This past spring, on April 12, we launched The Power of Penn Campaign with an exciting program and gala reception at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. We announced our goal of increasing engagement and raising more than $4 billion to supercharge Penn’s support for students, investment in faculty, and our collective ability to build a better world. Within a few weeks’ time, we held similar events in New York and Washington, DC. In the months ahead, we will be visiting cities here and abroad to continue building momentum for this future-defining effort.

There are two great things about being out on the road and talking about Penn to our alumni, family, and friends. The first is what you’d expect: the chance to see and reconnect with so many people from so many places and walks of life, all of whom hold a special place for Penn in their hearts. The second great thing is a little more surprising. It’s the insights and observations and unique memories that people want to share with me —and with each other—that paint a picture of Penn that is full, rich, vivid, and yet just a little bit different than what we might expect. It’s Penn filtered through time and memory and deep affection that provides unique insights into what is so very special about the experience here.

I’ve been thinking about these encounters as we prepare to embark on an exciting new academic year, and they have helped me to once again look at Penn with fresh eyes. This is what I see.

Penn Sings. Literally, of course, during our Power of Penn programming when a group of talented Penn students led by graduating seniors Karis Stephen and Nick Silverio closed the evening with a rousing song and dance number that brought audiences to their feet. But figuratively as well, Penn sings in a rich mosaic of voices and a multitude of interests. As you walk through campus this fall, tune your ears to the voices that you hear in passing. They’ll be talking about everything from the arts, humanities and social sciences, to education, business, and law; from basic science to the health sciences, design to technology to innovation. The words will vary, but the melody you will recognize at once: a song of passion, deep focus, and a genuine sense of excitement about what lies ahead.

Penn Soars. It may be the dramatic new therapies coming out of Penn Medicine that bring hope to tens of thousands of patients and their families around the world, or innovative strategies to deal with the economic and health crisis in America’s coal communities from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. You see it in the exciting science of turning shaky resolutions into long-lasting habits through the Behavior Change for Good Initiative. You can experience it through our pioneering work in Open Online Learning, such as Penn’s new Master of Computer and Information Technology program. Across every discipline, the work that occurs here at Penn is not held fast by location. Rather, it travels in a thousand ways to where it is needed most. Good ideas have legs and travel. Great ideas—which so often are Penn ideas—take wing and soar.

Penn Inspires. In our community, across the country, and around the world, every day people’s lives are made fuller, richer, and better by the work that takes place on our campus. There is nothing more rewarding than being given the opportunity to share the story of our successes with others and to hear, in turn, why Penn means so much to so many. As a new academic year gets underway, I hope each of you will have a moment of seeing this incredible university as others see us. Truly, there is no place quite like Penn. Welcome back!

Amy Gutmann