Discovering My Interests at Penn

Something that I love about Penn is that it encourages its students to explore different activities and pursue their interests outside of the classroom. Even though this may look different for each student, Penn definitely has something for everyone. For some it may be joining a business fraternity, for others joining a consulting club or a performing arts group on campus, for me it was joining 34th Street Magazine as a writer. 

I always knew I enjoyed writing. Growing up, I always told my parents I was going to write a book when I was older, and writing essays in high school was always one of my favorite projects. However, I never really had the opportunity to practice my writing skills outside of academic assignments. 

When I came to Penn, I discovered 34th Street Magazine, the student-run culture magazine on campus. It wasn’t until my first semester sophomore year that I decided to apply, I told myself it was “just to see what happens,” but I was met with one of the best experiences I have encountered. 

I joined Street as a beat writer for Ego, a section in which we write profiles on students and faculty members who are doing interesting things on and off campus. For this reason, I have the opportunity to interview people each week in order to write articles on their various extracurricular involvements. What I love about Ego is that it not only gives me the opportunity to improve my writing skills, but also the chance to meet interesting people at Penn each week. Since Penn is a relatively large school, meeting new people gives the opportunity to see the different communities that are alive on campus. Each week, I am introduced to facets of Penn that I don’t have the opportunity to interact with that often, which makes interviews so much more interesting. 

Thanks to 34th Street, I have the opportunity to learn skills that are extremely valuable and gain firsthand writing experience that I can’t gain by simply fulfilling assignments for class. More than anything, Street constantly exposes me to new, unique individuals, the people who undoubtedly make Penn my favorite place.

-Fernanda Brizuela