Penn students discuss experiences as College Foundations pilot enters second year

This fall, the College of Arts and Sciences expanded its pilot curriculum for first-year students. 

The four-course College Foundations program, which has tripled in size since its debut last year, now offers roughly 300 first years an early look at the College’s upcoming curriculum overhaul. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with faculty and students about their experiences and how the program has changed since its first iteration.

Half of the students in College Foundations are taking “Kite,” a humanities and qualitative social sciences course, along with a writing seminar. The other half are enrolled in the quantitative-focused “Key” alongside a first-year seminar. Come spring, students will swap into whichever of the two courses they are not currently taking.

Next fall, these four courses will be part of the new College curriculum starting with the Class of 2031 — along with simplified general education requirements and changes to electives.

Curriculum leaders

College Dean Peter Struck, who is also teaching a Kite section this fall, said College Foundations has the potential to strengthen a “community of inquiry” and allow students to tackle “interesting, challenging, provocative questions.”

Developing the new curriculum, he said, is an “iterative, changing process” where “the syllabus for each of the courses is meant to change year to year.”

“There were some pieces that needed adjustments,” Struck explained. “Sometimes there were books that were just a little bit too long, or were too abstract, or didn’t exactly support the multiple points of view that we wanted.”

For Struck, one of the most “exciting” parts of the curriculum is introducing College Fellows — upperclassmen who serve as peer mentors and learning assistants and facilitate “conversation inside of the classroom.” Currently, there are two dozen student fellows, but Struck hopes to have 100 by next year.

“They’re trained to understand the breadth of knowledge that’s here at Penn, so they can help students pursue an interest in a place that they might never have known,” Struck said.

English professor Jed Esty will oversee the development and rollout of the new curriculum starting next January. Esty is tasked with constructing a “thoughtful, integrated, holistic approach to choosing a course of study.” 

He emphasized that career preparedness and an open, exploratory mindset — one that doesn’t require students to commit to a major right away — can go hand in hand. Esty added that both Kite and Key can engage students in community, civic learning, and free debate.

“When everybody in the community shares some common points of reference — the same problem set in Key, or the same interesting text from Kite — you can walk around this campus and meet any one of your 1,400 classmates and know that they’re working on some of the same big ideas,” Esty said.

“That creates the possibility for a deep, residential, intellectual life,” he added. “That’s what college should feel like.”

Kite and Key instructors

Philosophy professor Daniele Lorenzini, a Kite instructor who helped design the curriculum, said the seminar is meant to give students space to explore beyond their immediate interests.

“One of the main things that the students last year — at least in my class — found really important was the way in which this class type allowed them to resist a little bit of the pressure that can be felt at Penn to professionalize,” Lorenzini explained.

English professor Paul Saint-Amour, who also teaches Kite, said that one of the program’s goals is for students to become “the agents of their own educational process.”

“There isn’t really a course like Kite at the College right now,” he said, noting that his class exposes students to topics spanning a range of disciplines, historical periods, and geographical areas.

As the program prepares to expand to the entire incoming College class, Saint-Amour said it will also call on faculty to step outside their areas of expertise.

“Anyone who teaches Kite is going to be teaching mostly material that is outside of their discipline,” he said.

Math professor Mona Merling, a Key instructor, said her class accounts for differing levels of student experience in quantitative reasoning and data analysis by emphasizing “thoughtful participation” instead of memorization, test-taking, and “high-stakes performance.”

In Merling’s view, this format allows students to focus on “asking questions, testing ideas, and making mistakes and learning from them.”

Merling said she hopes that students “can make better-informed judgments” and “remain open to reconsidering their views” after taking the course.

Teaching and learning assistants

Many of the students leading lab sections in Kite or Key bring experience from last year — either as former mentors or as participants in the program themselves.

College senior Lexi Walker, who has been a teaching assistant for Key since last year, said her “students are responding very positively.” 

Compared to last year, she added, there are a “lot less students falling behind, so everybody seems to be following the material, understanding it, asking questions, and feeling confident.”

“What I think we’re all hoping for is to help students get some kind of quantitative foundation, so everyone’s on an even playing field as they pursue whatever they want at Penn,” Daniel Lapinski, a College senior and Key TA, said.

College sophomore Tamara Kohmann, also a Key TA, said the course this year emphasizes participation and general knowledge. 

“It makes it a lot less stressful for freshmen who are going into their first and second semesters of college,” she explained.

Mark Doraszelski — a College sophomore and a Key TA who participated in the Foundations pilot last year — said that the lectures have changed from last year’s “classic” format.

“The format of the lectures is completely different,” he said, explaining that the course now focuses on active learning and group activities. 

“A lot of the feedback that we gave as students last year was definitely applied,” he added.

Jody Huege, a College sophomore and a Kite TA, said one of the changes from last year’s pilot is a reduction in the amount of assigned readings.

“I know last year students who had opted in were a little bit upset and overwhelmed by the amount of reading that was given,” Huege said.

He explained that, so far, students have shown both interest and uncertainty toward Kite’s assignments.

“There’s excitement, and there’s interest, but I think there’s also some trepidation there, too,” Huege said.

College senior Luke Weidemoyer said Kite aims to introduce students to major texts and ideas but also help them develop skills they can use throughout college.

“Part of what Kite is trying to do is teach students from the beginning of their time in college to be able to focus on a task or an idea for an extended period of time,” Weidemoyer explained.

College sophomore Leila Feldman, a Kite TA who participated in the pilot last year, said that she is still friends with many of her peers and thinks about the assigned readings “to this day.” She said her experiences as a student have informed her approach to serving as a TA.

“I now get to ask the same questions to my students that were asked of me last year, but I kind of see it from a different point of view because I’ve already had the conversations about the questions,” she said. “So I know where to lead them a little bit and know where the conversation can and should go.”

College sophomore Eliav Zendehdel — also a current Kite TA and former College Foundations student — said he enjoys serving as a source of advice for first-year students.

“A lot of them come to me for peer advisor questions, questions about school in general, clubs, and class,” Zendehdel said. “I’m there not only to guide them through this class, but guide them through as they explore the College.”

The first-year experience 

College first year Lisa Lu, a student in Kite, said she enjoys exploring a different topic each week without having to commit to a full semester on any single subject.

“You get to spread really far and wide,” Lu said. “Let’s say something really catches your interest — you can go explore that on your own.”

“Because there’s no tests,” she added, “we can explore without the stress of getting a grade on an assignment or having to study.”

College first year Daniel Song said he is a “big fan” of the interdisciplinary emphasis of Key.

“It’s just one class, but it covers so many broad topics that you’re able to explore and see for yourself — ‘Which ones do I really connect with and resonate with?’” Song said.

Although the topics vary, he said there are broader, consistent themes that anchor the course, such as “verifying your assumptions,” remaining skeptical of your instincts, and looking at data in context.

College first year Zara Nwadibia said she appreciated the “interactive” parts of Key’s lectures and lab sections, though she suggested adding more opportunities for hands-on learning and reducing the length of the lab period by an hour. 

“I remember one day we measured our heights and we got these fun party hats,” Nwadibia said. “That was cool because we learned about histograms simultaneously.”

Key student and College first year Dani Ibrahim described the program as a “great concept,” explaining that she enjoys the “lax” nature of the class and the lack of homework. She pointed, however, to the intensity of the course as a possible area of improvement.

“Since there are no quizzes, no tests — which, again, I’m happy about that — there’s no check for understanding,” she said. “I think there needs to be a bit more incentive to learn and retain the information.”

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