Class Board 2015

Elliot Boschwitz, a cognitive science major and computer science minor from San Francisco, is hardly hindered by his learning differences; he sees them, instead, as an opportunity to inspire. He has broken out of the Penn bubble in an effort to impact the greater Philadelphia community on a platform of raising awareness of diversity of thought and learning style.  He is the founder of Philadelphia’s chapter of Eye to Eye.

Eye to Eye is a mentoring organization whose goal is to improve the lives of students with ADHD and learning differences (LD) by inspiring hope and teaching self-advocacy skills.  Elliot’s inspiration lies in his own experiences with learning differences; he seeks to give back by creating a supportive community for others who struggle with ADHD/LD.

By leveraging his cognitive and computer science skills, he plans to design apps to help people cope with learning differences. In his free time from his work as the founder of Philly’s Eye to Eye, Elliot plays the guitar and jams to 60’s and 70’s rock.

Elliot’s Words for the Class of 2015:

For those of you who have ADHD / LD, know you are not alone. As many as one in five people may also have ADHD / LD. A learning difference is not a setback; rather, it shows your uniqueness as a different thinker. (If mentoring is something you would be interested in doing, send me an email at ebosch@sas.upenn.edu.)

One way or another, everyone’s heard of the talented sophomore Monica Kwok. Not only does she direct the Business Committee for the Penn Political Review and engineer marketing campaigns for the Wharton Business Law Association, she also holds an executive position as the Senior Marketing Manager of The eDiscovery Retreats and oversees operations as an Information Center Specialist in the college house system. As a freshman, she followed her passion for philanthropy by creating a non-profit clothing line benefiting a local women’s shelter while simultaneously launching a mobile gaming app for the Amazon Marketplace. While balancing responsibilities for Wharton Women, Penn Pre-Law Women, and her own independent research project, Monica takes great care in keeping a stellar academic record, maintaining straight A’s and a spot on Dean’s List. Last year, she was named Freshman of the Year.

Though Monica clearly has a wide variety of interests and capabilities, she is particularly interested in her fields of study: Political Science and East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She is currently in the process of publishing a series of essays on political theory. Monica’s interest in global development lead her to pursue an independent research project on the Chinese economy.
When Monica is not too busy reading up on current events, giving lectures on political economy, or cheering on the Penn Quakers at sporting events, she enjoys sketch comedy, screenwriting, and stand up. She also can be seen at campus wide events, like Skimmer Fest. Monica and her best friends roam around Philly in their free time, exploring the food scene, eccentric  boutiques, and historical sights.

So basically Mo is the embodiment of sheer excellence. “World peace would be attained immediately if the essence of Monica Kwok was added to shampoos, conditioners, and perfumes,” sums up an admirer.

Rutendo Chigora

International Relations and Theater – The World’s a Stage

It’s likely that you have already seen this freshman around campus –whether making her way down Locust to a mock trial meeting, commanding the stage at Irvine, or gracing the cover of the Daily Pennsylvanian.
Rutendo (Rue) has dedicated much of the time she’s spent so far at Penn to social activism; her passion lies in the pursuit of gender equity, the protection of freedom of expression for all, and in using her voice to encourage her peers to raise their own. She recently performed in The Vagina Monologues, through which she helped raise $43,000 for WOAR. Rue comes from a predominantly patriarchal society in Zimbabwe and explains that her exposure to abuse and maltreatment of African women was her chief inspiration to participate in the show. She describes that her experience as an actor in The Vagina Monologues represented a great opportunity to pursue her passion for encouraging women to speak up for themselves and to seek equal opportunity.

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