Undergraduate Program

When best friends and then-high school sophomores Bevan Cohen and Sabrina Epstein started snapping photos of their lunches around New York City, it just seemed like fun to post them to Instagram. They had no idea that they were on the road to becoming full-fledged Instagram influencers. But 3,700 photos and 313,000 followers later, @eastcoastfoodies has become a trademarked brand.

Has he tweeted yet?

That’s the only thing on Ashley Parker’s mind when her alarm goes off at 6am. He, of course, is President Donald Trump.

If he hasn’t, she hits the snooze button and goes back to sleep. If he has, she pulls her laptop into bed and begins her day as one of the six White House reporters for the Washington Post.

Through the Senior Honors Thesis course, three Annenberg Communication majors received funding to study graffiti along the U.S./Mexico border, how the news portrays Latinx immigrants, and the virality of online video advertising. 

Annenberg’s undergraduate courses are taught both by the standing faculty and by notable practitioners in the field of Communication. This semester, the Annenberg School welcomes two new undergraduate lecturers: Doug Glanville, baseball analyst, author, and former Major League Baseball player, and Clovis Bergére, Ph.D., visual ethnographer.

What characterizes effective messaging campaigns? What makes some people more likely to share ideas? How would we know if a campaign is working? This semester, Professor Emily Falk offered a new undergraduate course to arm an emerging generation of researchers with the skills to conduct rigorous quantitative research that would allow them to answer these questions and a wide range of others.

Over the course of 21 years, Professor Amy Jordan has taught more than 3,000 students and become a well-respected and beloved faculty member to countless students, faculty, and staff members.

It was an emotional occasion on Friday as Jordan, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Adjunct Full Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, delivered her last-ever class lecture at Penn. Starting in January, she will be a professor at Rutgers University.

Annenberg in Washington (AIW), a summer internship program for Communication majors, provides students first-hand experience in how communication is used in public service. Students receive a $6,000 stipend to support their living expenses as they participate in internships at government, political, nonprofit, advocacy, media, and private organizations in the nation’s capital. They can then receive course credit by enrolling in the summer or fall internship course (COMM 491).

Penn Media Scholars in China (PMSC), a new summer institute directed and led by Professor Guobin Yang, recently took eight Penn undergraduate students to Beijing and Hangzhou to study media industries, institutions, and citizens’ everyday media practices.

From June 5-30, PMSC gave students a first-hand understanding of the rapidly growing and developing media industry in China through site visits, interactions with media professionals, and conversations with students.

On May 14, Seth Grossman (C'01), Chief of Staff to the President of the University of California, delivered the 2017 commencement address for Annnenberg's Communication Major Graduation Ceremony. Grossman's Communication major set the stage for an impressive early career: a Yale Law degree followed by a Supreme Court clerkship and then the role of Deputy General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security.

On Sunday, May 14, the Annenberg School for Communication held its annual undergraduate graduation ceremony, honoring the Communication majors graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. This year's graduation speaker was alumnus Seth Grossman (C'01). In addition to recognizing each graduate, Associate Dean Amy Jordan and Dean Michael X. Delli Carpini presented the following awards.