The University of Pennsylvania has announced a series of notable achievements across its academic departments, highlighted by a student-led initiative to support children in a local shelter and groundbreaking veterinary treatments.
Fourth-year students Chloe Chang, Darlene Leohansson, and Connie Ni recently won the President’s Engagement Prize for their project HAVEN. The initiative will launch an after-school program for K-5 children at the Jane Addams shelter in North Philadelphia. Chang hopes the children will benefit from art, dance, and music programs, and said, "We’re reimagining the shelter as a place for childhood."
In the health and medicine field, a team of Penn veterinarians and students successfully devised a life-saving radiation treatment for Maeve, a lamb afflicted with a deadly progressive vascular disorder. Meanwhile, in the School of Social Policy & Practice, nonprofit financial management expert ChiaKo Hung is equipping students with evidence-based strategies to drive philanthropic impact.
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation has also awarded 37 grants across six categories for the 2025–26 academic year to support community partnerships and independent creative productions. Looking ahead, the Weitzman School of Design's DumoLab Research will showcase sustainable architecture from biomaterials in West Philadelphia storefronts through the end of May.