I grew up listening to my grandpa making up fictional stories and telling them to me. I ask Amber if shes ever left Philly. In high school, I started a culture and identity magazine that was predicated on personal storytelling. Students engaged closely with Hendrickson on topics until they landed on one that really resonated. And check out their powerful, sweet and hilarious mix of post-pandemic wishes. Penn After Midnight By Alan Jinich, C'22. She had arrived two hours earlier for her midnight shift and stood out with her sparkly headband warmer. Senior Max Strickberger, co-creator of Generation Pandemic. And theyd tell us no, or yes, or I can but not right now, or Im not in that age range but try the church down the street, or the hotel, or the grocery store.. Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. Nasir says, straighten up, and they straighten up. The two stayed in touch after he took her course, Self, Image, Community: Studies in Modern Fiction, when she was an artist-in-residence in 2019. Its an exciting, and fitting, invitation, given that the two young men have become de facto experts on young adulthood in their own right: Last spring, they took off from college to roadtrip across the country, interviewing and photographing people ages 18 to 25 about their experiences during Covid-19. Strickberger is an English major with a concentration in creative writing and Jinich a neuroscience major and English minor. I listen, and later, I dont attempt to transcribe the call as I did for the other residents I interviewed. The course, offered through Penns Creative Writing Program, maintained a small class size to maximize time for collaboration. The Penn students who humanized the pandemic | Morning Newsletter They went into every shop on Main Street, but couldnt find anyone their age to interview. He also balanced creative writing and longform nonfiction classes with his studies in neuroscience including his work at the Cullen Lab at Penn researching brain cell histology and traumatic brain injury. Some stories they didnt realize they needed until they found them, like Faith, a woman they encountered in Utah who told them she was the first person in her county to contract COVID-19. . She had arrived two hours earlier for her midnight shift and stood out with her sparkly . After a three-year hiatus following the coronavirus pandemic, the Division of Human Resources at Penn welcomes back Take Our Children to Work Day. Alan Jinich is a junior from Maryland studying Neuroscience and minoring in English. Well give a shoutout to a reader at random who answers correctly. Although I feel like maybe I was in control? Id never done a project that had this kind of depth and kind of length to it. But during the interviews, what really stood out to me was how a lot of young people recognized, in a really empathetic way, how lucky they were to be young during the pandemic. Since Strickberger was a child, he loved stories and always asked his mom to read him another. As with any personal archive, theres always a multiplicity of lives that leave a trace, Cloutier says. We had every single person we interviewed fill in the blank, in their own handwriting. Contact. At the same time, Ill recognize that we could only access certain stories. One of the most powerful interviews was with Sharon, a young woman in Santa Fe who came back to live with her mother and older brother and his baby during the pandemic, struggling to help them while trying to keep up with college classes. Theres a certain culture with being raised here. Our reporter Susan Snyder takes a look at their travels, the stories that arrived, and the Penn community that rallied to help them. October 12, 2021 Professor Nancy Bentley was interviewed about her work on kinship by the editor of Transatlantica, a Paris-based journal of American studies After a gap year studying in Jerusalem with the Kivunim Institute, he came to Penn, and immediately got involved in food photography and writing for Penn Appetit, and later became a music editor and writer at t-art magazine. Theres many commonalities, but mostly differences. Eliot poem. There was so much happening in the world, and were sitting in our apartment in Philly., READ MORE: Confirmed as the next U.S. ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann reflects on nearly 18 years as Penns president. Allow us to introduce Ruthie Henri, South Jerseys queen of barbecue. They share some of the stories, photos and audio interviews on their website, Generation Pandemic. Join Facebook to connect with Alan Jinich and others you may know. As Ive grown older, I started to realize that not everybody has those opportunities to be able to process what theyve gone through and then release it. Gallery. He folds fake IDs like cardboard and the line moves on. Before coming to Penn, where he received a Provost's teaching award in 2005, Hendrickson worked as a staff feature writer at The Washington Post from 1977 to 2001. When COVID-19 hit, these Penn students got creative, Scott Petri is out at the Philadelphia Parking Authority. I didnt know how meaningful I would find it, he says. Penn Parking Services: The Parking Office closes December 24 at 5 p.m. and reopens January 4 at 8:30 a.m. It probably was more worthwhile dont tell Penn than a semester online, said Deborah Miller, Strickbergers mother, a former television producer. Our reporters Max Marin and William Bender deliver more on what could have persuaded the PPA board to give Petri the boot. Thats what I have for you this week. GDS alum Alan Jinich '17 has won the 2022 Nora Magid