Blog Archives

  • Blog

Wandering and Wondering

By: Wangari Mbuthia, SEAS ’25 Me at Marina Bay Engineering Research in Singapore If someone would have told me this time last year that I would be doing an engineering research program in Singapore, I wouldn’t have believed it. But rest assured here I am, two weeks in, and it has been an incredible experience.…

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What No One Tells You

By: Nikola Datkova, CAS ’25 Bananas on bicycle Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology, Rwanda The exam starts at 8 o’clock. The early birds show up at 7.55 am, most students won’t be ready until 8.05 am, the teacher enters the room at 8.10 am—and nobody makes a big deal out of it. Not…

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A New Perspective

By: Gabriella Gibson, Wharton ’25 Gabriella diving in Australia Business in Sydney, Australia A summer of core memories. That is how I would describe my GRIP experience in Sydney, Australia. I grew up putting together puzzles of the Opera House and watching the fireworks in Sydney as Australians celebrated the new year. I watched countless…

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Preciously Present

By: Haerin So, Wharton ’25 Haerin and fellow GRIP interns Monika, Lucas, Davis, and Doug at the Pylon Lookout over the Sydney Harbour Bridge Business in Sydney, Australia If I had to describe my GRIP experience in Sydney in one word, it would be: present. Oftentimes at Penn and in college in general, I felt…

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Connecting with a Piece of My Parents

By: Anusha Mathur, College ’25 Anusha and a llama in Salta Argentina Social Impact in Buenos Aires, Argentina The immigrant experience is often simplified into cliches, like booking a one-way ticket and never looking back. I always wondered what it might be like to move to a new country and this past summer, I got a…

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A Letter to Myself

By: Zoe Lu, Wharton ’25 Zoe and friend kayaking in Halong Bay Environmental Sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam To pre-internship Zoe: Since two months seems so short, you probably won’t expect to find a second home in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) this summer. Although it will be hard to have to be so…

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A Beach Trip to Remember with Phenikaa MaaS

By: Zoe Lu, Wharton ’25 Zoe participating in the Tower of Hanoi team relay Environmental Sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam I never expected to like the startup culture as much as I do now. As someone who enjoys predictability and structure, I wasn’t sure if the flexibility of startup work would fit me. However,…

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Learning about Reinforcement Learning

By: Krystal Li, SEAS ’25 Krystal in the lab. Engineering Research in Singapore As part of the Engineering Research in Singapore program, I am doing research at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for 2 months. The research project I’ve been assigned to is called decentralized traffic signal control for urban mobility under professor Guillaume…

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My Internship Experience in Seoul

By: Brandon Lee, College ’25 Brandon and his colleagues International Development in Seoul, South Korea To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect on my first day working in Seoul, South Korea. This was my first internship experience, and the train ride to the office felt like an eternity. Walking into the busy,…

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My Professional Life at the World Medical Association

By: David Adam Kato, College ’24 David and his co-interns visiting the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. World Medical Association in Ferney-Voltaire, France As you are considering applying to the World Medical Association (WMA) GRIP placement, I am sure one of the things you are curious about is what your professional life will look like?…