From Connecting to Coaching

The spring semester featured an array of opportunities for Penn Arts & Sciences alums to get together with faculty and students to socialize, learn, network, and mentor. The spring edition of Ben Talks brought faculty to New York City and to Palo Alto and Santa Monica in California, where they discussed the science of sea, land, sky, and lessons of climate change resilience. The Asian American Studies program also traveled to New York and California to share the latest news about its initiatives and offer interested alums a chance to meet and talk. Six members of the Professional Women’s Alliance (PWA) came to campus to share their work pathways and experience at the spring Career Roundtable. And the College Alumni Mentoring Series (CAMS) included a Penn in Washington dinner, a mentorship meal with Javier, C’03, W’03, and Lauren Starkand, C’03; and an evening focused on careers in data science, moderated by Eric Edell, C’99, W’08, and including Randy Winn, PAR’28. 

(Clockwise from top left) Amber Grier, Jen Fisher, Brooke Sietinsons.

(Clockwise from top left) Ramanan Raghavendran, EAS’89, W’89, LPS’15, Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees (far right) introduced Ben Talks in Palo Alto, which also featured (left to right) Doris Wagner, DiMaura Professor of Biology, Douglas Jerolmack, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Simon Richter, Class of 1965 Term Professor of German, and Mark Trodden, Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics and Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences. / Fariha Khan (left) and David Eng, Richard L. Fisher Professor of English, co-directors of the Asian American Studies Program, update the crowd at an Asian American Studies Now event in New York. / Tabeen Hossain C’17, LPS’20, mentors a student at the PWA roundtable. / At the CAMS event Careers in Data Science, students hear about an array of options from (left to right) Randall Winn, PAR’28, Melissa Honour, Head of Product Innovation at Blue Shield of California, Tara Thiagarajan, founder and chief scientist at Sapien Labs, Christen Smith, President of Service Lines and Solutions at LMI, and moderator Eric Edell, C’99. Winn and Edell, who organized the panel, are co-founders and managing partners at the investment firm 22C Capital.

To get involved in alumni volunteer opportunities, contact Chrissy Bowdren, Senior Associate Director of Volunteer Programs, at cbowdren@sas.upenn.edu.