make new friends. My freshman spring, I thought that the people I met during NSO would be the people I would be hanging out with forever. Sometimes that’s true, but sometimes it’s not. I think during freshman spring, I realized that if you go out of your way and you can click with the most random people, it’s very possible to form new friendships later on.
In high school, I always felt like I was a floater between friend groups. But now, I realized it’s an important thing to have like a foundation or people to always go back to, which is definitely not something to be taken for granted.
If money wasn’t a factor, would you still choose a career in medicine?
Overall, I think yes. The reason why I want to go into medicine is—not to sound cliche—for the people. My big thing is to provide opportunities for underserved and underprivileged populations, like my immigrant parents, who don’t speak English. I used to feel imposter syndrome during freshman year. One time, my doctor asked my mom where I was going to college, and when she said Penn, he said it’s because I’m FGLI [first-gen lowincome]. So I’m also really passionate about patient advocacy, especially for FGLI and underserved populations.
Do you have any advice for incoming freshmen?
Join different activities—not everything has to be preprofessional. Do things that you enjoy. There are a lot of offerings at Penn where you don’t have to do a strenuous application or a bunch of interviews. Just be part of a community. It’s really nice to not do school with other people you’re doing school with.
Do you have a serious/unserious piece of relationship advice?
My serious one: communication is key. Always, always communicate. My unserious one: don’t be afraid to f*ck up. You learn as you grow. The best relationships are when you grow alongside your partner. Patience is key. Growth doesn’t happen overnight, and challenges are a natural part of any meaningful relationship. By being patient and communicative, you create like this space to navigate these challenges together, which I think ultimately strengthens the bond between you and your partner.
How do you think about balancing financial goals with building community and pursuing meaningful work?
Money is a problem for many of us, but I encourage any student that money should not be the sole determinant of what job you would go into because this world is changing quickly. We’re already seeing a lot of changes in the job market, which could lead us to find ourselves struggling to be able to provide for ourselves because of this mismatch in skills. That is why it’s so important to find people to build community, to build mutual aid networks, and start thinking about the practical skills that you have. And at the end of the day, utilize your talents to benefit humanity and your community. Because I think that is truly one of the most noble causes. I feel like I don’t find a lot of people at Penn who share that opinion or express that. I encourage all Penn students to think a little bit beyond the number of figures in their bank account. What are you actually going to be able to say that you did for yourself and for society at the end of the day?
If you could tell anything to your freshman self, what would that be?
Do not eat in the same place you study. Keep studying separate from eating, and separate from where you sleep. Keep those spaces separate. Also, you’re gonna mess up and lose track of things and get a zero. Or maybe your professor will be nice and give you an extension. But regardless, sometimes you have to learn from your consequences to improve. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
What is a belief that has significantly changed over your four years at Penn?
Penn is not going to change my life. Penn is not going to magically give me this ticket to comfort, luxury, and success. It can be a means to these things, but Penn in and of itself will not give me those things. Those were things that I was initially disillusioned with as a FGLI student. At the end of the day, I need to build for myself. I also would say that the way that the way Penn defines success can be very narrow. Exclusionary at times. By being able to expand my mindset and realize that just because I wasn’t taking the conventional path didn’t mean that mine was not going to necessarily take me to a similar level of success or happiness,
What is one piece of unserious and serious dating advice you have?
Do not let someone take you on a date at Commons. You deserve more than a dinner at Commons. That is not a date. Do not take someone for a date and you pay with your meal plan. Anything else, anything else—just don’t take someone to a dining hall.
A serious piece of advice: your relationship is between you and your partner. You should keep conversations in regard to your relationship strictly between you and your partner. Not everything needs to be to be shared with friends. I feel a big reason why they fail so much is because people feel the need to share everything. This leads to people not trusting each other ending in arguments and gossip. While you should obviously reach out to friends if you have concerns about red flags and such, gossiping about your partner is going to make it very difficult to build a relationship of trust with them.
It is never too late to be what you might have been. — George Eliot
If you could tell your freshman self anything, what would it be?
I think I struggled most with finding friends. It took me until senior year to find friends. I went into freshman year thinking that I was going to meet my forever friends, right off the bat and I feel like I finally knew who I like. I would tell my freshman self to just relax and the friends will come at some point.
What was your biggest failure at Penn’s over the past four years?
I would say that my first three semesters here overall felt
How did you balance personal fulfillment and career success at Penn?
I’ve been working at a nonprofit since my freshman fall! I work with high school students, which I love—my dream as a kid was to become a teacher. And then, I realized that I couldn’t because I don’t have a patience for it. But there’s still a part of me that imagines myself doing that for the rest of my life. I’d get a lot of fulfillment out of that.
Being a doctor is going to be a lot more work, but it’s really important to me because there are no doctors in my family. Honestly, there’s a part of me that’s always thinking, is a medical career actually going to fulfill me? I’m already burnt out now. Medical school is gonna kill me. And residency is going to kill me even more. Like, can I do it? That’s a thought that crossed my mind all the time.
But I do think, though there’s a lot of other easier paths, this will probably make me the most fulfilled in a couple years I’ll let you know if that’s true or not. But as of right now, that’s how I feel.
What’s one belief you’ve changed since coming to Penn?
One belief about myself was that I’m meant to be alone! I’m introverted, and I felt like my social battery was always running out—in any situation where I was around people, I’d much rather be alone at all times. Even freshman year, I spent a lot of time alone thinking that I couldn’t handle this.
But now, I realize that being surrounded by people is healing! I think I thought of people as an additional stress on my life, so I just pushed a lot of people away. But now, I can be surrounded by people, and I don’t even need to be interacting with them—just being in their presence is healing. They made me realize that I was surrounded by the wrong people. Now that I found these forever people, I can be like, okay, I’m not someone that’s meant to be secluded at all times.
