About

The Global Culture and Media Academy is a three-week residential program at the University of Pennsylvania structured around a single animating question: what does it mean to communicate, consume media, and engage as a citizen in a genuinely globalized world? The curriculum draws on applied linguistics, intercultural communication theory, and media studies to explore how language shapes culture, how media frames reality, and how individuals navigate cross-cultural exchange in both personal and professional contexts. The program is directed by Betsy Kells, a Penn Language Center staff member and doctoral candidate in Penn's Graduate School of Education specializing in educational linguistics, technology integration, and digital pedagogy — whose daily work centers on how language instructors use technology to build intercultural exchange in their classrooms. Graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants support the curriculum alongside the program director.

As with all Penn SAS Summer Academies, the three-week format is the most immersive offered — longer than most enrichment programs and structured to build sustained engagement with a single intellectual framework rather than survey a field. Philadelphia's position as a historically diverse, internationally connected city gives the humanities academies an urban field environment that extends the curriculum beyond the classroom. No credit is awarded; students receive a certificate of completion and may request letters of recommendation from Penn instructors — a meaningful feature for students who develop a genuine working relationship with the program director over three weeks.

The academy is open enrollment rather than merit-selective, and families should calibrate expectations accordingly. Its value is in the quality of its intellectual framework, the depth a three-week residential format allows, and the opportunity to engage seriously with questions of language, culture, and media that receive almost no structured attention in standard high school curricula. For students drawn to linguistics, communications, international relations, or the sociology of media — particularly those who have not found a pre-college program that speaks directly to those interests — the Global Culture and Media Academy fills a real gap.