Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Russell Composto discussed his role as chair of Penn Forward’s Undergraduate Education and Innovation working group in a question and answer session with Penn Today.
Penn Forward is a University strategic initiative working to address current opportunities and challenges in higher education. Composto, who was named to the vice provost position by Provost John Jackson Jr. in July, reflected on building a representative working group, incorporating an interdisciplinary approach for undergraduates, and the importance of “thinking boldly.”
“Ultimately, the end product needs to reflect the vision of the working group as well as ideas from the community that we are collecting,” he told Penn Today.
Composto's team consists of 15 faculty members, students, and staff who are in the process of generating proposals for this spring. In the Q&A, he elaborated on the process of putting together Penn Forward’s group.
“We picked [members] for their expertise, with someone on the arts side, someone on the humanities side … we were very intentional about making sure as many disciplines as possible were represented around the table,” he said.
Composto also discussed his plan to implement initiatives that benefit students across the four undergraduate schools, emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of Penn conducive to “vertically integrated opportunities.”
“Part of the goal [of Penn Forward] is to figure out how to integrate the professional Schools into the undergraduate experience so that we can take advantage of all the great expertise we have at Penn,” he said. “The professional schools provide us with an amazing opportunity to provide students with impactful and possibly life-altering experiences.”
Composto highlighted the importance of helping all students succeed at Penn, specifically through Penn First Plus, a University program that enhances the academic experiences of first-generation, low-income students. He also serves as faculty co-director of the program.
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“We need to make sure our first-generation, moderate-income students have the same opportunity as everyone else to take advantage of the opportunities across Penn,” Composto added. “We simply want to make sure students from all backgrounds and experiences have the same opportunities.”
He also stressed the benefits of an undergraduate experience set in the city of Philadelphia, noting the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Civic House as two unique opportunities provided to Penn students.
“The challenge is, how do we get students to recognize their options?” he said to Penn Today. “The earlier we can provide experiences to students, the more motivated they might be to work through the struggles ahead because they have a better understanding of their end goals.”
