I am Otto, a member of the Class of 2024 from Cincinnati, Ohio. I am pursuing a History major and Global Medieval & Renaissance Studies minor in the College of Arts and Sciences with the possibility of a second major in PPE. Outside of BFS, I participate in the Polybian Society, FedPass, and the History Department’s Undergraduate Advisory Board (HUAB). I am also an assistant editor for the Penn History Review.
The integrated Studies Program (ISP) has been integral to me finding a direction as a student and community member at Penn. The program brings together a diverse group of around sixty curious students. Many of your classmates will become your friends throughout your time at Penn as you will take your BFS seminars together and they will be your first community as you embark on your time at Penn. ISP classmates are great resources to discuss whatever you may have learned in a recent class and can help discuss paper ideas. As great as my ISP peers have been, the faculty are also spectacular. The program recruits some of the most interesting and innovative professors at Penn. Many of these professors have waiting lists of upperclassmen trying to take their courses. In ISP, every semester, two such professors work together to develop a special integrative curriculum that ties their two fields together.
The courses will require a little more work than what students will encounter in a typical first-year class, but the program is well worth it. Thinking in an interdisciplinary manner causes you to explore connections across subjects that will, at first, be unfamiliar. Before ISP, I did not know my academic trajectory, but, after a wonderful experience in a history stream taught by Professor Benjamin Nathans, I began to discover my interest in history. ISP maximized my academic opportunities coming out of my first year, as the rigorous classroom environment encouraged me to apply for and be accepted into PURM and other research opportunities around campus. Being a Benjamin Franklin Scholar who is participating in ISP can make professors notice you for possible opportunities when you might not already have formal research experience. ISP is a highly regarded program for any first-year student looking to challenge themselves in the classroom and find an incredible community outside of it.