Alumni Stories

Share Your Story

Penn GSE welcomes news of how our alumni are educating, leading, and innovating to shape the future of education. We hope you will draw inspiration from the stories we’ve shared on Penn GSE social media and take a moment to share your work with us.


Learn More About Our Share Your Story Campaign

a woman waves in front of a GSE sign
June 22, 2022
Penn GSE’s Celebration of Educators honors 6 alumni, highlights need for expanded access
  • Higher Education
  • Alumni
Digitally illustrated human figures in different bright colors in stand on a newspaper page titled “JOBS” that contains various job listings.
May 13, 2022
Opening Doors and Reimagining Learning: Penn GSE Alumni Shape the Workforce

Four Penn GSE alumni representing varied sectors of education share innovative ways they are helping prepare the workers of the future.

  • Education Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • Higher Education
  • Leadership
  • Alumni
A disc with four images of educators and students with the title “Fueling Educational Leadership Across The Lifespan” in the center.
May 13, 2022
Fueling Educational Leadership Across the Lifespan: Penn GSE Develops the Leaders of the Future for PreK–12, Higher Education, and the Workplace

At a time of incredible flux, Penn GSE’s innovative leadership programs are helping create better school environments, amplifying the impact of K-12 leaders, shaping the future of higher education, and producing scholar-practitioners for the workplace.

  • Higher Education
  • Leadership
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Alumni
Panelists engaged in a discussion on Zoom
March 15, 2022
Panel Addresses the Future of Higher Education

What can institutions do to help students make informed choices about higher education? How can we make sense of skepticism surrounding cost, value, and return on investment? Four members of the Penn GSE community at the forefront of these changes spoke at a recent Penn Alumni panel event.

  • Education Policy & Analysis
  • Higher Education
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Alumni
Students raising their hands in a classroom.
March 4, 2022
Multiple Pathways to Excellence: Penn GSE Prepares Teachers to Transform Lives

The Penn GSE Magazine takes a look at the three master's programs in teacher education at Penn GSE — and the stories of three of its students, each on their own journey.

  • Higher Education
  • Alumni
Abdulrahman Bindamnan smiling in a suit
March 1, 2022
The experience of the "zero-generation college student"

Halfway around the world from home, a Penn GSE alum discovered a passion for writing — and teaching other non-native English writers.

  • Global Initiatives
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Alumni
Four Penn GSE alumni working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion
February 14, 2022
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Penn GSE Alumni Work to Support Students and Employees

Four Penn GSE alumni describe how they are striving to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through their roles at a education nonprofit, a middle school, a state university, and a tech company

  • Alumni
A professor wearing a white shirt and striped tie addresses a classroom of students who are listening and taking notes. The screen in the background has a large pi symbol] [Photo caption] Dr. Zachary Hermann is executive director of Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning, which offers virtual programs to support educators at various levels in the face of changing educational environments.
January 27, 2022
Supporting Educational Leaders: Penn GSE Launches Strategic Leadership Certificate Program

One of many virtual offerings of Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning, the Strategic Leadership Certificate program is helping educators strengthen their effectiveness and deepen their impact.

  • Higher Education
  • Leadership
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Alumni
Caroline Watts speaks at a panel event about mental health in student populations.
January 11, 2022
Panel addresses mental health in student populations

Speaking to an audience of Penn GSE alumni and friends, three mental health professionals shared ways in which they’re responding to students’ mental health during transitional times.

  • Counseling & Psychology
  • Alumni
  • Special Topic: COVID-19
Four tiled images include a professor speaking in front of a blackboard, Independence Hall against a clear sky, a white graphic illustration of the map of USA against a dark blue background, and protestors creating human rights signs. A large red block in the center reads “Education and Democracy.”
December 2, 2021
Education and Democracy: Penn GSE Faculty and Students Work to Advance Civic Life

As a complex era fuels urgent questions about the state of American democracy, faculty and students at Penn GSE are examining key issues of freedom, voice, and dialogue while helping foster respectful discussion within the classroom and beyond.

  • Education Policy & Analysis
  • Language, Literacy & Culture
  • Teaching & Learning
  • Alumni

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