Penn Connects > Campus Master Plan

A Vision for the Future

Learning Hubs at Penn

As a freshman arriving at Penn, Abigail Seldin, C'09, G'09, brought not only her boxes but her fascination with anthropology and her budding interest in research. Both led her to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF), one of Penn's five innovative learning hubs that unite students from all schools and disciplines in communities of shared passion and purpose. At CURF, the opportunity to pursue original research is what binds undergraduates -- and challenges them to reach new heights.

Providing Abigail with faculty guides and mentors, a community of similarly dedicated student researchers, and targeted research funding, CURF opened doors she could barely have imagined -- including the opportunity to co-curate a groundbreaking Native American exhibit based on her research. Four years later, what began as a passion has become a life pursuit: in November 2008, Abigail became one of only 32 Americans to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. At Oxford, she plans to do a Masters in materiality and museum ethnology.

This is Penn. History Starts Here.

Penn's success in creating places -- physical and intellectual -- that transcend disciplinary and school boundaries has no better example than the Learning Hubs. Penn is now home to five dynamic centers of learning:

For more information about the various hubs, groups, and centers that enhance the student experience at Penn, please visit the Vice Provost for University Life website.

To learn more about specific gift opportunities in this area, please contact:

Chris Foley
Director of Major Gifts, Provost Area
215-898-9503
foleyc@upenn.edu

Through Making History, we will expand and strengthen innovative campus initiatives that inspire and support our promising students, enabling them to fulfill their enormous potential on campus and around the world.

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