Penn President Amy Gutmann announced Tuesday that the $500,000 from the Carnegie Corporation’s Academic Leadership award — which she received in the fall — will be going toward new student research, travel and educational opportunities.
The funds are a “precious resource, when resources are particularly scarce,” Gutmann said.
$200,000 of the award will expand the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, a summer research opportunity under the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Another $200,000 will be directed to the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly to fund meeting and conference expenses.
The remaining $100,000 will support opportunities for Penn students to intern at the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington — chaired by Gutmann. The details of the internship program will be announced later this year, when the Commission formally begins its work.
The CURF funds will allow 10 rising juniors each year for the next five years to conduct summer research through the Mentoring Program, which previously limited summer research funding to 35 rising sophomores a year, according to CURF Director Harriet Joseph.
“There is a tremendous amount of excitement,” Joseph said. “Dr. Gutmann loves what [CURF] is doing … She has expressed both verbally and financially her love for CURF.”
The new Student Committee for Undergraduate Education Chair and Wharton sophomore Charles Gray called the expansion of summer research “pivotal.”
“SCUE is ecstatic,” he said.
GAPSA’s funds will allow graduates to “see the trends in research and in practice, and to present their own research among their peers,” said GAPSA Chair and Nursing and doctoral student Corbett Brown.
“[The award] will alleviate financial stress,” he emphasized.
The leadership award “recognizes how Penn has become a leader in interdisciplinary education, and celebrates the goals of the Penn Compact,” Gutmann said.
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