Blog Archives

  • Blog

Kelyn’s Secret Recipe for Studying Abroad 

Semester Abroad: Exchange at Penn Kelyn, one of the Exchange at Penn Correspondents, shares her experience here at Penn during the Spring 2025 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. Every exchange starts like a recipe you’ve never tried before, equal parts excitement and uncertainty. It might…

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10 Things to Look Forward to During Your Exchange at Penn  

Semester Abroad: Exchange at Penn Amanda, one of the Exchange at Penn Correspondents, shares her experience here at Penn during the Spring 2025 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. If you’re considering studying abroad at the University of Pennsylvania but feel overwhelmed with the idea of…

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Independence Does Not Mean Loneliness

GRIP: World Medical Association, Ferney-Voltaire, France Over the past nine weeks of my internship at the World Medical Association, independence has been a defining theme. Not only am I the only intern at the WMA, but I am also the only intern from GRIP in this general region, which has pushed me to adopt an…

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A Saturday at Franklin Field: My First Penn Football Game

Semester Abroad: Exchange at Penn Hanxi, one of the Exchange at Penn Correspondents, shares her experience here at Penn during the Spring 2025 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. When I entered Franklin Field with my PennCard, the sound of the marching band was already echoing…

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My Internship Experience with SIC

GRIP: Swicorp Infra Capital (SIC), Tunis, Tunisia I stepped out of my taxi and into Lac II, the financial district that runs along the lake in Tunis. The building was tucked into a quiet corner, its glass windows catching the full force of the Tunisian sun. Inside, I was introduced to a small, close-knit office…

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The Sauce

GRIP: Elephant Community Press in Hong Kong From tenth to twelfth grade, I attended a small, college-prep school called Miller. I can say with quite a degree of certainty that I wouldn’t be at Penn with the skills and confidence I now have without that school. Until this summer, though, I don’t think I could’ve…

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The Machine

GRIP: Elephant Community Press in Hong Kong For most of my life, I attended rural public schools where elementary school was a right turn from middle school, and high school one roundabout away. I lived in a little protected world in the middle of a prairie. Few ever left Stuarts Draft. Everyone’s educational ambitions centered…

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From Nervous Sips to Confident Pours: My Summer with Port Wine in Portugal

GRIP: Wine, Heritage, and Hospitality in Porto, Portugal Never in my life did I imagine spending a summer in Portugal learning about wine, the tourism industry, and immersing myself in Portuguese culture. But here I am! All thanks to GRIP. A few days before my departure, I felt very nervous. While I had some experience…

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Through Sunshine and Rain: Learning to Work and Live Abroad in Thailand

GRIP: PR and Marketing in Bangkok, Thailand One thing no one warns you about before arriving in Bangkok is the weather—not just how hot and humid it is, but how quickly it changes. After multiple coworkers asked me how well I had adjusted to all of Bangkok’s rainy season, I naturally wondered: how bad can…

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AI, Anxiety, and Irish Hospitality

GRIP: Nursing Research in Dublin, Ireland Nervously before my first day of work, I preplanned my attire as if it were the night before a school field trip and anxiously lied down as I played out every scenario in my head. Most notably, the one where I was imagining myself pulling all-nighters because of how…