Hello everyone! My name is Anny, a first year IEDP student and one of the five graduate assistants for the program. Throughout this year, you will be frequently hearing my voice, alongside the voices of many guests, in this blog. 

Today, I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you to …drum roll, please… the 2025-2026 IEDP cohort. We are tied to be the largest cohort in IEDP history with 48 full-time students, representing ages between 20 and 45, and 20 home countries! Even throughout just these past few weeks, I have come to know my cohort peers as incredibly brilliant human beings — each bringing such diverse personal and professional experiences. I am excited for you to get to know them more through this blog!

I also would like to take a moment to introduce you to the program graduate assistants for the IEDP 2025-2026 cohort. Throughout this year, you will find the graduate assistants organizing community building and volunteer opportunities, sharing meaningful moments on social media, and highlighting IEDP student and alumni voices across blog posts and newsletter.

Natalia Pacora: Hi! I am excited to share and learn from our experiences, and learn together in each class (and out of it too). Any questions or ideas you have, come to us! We are here to support and maintain our cohort spirit!🔥🤩

Princess Adeyinka: Looking forward to working with, learning from, and having fun with you all. I’m really focused on building a strong community that caters to everyone. So feel free to let me know what kind of activities/events you want to see!

Diana Seo: I already love the ☀️ bright and welcoming energy☀️of the cohort. I’m so excited to start working as a GA💕 — get ready for plenty of fun social activities🎶! Hope we get to know a lot about each other throughout the year😉

Benji Aliaga: I’m looking forward to getting to know everybody in the cohort, and building our little community so we can all have a great IEDP experience! I’m excited for us to challenge ourselves and grow in class, but also to have a fun and fulfilling life out of class too! Here’s to having the best first year of grad school ever 😼

Anny Lin: I am really looking forward to working with the GA team to help make this year an incredibly meaningful and enriching experience for all of us in the IEDP 2025-2026 cohort community!!💛

If you are a current IEDP student or alumni and would like to share your voice on the blog, please reach out via iedp.penngse@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!!