Perry World House prepares to commemorate its 10th anniversary as a global hub for international engagement in fall 2026.
Members of the PWH community spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about the center’s work since its founding in September 2016. In celebration of its history, PWH will host a 10th Anniversary Gala and First Annual Conference on Nov. 11-12.
Marie Harf, executive director at PWH, told the DP that the center has developed an “enormously valuable network” over the past 10 years.
“It’s important to use this anniversary to expand that network even more, bring more people into our work on campus, but also around the world,” Harf said. “As we enter our ‘teenage phase,’ we want to keep pushing for more impact outside Locust Walk into other parts of the world.”
PWH selects about 30 undergraduates to join its class of student fellows each year, and brings in leaders from across the world as visiting fellows and scholars.
College senior and PWH student fellow Carolyn Vaziri told the DP that the center has an “institutional presence” that allows students interested in pursuing careers in public service and government to have an “accessible, visible space where they can connect with a network of people outside of the finance or consulting route.”
“We now have 10 years of alums — we have former student fellows, we have former visiting fellows,” Harf said. “Keeping them deeply engaged in our work and in the Penn community is one of our major goals for the anniversary.”
PWH Faculty Director and political science professor Michael Horowitz similarly emphasized that PWH has a “comparative advantage” as Penn’s international policy think tank because its “students and faculty are embedded at the University” and “prominently involved.”
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“One of the things we can do is bring expertise together and take the incredible insights that students and faculty have and turn them into actionable, relevant policy recommendations,” Horowitz said.
Harf added that PWH has made “real impact” over the last decade, particularly in areas of “security and climate change,” and more recently with “democracy and human rights.”
College senior and PWH student fellow Matt Calumpit said that his involvement with the center allowed him to “see different ways health, cybersecurity, and human rights overlap and are associated with epidemiology.”
As the center approaches its anniversary, PWH will reflect on its history through a review of past conferences, reports, and predictions — to assess their accuracy and determine how to build upon them in the future.
Harf said that the First Annual Conference will showcase “prominent practitioners and university speakers” related to four “pillars” of PWH’s work: climate change, security, global justice and human rights, and democracy.
The 10th-annual gala will be held at the Franklin Institute and will welcome students, alumni, and global leaders.
Looking toward the future, Vaziri expressed that it has “never been more important” to have a place like PWH on campus.
“As students, we are grappling with a number of pressing questions,” Vaziri said. “Perry World House invites people who are wrestling with those kinds of cataclysmic shifts themselves on the ground.”
Harf encouraged the Penn community to utilize PWH, saying that it is a “place for students who care about the rest of the world.”
“In this time in the world, when things feel very unstable and uncertain, we are looking forward to helping play a role in addressing some of those challenges,” Harf concluded.
