View from Inside a Prison

By Alyssa Kaplan

“What should we sign up for next semester for community?”
“The prison.”
“Definitely!”

This short text conversation between my best friend in nursing and I seemed simple enough at the time. We had to choose a place to have our community rotation, and there was no way in hell we were going back to a nursing home or to deal with more acutely psychotic patients.

Experiencing Israel

Reflections on a summer journey
By Alyssa Kaplan

Birthright. Most people have heard of it; the free trip to Israel that a lot of Jewish people go on during college. I had been planning on going since I first started Hebrew School in 1st grade. All those years of sitting in tiny classrooms every Sunday morning learning about the geography, the culture, and the language of Israel made me dream of what it would be like when I got there. This past summer, I finally had the opportunity to visit Israel with Penn’s Birthright program.

Seeing Through the Rape Myth

Why it’s important to report
By Alyssa Kaplan

One out of every four college women is sexually assaulted. Think about your friends, your roommates. It’s frightening to think that one of you could be raped, abused, or sexually violated in some way. We’ve heard throughout our lives and our time at Penn how to try to avoid this situation: don’t walk alone at night, watch how much you’re drinking. But what we don’t know is what comes next.

Designer Babies

The truth behind the science
By Alyssa Kaplan

One of the biggest upcoming issues in the world of genetics is the idea of “designer babies.” It’s safe to say almost everyone has heard this term being thrown around, but do we really understand the science and meaning behind it?

First Call Dispatch: Spain

A summer abroad
By Alyssa Kaplan

This summer I participated in the Penn-in-Alicante program on the east coast of Spain. For five weeks, I attended four hours of class daily, lived with a Spanish family, and traveled on the weekends. I had never been to Europe, and this was an eye-opening experience. Possibly as a result of my lack of knowledge of European countries, many facets of life in Spain interested and surprised me.

Penn: What’s the Deal

First Call weighs in on Penn
By The Editors

The Odd Course Out
By Alyssa Kaplan

One (mainly) painless way to secure future success at Penn during your first semester is to take a ridiculous freshman seminar. It may seem like a waste to you because you want to take courses relevant to, well, anything, but the truth is you will be able to incorporate little nuggets of ideas or interesting connections in many other classes to come.