CoursesFellows Proseminar I
COMM 025

Fellows Proseminar I

The SNF Paideia Fellows Proseminar I introduces sophomore Fellows to academic research and practice related to the civic engagement mission of the SNF Paideia program. We engage diverse perspectives on the purpose of higher education, the nature of citizenship, the value of civility, and the relationship between individual and community wellness.

Students will develop their personal civic identity and wellness goals through intentional course exercises and assignments. This includes identifying potential avenues for civic engagement within their academic discipline, selecting and practicing wellness strategies tailored for their lives and goals, and crafting concrete plans to cultivate civil dialogue and service at Penn and beyond. The goal of the course is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, experiences, and ethical frameworks for healthy, sustainable and robust civic leadership at Penn and in their local, national, and global communities. This course is open only to SNF Paideia Fellows, who are required to take it during the fall of their sophomore year.

Course sessions will address the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of a Penn education?
  • What is Paideia?
  • What is citizenship?
  • Is civility outdated?
  • What does civil discourse look like?
  • Wellness and civic engagement: A non-sequitur?
  • Strategies for wellness and civic engagement?

Other Courses of Interest

HSOC 3210

Health in Philly: Past and Present

Instructor(s)

  • Andi Johnson

Semester

Fall 2025

How have different neighborhood organizations, activist groups, and private and public institutions in Philadelphia tried to understand and address shared health problems? How have Philadelphia organizations, groups, and institutions promoted wellbeing? In this course with a field work component, students will read about neighborhood- and community-based interventions into health in Philadelphia since the turn of the 20th century.

 

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EDUC 2551-001

Mindfulness, Dialogue & Human Development

Instructor(s)

  • Elizabeth Mackenzie

Semester

Fall 2025

This course will introduce the student to the many ways in which mindfulness is currently being implemented to support the health and success of students of all ages.  Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), in particular, which utilizes secularized practices from Asian and South Asian traditions for the remediation of various health concerns, has revolutionized behavioral medicine, and the scientific evaluation of MBSR has shed new light on the bio-mechanical pathways linking mind and body.

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