Penn Engineering
Community plays a pivotal role in the Penn Engineering experience. Our students find a strong support system on our campus, but we also encourage them to venture into Philadelphia to experience the city’s culture and build pride in their new home.
Penn Engineering and its affiliated groups run outreach programs for elementary, middle and high school students. These initiatives also involve local teachers and educators, to strengthen their capacity to prepare students for STEM fields. The outreach efforts focus on students in the Philadelphia school district, where over 75 percent are from underrepresented minority groups.
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TechCore2 offers flexible and sustainable technology training and certifications for youth in the surrounding area. Coding classes are offered on Saturdays.
Civic House focuses on community organizations and social justice education. By offering social justice education, training and workshops, Civic House prepares students for effective community involvement and empowers them to advocate for social change.
The Netter Center is Penn’s hub for civic and community engagement. It collaborates with both the University and the broader community to address issues like poverty, health disparities, environmental sustainability and education inequities in West Philadelphia and beyond. The Center fosters democratic, mutually beneficial partnerships between Penn and the local community to enhance research, teaching and service. It also serves as a model for other higher education institutions globally.
Penn and Philadelphia make each other stronger. This close relationship means that just as the talents, contributions, and priorities of Philadelphians help make Penn a great university, Penn is integral to Philadelphia’s identity as a world-class city.
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The cover story of the 2025-2026 issue of Penn Engineering magazine explores Penn Engineering 2030, the School’s new strategic plan, which charts a bold, collaborative path forward in this new era for higher education.
Every summer, Penn Engineering turns into an engine of opportunity for hundreds of Philadelphia students like Tamara Brockington who joined the Electronic Photonic Microsystems Lab as part of Penn Engineering’s Army Education Outreach Program (AEOP) High School Internship Program.
Through a wide range of initiatives, the Cora Ingrum Center (CIC) for Community and Outreach aims to introduce as many Philadelphia students as possible to the kind of science happening within Penn Engineering.