Mentorship Prize along with Penn classmate Beatrice Forman. I felt so frustrated that I wasnt doing something that was engaging more seriously with what was happening around us. Definitely not.. Todays shoutout goes to Judy Pidgeon of West Deptford, who correctly guessed STEPHEN GIRARD as Thursdays answer. I wanted to do something. I see it as a kind of extended research project that involves field work. It probably was more worthwhile dont tell Penn than a semester online, said Deborah Miller, Strickbergers mother, a former television producer. GDS alum Alan Jinich 17 has won the 2022 Nora Magid Mentorship Prize along with Penn classmate Beatrice Forman. His final Spring Fling in 2012, the Green Monsters had hosted their annual pre-game brunch and kept a running tally of how many times Carly Rae Jepsens Call Me Maybe played. News | Department of English Maybe an archive that will go on to inspire others and launch new endeavors? he says. NFL Draft: 2023 Vikings undrafted free agent tracker MS: One big theme that came out of it for us was about movement. Round 3 (No. RELATED: 10-year Philly project explores the power of empathetic listening. If theres news at Penn, youll find it here. Illinois @IlliniFootball nose tackle Calvin Avery (6-2, 325, 31 reps, 30 1/2 inch vertical) is signing with the #Vikings, per a league source, as an undrafted free agent.Visited #Vikings before draft after visiting #Seahawks @KPRC2 per a league source Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 29, 2023 Avery visited the Vikings on a top 30 visit. 2022/03/15. We saw that in Santa Fe in an interview with Sharon who, prior to the pandemic, spent her whole life trying to stay out of her house. Pati is fond of her sons and has an endearing way of calling . He also authored the 2011 New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Hemingways Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, and in 2003, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy. A presentation by Alan Jinich and Max Strickberger 6:00 PM (ET) in the Arts Caf. I study neuroscience and Ive been undecided as to what I want to do after school, and now Im considering work that involves writing and interviews., The same is true for Strickberger. One of their next stops was Greensboro, a small city in Alabama. Rodin security guard? So its very cool to be part of a long standing tradition here. David cant wrap his head around this. He is the author of numerous books, the . It really was a work of discovery, and of connecting to people who are in their own age group but who have lived very different lives than they have. Alan met their grandfather who started the family business, got invited over for dinner, Strickberger said. Department of English I can tell you immediately how the pandemic affected people my age, but I think the more interesting take-aways will come when we have time to process it and also when we see the changes that happened with the people we interviewed. Jessica Blatt Press: When you set out on this road trip, what was your goaldid you two have a hypothesis about what youd find, or what were you seeking? He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which, Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright, was published in 2019. I mean, Phil-a-del-ph-ia, the City of Brotherly Love, the Independence Hall, the bookthe textbook Philly, sure. In pursuing the story of Jesus, a cattle rancher on the Texas-Mexico border, Jinichs interviews spanned several days. They traveled the country seeking the stories of a diverse range of people, 18 to 25 years old, to create an . In all, the Penn seniors, now back on campus, conducted more than 80 interviews, some in Spanish Jinich is of Mexican heritage and bilingual. Robyn, Ronni, Deborah, Amy, and I all occupy a small square of my computer screen. Theres a line on 39th. Hes the EMT who wants to become a firefighter. For the student to come to terms with this in a long-form project pays dividends they dont even realize at the time.. Miller said she and her husband, a cardiologist, were not supportive of the idea at first. Hendrickson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, is a veteran author and journalist. Harrison Auditorium, Penn Museum, 3260 South St. So trying to introduce some humor into the situation helped. Waking up in that type of environment I thought how could you ever be sad? Winner: Knar . Georgetown Day School is a coed, preK-12, non-sectarian private school in Washington, DC with small class sizes and a diverse school community. Who knows? Welcome to whats expected to be a sunny Friday, with temperatures making a run at 60 degrees. Next came a four-hour tour of the turkey farm, and Jay and his wife invited them for dinner. But in the bar, people can become drunk and aggressive. She used to bartend early morning shifts before becoming a security guard. Having that bar between me and the guest gives me more confidence. Like what youre reading? Experience in writing long-form nonfiction gives the student-writer, who might one day try to make a vocation of this work, a sense of how hard it is to do something long and sustained, says Hendrickson. Maeve upstairs with a canvas photograph of planet Earth larger than her modest, sparsely decorated room. Arfaa, whose grandfather was once highly connected at Annenberg, used storytelling to create a portrait of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Its the reason that people end up saying later that disruptions like a pandemic can invite growth and enable possibilities that wouldnt have existed otherwise.. They read