Ahmad Family Endowment Supports Penn Global Seminars

Hyder Ahmad, W’90, and his family have made a generous gift to establish the Ahmad Family Endowment for Penn Global Seminars in Arts and Sciences. The Fund will support Penn Global Seminars taught by Penn Arts and Sciences faculty.

Penn Global Seminars are short-term study abroad courses for undergraduate students across the University. Penn Global Seminars combine intensive semester-long study on Penn’s campus with a short-term travel component that deepens students' understanding of concepts discussed in the classroom. Small class sizes allow for in-depth learning and intensive faculty-student engagement.

The Penn Global Seminars program began in spring 2016.  In just two years, over 240 students have participated in courses that took them to the Galápagos to study evolutionary theory and to Morocco and Zanzibar to examine cultural conflict and cooperation. Other courses have taken students to Singapore, Malaysia, and Jordan, among others. The program has added nuance and depth to knowledge students gain in the classroom, as well as taken students to parts of the world that are not often considered traditional study abroad destinations. 

“With Penn Global Seminars, the University is moving to the forefront of providing meaningful global opportunities to every Penn student,” says Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. “We are thrilled and greatly appreciative of the Ahmad family’s strong support for Penn Global Seminars and their commitment to strengthen the program and position Penn as a truly global campus.”

Ahmad and his family began their support of Penn Global Seminars in its pilot phase. After seeing its success, they established the Ahmad Family Endowment, which will allow the program to grow to 12 seminars for the 2018-2019 academic year with study opportunities in China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Israel, South Africa, and Uganda. 

 Ahmad also lends support to the University through his service on the University’s Asian Leadership Committee.

For more information on Penn Global Seminars for the 2018-2019 academic year, visit http://global.upenn.edu/global-seminars.