About
Get to know SNF Paideia.
Education for personal, professional, and civic development.
Encompassing a wide range of practices, SNF Paideia’s dialogue work emphasizes intentionality, curiosity, humility, and community as its core values. We encourage meaningful exchange across identities, ideologies, experiences, and histories, and collaborate with many partners across campus and beyond to promote opportunities for students to practice this exchange.
Learn more about the program and hear from fellows and faculty in this short video Meeting the Moment (2025, 4:40).
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Our People
Building Dialogue for the Public Good
The SNF Paideia Program is a diverse community comprised of dedicated and talented students, faculty, staff, and administrators, working together to foster meaningful dialogue, the exchange of ideas, and to promote knowledge and action for the public good.
Our Partners
We love to collaborate.
The civic mission of higher education has been part of Penn’s DNA since its founding by Benjamin Franklin. Today there are numerous centers, programs, and organizations across the University dedicated to various aspects of this mission. The SNF Paideia Program builds on, collaborates with, networks, and leverages these existing entities to make the Penn undergraduate experience greater, and more meaningful, than the sum of its individual parts.
Our Aspiration
At the heart of this new program is the goal of providing Penn undergraduates with the skills, knowledge, values, and experiences necessary for engaging in civil, informed discourse with those with whom they may disagree. Our aspiration is that doing so will produce citizens and leaders who can effectively bridge social, cultural, economic, and political divides in their personal, professional, and civic lives.
Our Funder
Grateful for the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF funds organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for the greater society, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management.
A Note From SNF
The concept of ‘paideia,’ of educating young people not only to become successful professionals, but also active and engaged citizens, who are part of something greater than themselves, has particular resonance today. We are excited to partner with the University of Pennsylvania in helping educate citizens who will contribute to—and have faith in—fair and thriving democracy.
Featured Story
Creating a Classroom Democracy
Through the SNF Paideia designated course Hamilton’s America: US History 1776-1804, Assistant Professor of History Sarah Gronningsater and her students resuscitate early American history.
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