several classic texts and recent writings included Studs Terkels Working, first-person interviews with a variety of workers in the 1970s, and Hard Times, first-person accounts of daily life during the Great Depression. Also, we want your reactions to last nights Sixers game and the return of Ben Simmons. Enlisting his friend and roommate, disillusioned Penn English major Max Strickberger, the two took off their spring semester, loaded up Jinich's mom's SUV with food and . Early on they decided not to seek out interviews with people who were full-time college students like themselves, and instead looked for people who represented other experiences. Having taken approximately one human development class more than two decades ago, I only know about Arnett, and his (oft-refuted) research, because Im on a video call with Penn seniors Alan Jinich and Max Strickbergerand, mid-call, they receive an email from a Penn professor asking them to talk to a class about this very subject. JBP: What overarching insights have you each taken away from the experience, and how has this journey changed you? Neither got COVID-19 on the road. Im fortunate to be here. Four programs in the Universitys academic community are celebrating anniversaries. JBP: Speaking of empathy, how did you win people over to be vulnerable and trusting with you twowhat was that process like for you? In 2021, he took a leave from Penn, during which he worked on the PBS primetime docu-series La Frontera as a photographer, and began driving across the country with his roommate, writer Max Strickberger, to interview young people about how they felt about the pandemic and the future. Lewis sits up on his raised twin bed. They just captured my interest, Peiss said. Joey Porter Jr.'s Penn State, new Steelers coaches react to his For questions about membership or to opt out, please email [emailprotected]. It was an underground job at the height of COVID restrictions. Round 3 (No. about Generation Pandemic AJ: A lot of cheese sandwiches for Max. The scrutiny that arrived from the PPAs request of an $11.3 million refund from the cash-strapped school district in 2020, citing an overpayment that launched a City Council probe into the agencys finances. He pulls out a tattered green folder. December 2021 - University of Pennsylvania Reading the testimonies you immediately see the array, the range of people that theyve been able to meet, and how Max and Alan have allowed them to tell their own stories, which I really, really admire.. Four years of shared history and thirty-four years of separate histories are being crammed into the call. He has also been working for the Borders and Boundaries Project where he brings his interest in quantitative image analysis and skills as a multimedia journalist to assess border crossing images from Google Earth. So we would kind of switch. Jazz or folk would be playing in the background, the five of us nestled into plush chairs in the faculty lounge of the English building. If youve read The Secret History by Donna Tartt or watched Dead Poets Society, Id say its a bit like that, says Stein. We were talking with them for 30 minutes before we got them to agree to let us turn the recorder on, Strickberger said. As a young Black girl, there is like a certain culture. They did most together but would frequently split up and do some alone. They share some of the stories, photos and audio interviews on their website, Generation Pandemic, an oral history archive that they hope to expand and eventually turn into a podcast series. David provides a running analysis on how the fashion trends have changed (guys dont wear tank tops anymore) and how out-of-place he feels on campus (I dont remember the last time I went to a party). Only by doing interviews, getting better at interviews, getting rejected a bunch of times, could something more concrete come into focus. I love tradition. They read and talked about Studs Terkels Working, a 1974 collection of oral histories from workers around the the country, James Agees Let Us Now Praise Famous Men about poor tenant farmers during the Depression, and Washington Post reporter Eli Saslows narratives, Voices from the Pandemic. Generation Pandemic, an oral history archive undertaken by Penn English major Max Strickberger and Penn English minor Alan Jinich, featured in Penn Today. Their Generation Pandemic is an oral history archive that documents the impact of COVID-19 on young adults in America. There is a theory in the field of developmental psychology, popularized by . How can I represent the living and breathing campus that never sleeps?, Steins piece, The Immortal Life of the Green Monster, delved into the storied history of her housing at Penn, which she and her roommates have affectionately dubbed the Green Monster., Ive always loved learning about history, says Stein, so hearing first-hand about what it was like to be 20 years old and a student at Penn in 1970, or imagining what it might have been like to raise a family under the Green Monsters roof during the Great Depression was such an amazing and all-consuming experience.. Most of my junior year was spent wandering from bedroom to bedroom, each its own ecosystem. They worried both about their son missing a semester and his health and safety. Love this. With our strong commitment to financial aid, an independent school tuition is affordable. Send your thoughts our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. The fields flooded again in May of 2020, but those baseball and softball seasons had been canceled due to . Twitter reaction to Tennessee players selected in 