I am in the Class of 2024 from Philadelphia, PA, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Healthcare Management. I conduct immunology research at Penn Medicine, write for the Daily Pennsylvanian, and play for the club ultimate frisbee team. In my free time, I enjoy running and playing basketball.
Coming to Penn during the peak of COVID was tough, without a question. After attending my first semester of college from my bedroom, I arrived at Penn with most of campus shut down due to COVID restrictions. However, ISP made for an unforgettable freshman experience. Spending an entire year with classmates who share the same intense rigor for thought-provoking discussion and an interdisciplinary curriculum, all while living together in Hill, I met many of my close friends today through ISP. I was astonished at how brilliant my classmates were, and felt determined to keep up and contribute in my own ways. ISP taught me to challenge myself intellectually through the integration of unrelated fields of study (ex. positive psychology and religious studies), throw myself into the midst of vibrant discussions, and allowed me to drastically refine my writing. The class would prove tremendously difficult at times, but never failed to excite. In fact, practicing integration shifted my perspective on how I approach my experience at Penn; though studying on the pre-med track has left for little flexibility in my schedule, I have made efforts to replicate the interdisciplinary nature of ISP. Taking a class focused on self-growth with world-renowned psychologist Dr. Angela Duckworth, for example, or taking part in the Collegium Institute’s Medical Humanities Fellowship to examine the medical field from an alternative view, are both opportunities I likely would not have pursued had it not been for ISP. ISP was a defining experience for me, and I cannot thank my classmates and professors enough for making it special.