Meet the Perry World House student fellows

Twenty-five students will get to make their mark on the Perry World House as undergraduate fellows.

Administrators from the Perry World House have announced the list of undergraduate students who will participate in a special program that focuses on connecting academic thought and policy implementation in the world of international affairs.

“The World House student fellows program is a focused extra-curricular program for students who are interested in having a more in-depth experience in global affairs,” said Michael Horowitz, Political Science professor and associate director of Perry World House.

The group was selected after completing applications last spring. Over 100 students applied to be considered for a fellowship.

The group of fellows consists of students who are interested in learning more about international affairs. This diverse grouping includes students with varied interests and backgrounds. There are fellows from each of the undergraduate schools at Penn and they come from all across the globe. They have declared a variety of majors including chemical engineering, history, mathematical economics and politics, philosophy, and economics .

“Personally, I’m really interested in diplomacy and international affairs,” College junior and Perry World House Fellow Jamie Seah said. “I thought I could marry my interests in international affairs as well as history by joining the program.”

Students will attend various workshops and seminars during the year, which will be led by Penn faculty, visiting fellows and four post-doctoral fellows who work with the Perry World House. These seminars, which are held every other Friday, are intended to broaden the students’ understandings of international affairs, and sometimes allow them special access to visiting speakers.

The fellows will also participate in a year-long policy project. They will be split into teams and will work on investigating and writing reports on current foreign policy topics. Ultimately, each team will present a briefing to an audience of faculty members, graduate students and even policymakers.

The goal of the project, Seah said, is to determine “policy recommendations that are actionable, meaning that it’s actually relevant to people in the policy community and can be implemented, but at the same time it has to be accessible to people, so [it’s] not just academic.”

As of now, the fellows have attended a few seminars and have begun to contemplate the subject of their policy projects. Soon they will officially choose their topics and begin their research.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to engage Penn’s student population,” Horowitz said. “Penn has some of the most talented, most curious, most interesting students in the world and we’re excited to work with them.”

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