2023 NFL draft October 19, 2021; . His stepover of Tyronn Lue in the NBA Finals against the Lakers. Alan Jinich is a junior from Maryland studying Neuroscience and minoring in English. I had no idea that I would love interviewing people so much. Except then Alan got the interview with Fernando, which is up on the site. Like youre gonna pass somebody that might not talk like you, look like you, dress like you. You look outside and youre nearly on Locust! So that was kind of the opposite of movement, it was really constrictive. Wed go to the grocery store and we had a cooler in the back: It was almost all cheese and bread. Jinich grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland and attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC. The first big test was in Greensboro, Alabama, a town of about 2,500. AJ: It got me so excited to do more of this stuff. So when they come outside they just wanna let go of all that. But he still expressed so much gratitude for not being in the place that a lot of older folks were. MS: There were also themes of empathy and gratitude. Today we highlight the adventures of two Penn students who took off on a multistate trek to chronicle COVID-19s human cost. Stein and Jinichs classmates included Margaret Arfaa, C24; Makena Deveraux, C23; and Zachary Mullins, C24. They took the spring 2021 semester off from their formal Penn education, loaded up Jinichs moms burnt red, five-seater SUV with food and supplies, and headed out for a six-week, 7,300-mile, 23-state trek. The state-controlled parking authority has had notable financial turbulence in recent months, perhaps the two biggest being: Airport officials taking the power from the PPA over control of its long- and short-term parking, a contract the PPA managed for nearly 50 years, and. From midnight to 8am she pays bills, watches movies, writes goals, manifestations, to-dos, lists of people she would invite to her future wedding and people she would break money to if she ever won the lottery. Alan did some of the interviews in Spanish, for example, and if it had just been me doing the trip, I wouldve had no access to those. I really applauded Alans following his intuition and his hunger to connect and also to build a microphone for others to be able to express what they were going through.. And Faith, 23, who told them she was the first person to test positive for COVID-19 in her Utah county: I was the guinea pig.. Im in the middle of the dance floor and well aware that everyone is looking at me. Pati and husband Daniel Jinich have been blessed with three sons, whose names are Julian, Sami, and Alan. And, Scott Petri, the executive director of the PPA, has abruptly been removed from his role effective today amid a turbulent time for the citys parking authority. So our first day, when we were in Greensboro, Alabama, we spent the whole day walking through Main Street of this very small town of 2,500 people and didnt get any interviews. MS: I think it also helped to just point out that it was a weird situation. There arent neat quotes that show me who these women were when they lived in my house as much as there are actions. Speak Papas truth, scribed another, who lost her grandfather to suicide during the pandemic. But during the pandemic, she had to be home, and home for her meant a really tight trailer. Through the daughter, you glimpse the mother. Wed love if youd be interested in taking some time to speak with us. Strickberger says. GENERATION PANDEMIC Generation Pandemic is an oral history archive that documents the impact of COVID-19 on young adults in America. b. Charlie Oshinsky is the keeper of The Scroll. We wanted to do more serious interviews that arent just a snippet of someones life, but a more sustained engagement with what was going on in a particular moment during the pandemic., Even though they were not officially enrolled in Penn classes, Cloutier says the pair were continuing to learn from their Penn experiences. University of Pennsylvania on LinkedIn: A generation shaped by a The prom was one of dozens of unexpected experiences shared by seniors Max Strickberger and Alan Jinichbest friends and Penn roommates who grew up on the same street in Chevy Chase, Marylandduring their journalistic endeavor. And he put the entire website together, which is so meaningful, to have what we did in one place. alan jinich - About Style has since lost a lot of its color and the parties have moved to clubs downtown. Life was all neon and Fling parties were on campus. Took semester off from school to interview young Americans about their lives during the pandemic. Its the pack of ramen noodles you get for like 25 cents at the store. 2022 Creative Writing Prize Results | Creative Writing Program Both, in the College of Arts and Sciences, are back on campus this fall for their senior year. Penn State waited a little bit longer than it expected to have its first selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, but cornerback Joey Porter Jr. won't have to go too far to begin his NFL career.. Porter . So language was just one barrier that we faced from an inaccessibility standpoint. And its just a staple for growing up in Philly. Jed Esty, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, on the radicalism and relevance of the T.S. I see some tendrils of Kerouac and the Beat Generation in Max and Alans project, Cloutier says. As you can see by the room, Im a diehard Montreal Canadiens fan. Jinich, a photographer, says he wanted to pursue a long-term, creative project, and get out of the bubble of reading everything through his phone screen.