Dear Members of the Penn Community,
The Office of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives (NSOAI) would like to commend you all on your flexibility in this ever-changing world as we prepare for the start of the fall semester. As you may already be aware, NSOAI has modified the traditional undergraduate NSO events for a completely virtual experience for new first-year students through the Thrive at Penn (TAP) site that is housed in Canvas, our campus-wide course support software. This will ensure that every student, no matter where they are, can access it at their convenience and complete it at their own pace. The site will continue to grow and transition to include more orientation modules once move-in is underway and will continue to grow throughout the year to reflect the evolving circumstances.
Below you will find opportunities to connect with first-year students through NSO and beyond!
We hope you will join us in welcoming the new students to campus shortly!
If you have any questions regarding NSO activities & programming, please do not hesitate to contact us at provost-nso-ai@pobox.upenn.edu.
Thank you for your partnership,
Office of New Student Orientation & Academic Initiatives
New Student Orientation Preceptorials
Host a Preceptorial
NSO Preceptorials are informal non-credit seminars which offer a unique way for new students to "Zoom in at Penn" and take a closer look at the cultural, social, and intellectual environment at Penn. This year, significant changes have been made to the implementation of this program in order to ensure safety and accessibility.
• They can be hosted by any members of the Penn community including faculty, staff, resource centers, departments, and student organizations.
• All NSO Preceptorials must be delivered virtually with the option to occur either synchronously or asynchronously.
• They can take place anytime between August 25 and August 30 with all pre-recorded sessions made available starting on August 25.
• All synchronous sessions should be recorded by the hosts so that they can be archived for students to access at any time after the conclusion of the live event.
• Our staff will manage the advertising, registration (if applicable), and video archival process so that hosts can focus on delivering the content of their session(s).
We invite you to host one (or multiple) NSO Preceptorial(s) this year! We are open to a wide array of topics and lengths of sessions so that we can provide incoming students with a vibrant selection of Preceptorials during NSO. If you would like to host a Preceptorial, please fill out this form. Our NSO Preceptorial catalog will be updated daily on our website and sent to incoming students via email during New Student Orientation. Information about how to host a Preceptorial in the fall semester will be released shortly. Visit our website to learn more about how to get involved in NSO 2020.
Penn Reading Project & The Year of Civic Engagement
Serve as a Group Facilitator
Civic engagement is a core value at Penn, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s original vision for a university; even as we recognize that recent events call us together across many lines, we can also see how great a challenge that is in a time of quarantine and social distancing.
With this in mind, as President Gutmann described in her first mention of this project, the Year of Civic Engagement (YoCE) aims to expand the traditional groundwork laid in the theme year. This includes the Penn Reading Project, which introduces our incoming first-years to a range of thinking about a particular topic, and continues with year-long programming around this theme.
Newly this year, we want to expand the range and robustness of our programming, and to invite the Penn community at large—graduate, undergraduate, and professional students; faculty; and staff—to join in mentoring our newest Penn students.
Please consider serving as a facilitator for the YoCE. There are multiple ways you can take part:
During the Penn Reading Project (August 24 through 31) you can work with a small group of first-year students as they discuss the assigned selections in a Canvas-based discussion forum. The text for this year’s PRP is comprised of four short pieces of writing and one 30-minute film documentary, all of which will be available through Canvas in early August:
· James Baldwin: My Dungeon Shook (A Letter to My Nephew)
· Benjamin Franklin: Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania
· Martin Luther King Jr: The Purpose of Education
· Toni Morrison: Home (from The Source of Self-Regard)
· Song of Parkland (directed by Amy Schatz)
Facilitators, if interested and available, may also mentor students throughout the year as they develop ideas for active participation in an organization or specific project. Staff from the Netter Center, Paideia Program, and Civic House will work alongside facilitators to assist the first-year students as they further develop their understanding of civic engagement and find opportunities to contribute to the community.
Visit www.prpfacilitators.org to sign up and find more information about the Year of Civic Engagement. You can also contact the Office of New Student Orientation & Academic Initiatives with any questions: Provost-NSO-AI@pobox.upenn.edu.
Still have questions about NSO?
We’re happy to help with any questions you might have about NSO activities and programming. Please feel free to contact us at provost-nso-ai@pobox.upenn.edu. We look forward to getting to know you throughout the year.
