The Penn GSE Magazine

Dear Alumni and Friends,

At Penn GSE we are very proud of our legacy of leading innovation in education for more than two decades. Innovation, the theme of this issue, is part of Penn GSE’s DNA and is visible across our programs, our practical work on the ground, and our research.

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Our groundbreaking initiatives include an array of executive-format programs to prepare working educators for new and growing fields, as well as the first education business plan competition held by an education school, the first master’s degree program in education entrepreneurship, and the first global certificate in education innovation. Our features “Driving Innovation” and “Propelling Change” highlight how Penn GSE is effecting change through these and other facets of our work, including our new hub for education innovation, Catalyst, and our master’s program in learning sciences and technologies.

At its core, innovation means making positive change in the world by constantly identifying new challenges and meeting them with novel solutions. Our alumni, students, faculty, and staff are fueled by their passion for making positive change—and they work together to accomplish their goals. In “Making Memorable Learning” you will learn how two Penn GSE students have drawn upon knowledge gained in the Maker Studio course taught by Dr. Yasmin Kafai, Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor, to bring active learning to underserved students at the school where they teach. In “Helping Adolescents Learn and Thrive” you will read how Professor of Practice Michael Nakkula is helping young people find the social and emotional support they need to pursue their dreams and collaborating with scholars around the world, including a number Penn GSE students and alumni, to advance this work. 

Throughout this issue, you will see examples of how members of the Penn GSE community are leading the conversation about how to teach twenty-first-century skills, partnering with educators to provide professional development in cutting-edge topics, developing new businesses and nonprofits, founding new schools, and researching the effectiveness of educational programs and approaches. The range of problems they are addressing is impressive, and their solutions are inspiring.

The same is true of the finalists and winners of the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, which recently celebrated its tenth year. At the finals round in October, the Milken Family Foundation grand prize was awarded to Social Cipher, a Los Angeles-based video game studio that creates opportunities for young people with autism to understand and apply social skills. eCLOSE, a Philadelphia company that engages teachers and students in professional cancer research, won both the second place American Public University System prize and the audience choice prize presented by NEXT Shulman Rogers.

I am always inspired by our community, and this fall has been particularly special in that regard. Alongside Professor Sigal Ben-Porath, I have been co-teaching the doctoral seminar for first-year, full-time doctoral students across Penn GSE’s programs. Returning to the classroom has given me a wonderful opportunity to work more closely with our community of new education researchers. Whether they are studying education policy or educational linguistics, higher education or human development, their talent and potential for shaping the field are remarkable. Working with students from across our programs in one classroom has also given me an exciting preview of the stimulating interdisciplinary environment we will create by bringing the majority of our programs into one facility through our planned building expansion project.

At Penn GSE, we are dedicated to finding sustainable and scalable solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing society. I hope that you, our alumni and friends, will be as inspired as I am as you read of our work and impact.

Pam Grossman
Dean, Penn Graduate School of Education
George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education

Alumni Notes

Penn GSE alumni notes reveal the many ways our graduates are having an impact as educators and leaders.

“I want to help young people,

particularly those at risk, receive a quality education and obtain the skills needed for success.” —Michael Frisone, GED’15, Ph.D. student in quantitative methods, recipient of the William B. and Roberta B. Castetter Fellowship

The William B. Castetter Circle recognizes individuals who have remembered the School in their estate plans.

Create Opportunity With Us

Each year, Penn GSE faculty, staff, and students run more than four hundred programs in over three hundred partner schools, informal learning environments, and community organizations that improve the academic achievement and life outcomes of Philadelphia children and youth. Support our work by making a gift to the Penn GSE Annual Fund today.