About

The Social Change and Social Justice Academy is a two-week residential enrichment program at the University of Pennsylvania, organized around the central question of how change happens in society and what levers across different fields — law, policy, history, community organizing, arts — can advance social justice. Led by Penn faculty and long-standing professionals in the field, with graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants, the program is deliberately dialogical in design: each day is structured around guest speakers, film, music, visual art, field trips into Philadelphia, and small-group discussions. The animating question throughout is not descriptive but prescriptive — "What would positive change in this situation look like and how might we get there?" — pushing students toward applied thinking rather than passive analysis. No academic credit is awarded; students receive a certificate of completion and may request letters of recommendation from Penn instructors.

Penn's location in Philadelphia is central to the program's identity. The city's layered history as a site of both founding ideals and persistent
inequality provides an unusually rich backdrop for social justice coursework — past programming has incorporated visits to the National Constitution Center, engagements with community leaders and elected officials, and connections to Philadelphia's longstanding civil rights, labor, and neighborhood organizing history. The program draws students from varied backgrounds, interests, and ideological perspectives, and its explicitly dialogical structure means the peer community is as much a part of the educational design as the formal curriculum.

The academy is open enrollment rather than merit-selective, and families should evaluate it accordingly. Its genuine value lies in the quality of its instructors, the richness of Philadelphia as a learning environment, and the intellectual framework Penn faculty have developed for examining social change across disciplines — not in selectivity or research credentials. For students seriously interested in social justice, policy, law, or civic engagement who want a residential Ivy League context for that exploration, the Social Change and Social Justice Academy is a well-designed two-week experience.