2025-2026 Pals

  • Person

Maria Awadalla

Contact Ask Me About… My experience is unique because, as an Egyptian born in America, I had always been connected to my roots but through the lens of my parents’ perspective. Every 8 years, we’d visit Egypt, staying primarily in the village where my family is from. These visits were special but often limited to…

  • Person

Avia Weber

Contact Ask Me About… Students should ask me about navigating study abroad as an adoptee returning to my birth country while still learning the language. My semester at Fudan University in Shanghai was not just about classes, but it was a personal journey. As a Chinese adoptee raised in the US, I looked like many…

  • Person

Lala Mustafa

Contact Ask Me About… As I’m already studying in a country that isn’t my own as an international student, people could ask why I’d choose to go abroad again. For me, each new environment pushes me to re-learn how I operate, from the way I approach assignments, to how I communicate in group settings, to…

  • Person

Hans Bode

Contact Ask Me About… Starting with GRIP: Power Up Gambia, my first-ever summer internship was also my first time working in Africa. What made this experience unique was learning how to navigate a completely new culture while carrying out my first professional role. I was adapting to new work expectations, living in a rural setting,…

  • Person

David Zheng

Contact Ask Me About… Student accommodations. This opportunity was one of the various paths I could’ve chosen in terms of housing in the grand city of Dublin. I was stuck between a homestay, which allows me to be culturally immersed with a family that is already well settled in the neighborhoods of Dublin; or living…

  • Person

Rachel Ou

Contact Ask Me About… When I signed up for the Penn Global Seminar Future of U.S.–China Relations, I was the only STEM major—and the only pre-med—in a policy-heavy class. Surrounded by political science, history, and international relations majors, I wondered if I was qualified to contribute, or if my science-focused background would set me apart…

  • Person

Tasmiah Haque

Contact Ask me about… As a FGLI student, traveling abroad was something very inaccessible for me and my family. Traveling in general was always far too expensive, and my parents only ever traveled during family emergencies. This is why I value PGS and Penn Abroad so much. Being able to partake in a PGS course…