India Allen, C'21, from Eureka, Calif., entered Penn thinking she'd be a pre-med student. But after taking an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course called Healthy Schools during her first year, she was inspired to pursue a major in Health and Societies. She's also studying French and traveled to Tours, France, as part of a Penn Summer program in 2018. As a volunteer for the African Community Learning Program, she's had the opportunity to tutor French-speaking children who have recently immigrated to the U.S. from West Africa.
"The study of another language is really important to me because when you learn another language, you're learning another way of thinking and another way of seeing the world. If you only speak one language, you're so limited with the people you can interact with. Not everyone speaks English, and that's a good thing, I think."
Pathways is a new series from Penn Arts and Sciences that highlights the academic journey of students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the transformational moments that have shaped their intellectual experiences.
