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At a time when some students are facing unexpected needs, members of our alumni family are stepping up to provide critical support for student financial aid at Penn. @powerofpenn

Time for pic of the Quadrangle. (Hello, @riepecollegehouse!)

Over the past several months, a triangle of land in Penn Park just south of the South Street Bridge, has taken on a decidedly agricultural look. Already home to the Penn Park Orchard, the former stretch of turf now hosts rows of fall vegetables, newly tilled beds, and a spacious hoop house to protect crops from late autumn and early spring chills. This foray into urban agriculture, the Penn Park Farm, is a central component of the Penn Food and Wellness Collaborative (PFWC), an initiative that emerged from the “Your Big Idea” competition held in 2019. The goal is to provide a figurative home for various educational and wellness-oriented programs around the University, and to also provide a literal home for those efforts, at the farm and orchard at Penn Park. PFWC welcomes faculty, students, and staff to support and benefit from its efforts. “Wellness is very central to us,” says Lila Bhide, coordinator of the Penn Park Farm. “Food access and food justice is part of that, as is sustainability. The farm offers a great way to integrate innovation and academics and learning.”

To mark here's a look at what @PennAthletics is doing to create a positive & healthy atmosphere.

At the @whartonschool, a generous gift from Yuri Milner, WG’92, and his wife Julia will open the doors for dozens of new students and their careers. The couple’s $10 million gift will create the Friends of Israel MBA Fund, providing full tuition for more than 60 Israeli students over the next decade. @powerofpenn

Here are your top 5 Penn Today Stories of the Week: 5. Research shows substantial drop in crime during COVID-19 pandemic 4. Election Day: Serving as a polling place worker 3. Becoming human 2. Kellie Jurado on bringing more inclusion and diversity to medicine 1. U.S. COVID deaths may be underestimated by 36% See our Instagram stories for links to our Top 5 stories of the week.

“Transforming trash is like alchemy, and the results make us look closely at how artists have given new life to curious components,” says Lynn Marsden-Atlass, @arthurrossgallery executive director and university curator, in the audio tour introduction of a new exhibition that features sculptures and mixed-media work by four artists who transform found and recycled materials. The show marks the first time the gallery has been open since pandemic restrictions went into place in March. The two other Penn museums on campus, the @PennMuseum and @ICAPhiladelphia, also have reopened to the public. All require pandemic health and safety protocols for visitors. At the Arthur Ross Gallery, no more than 10 people are allowed in at any one time, wearing masks, and socially distanced by at least 6 feet. The gallery recommends registering though its website before visiting, but walk-in visitors are also welcome. A Penn health ambassador at the entrance to the Fisher Fine Arts Building conducts a no-contact visitor screening by asking questions and taking temperatures. So why have a public art exhibition during a pandemic? Finding, requesting, and securing loan agreements for the 27 artworks, from galleries throughout the country and one in England, took nearly two years, and it would have been nearly impossible to bring them all together again, says Heather Moqtaderi, gallery assistant director and curator. Originally scheduled for exhibition in the spring, the artworks were still available for the fall, but most are promised for future exhibitions or are listed for sale by galleries. “I had planned this precisely,” she says. “I put my heart and soul and two years of thoughtful research into it, and we didn’t have the option of delaying it further.” Moqtaderi (pictured in the final photo) has plans for how to share the exhibition with Penn faculty and students and the community, including four virtual events and a video education program for elementary school teachers and their students.

Sending some LOVE from campus this afternoon.

Sophomore Laila Shadid and junior Zeynep Karadeniz have taken their shared passion for the Middle East and transformed it into Fenjan, Penn’s all-new undergraduate journal on the Middle East and North Africa, which the two spearheaded and co-edited. Karadeniz and Shadid connected last fall when they were both students in Robert Vitalis’ political science course, Contemporary Politics in the Middle East. They soon came to realize they shared the same deep interest in the region and in journalism. “Many Penn students are Middle-Eastern, both international students and first-generation immigrants,” says Karadeniz, who is studying politics, philosophy and economics and Middle Eastern studies. “Laila and I felt that there was a glaring chasm between being Middle Eastern here and being able to openly and honestly discuss the Middle East in an academic setting.” They agreed that a journal could help fill in those blanks. “What I really hope readers get out of this publication is that the Middle East is a place of life and love and culture,” Shadid says. @PennSAS @upennfenjan

Here are your top 5 Penn Today Stories of the Week: 5. Novel canine scent detection program may help battle spotted lanternfly 4. Examining race in East Asian Studies 3. Penn researchers uncover epigenetic drivers for Alzheimer’s disease 2. Robert and Jane Toll Foundation makes $50 million gift to Penn Law 1. COVID-19 response update: Looking ahead to the spring semester See our Instagram stories for links to our Top 5 stories of the week.

With their students learning remotely, Penn faculty across the University became students themselves, participating in workshops and brainstorming with instructional experts to rethink their teaching approach and redesign their courses to make them successful online. The University is also providing new technology and support, from the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Online Learning Initiative, and others. See the lead story on https://penntoday.upenn.edu/ for more. (Penn undergraduate students are taking classes remotely during the fall semester, including seniors (from left) Ikenna Eruchalu, Olu Vaughn, Sara Kate Silva (a junior), Mebruk Jemal and Jacob Richey.)

Penn Global wants our international community to feel connected and supported. The newly launched Welcome and Inclusion Campaign recognizes and celebrates Penn’s family abroad—and invites alums to lend their own voices. Follow @isss.penn for more. @powerofpenn