Wharton and College sophomore Julia Luscombe spent the summer jumping from coast to coast before jetting off to spend two weeks in Japan and South Korea.
The best part? It was free, courtesy of Penn.
But here's the catch: As a member of the Provost's Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program, Luscombe had to research alternative systems of currency around the world.
Luscombe and Urban Studies professor Andrew Lamas were one of 18 teams of student and faculty pairs selected by the program to work together on the research projects.
The teams that were chosen seemed to be the "most interesting, challenging and, above all, profitable for students in terms of their intellectual development and potential future careers," Penn Provost Ronald Daniels said.
PURMP, the joint initiative between Daniels, Associate Provost for Education Andy Binns and former Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowships director Art Casciato, got off the ground in just six months - in time for the first trial this past summer.
Applicants to PURMP must be rising sophomores, since students don't usually receive "exposure to high-level research and faculty mentorship" until their senior year, Daniels said.
Each student was provided with a stipend of $4,000 for living expenses over a 10-week period, and each faculty member received an additional $3,500 in research funding. In some cases, the professor accompanied the student on their trip.
Projects ranged from identifying new proteins in stem cell functions to researching national civil war history curricula in Angola and Colombia.
Demand for the program exceeded the space available, so what was originally slated to support 10 faculty-student pairs quickly shot up to the current 18 after the University allocated more money to the program.
Because of the high level of interest and the success of this past summer's trips, Daniels expects that PURMP will continue next year, with several modifications to incorporate faculty and student suggestions, like allotting more time to plan projects.
Luscombe and Lamas, for example, were originally slated to study currencies in Papua New Guinea, but two months was hardly enough time to plan a full research expedition; their plans had to change accordingly.
Luscombe used the funds provided to document currencies in New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and California.
As luck would have it, she managed to make a foreign contact at a conference in Berkeley, and Luscombe ended her summer across the Pacific.
Considering it was only the first year, PURMP was "extraordinarily successful," Daniels said.
Luscombe, with her newly-cemented mentorship - and newly-stamped passport - can't help but agree.
