At the conclusion of his academic journey at Penn, earning a Master of Environmental Studies (MES) in May 2025, Desra Arriyadi has many accomplishments to look back on. He came to the MES program having earned a full scholarship from his home country, Indonesia. While studying at Penn, he completed an internship with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, contributing research to the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference.
“I was so gung-ho on getting a master's degree straight out of undergrad,” begins geotechnical project manager Margaret Dunkelberger (MSAG ’25). Back in 2020, she was expecting to start a traditional on-campus graduate program in the geosciences in the fall. “Then COVID-19 happened. I was out of luck for a bit, but it all worked out,” she says. Soon after pivoting her focus to launching a career, Margaret discovered a new path to graduate school—and professional advancement.
Applied econometrics and dynamic predictive modeling; Financial market volatility; Business cycle and macroeconomic monitoring; Empirical network modeling; Climate change; Statistical machine learning
A collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD), and the Neubauer Family Foundation will provide tuition support for senior PPD officers to enroll in Penn’s new Master of Applied Criminology and Police Leadership (MCPL) program.
On Sunday, May 18, Penn’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) welcomed family, friends, faculty, and the Class of 2025 for a graduation ceremony in Marian Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center in downtown Philadelphia. This year, LPS conferred 476 degrees on graduating students: 89 undergraduate degrees and 387 master’s degrees. Of these graduates, 230 are international students representing 18 countries in all.
Jerry Ratcliffe is a professor of practice and faculty director of the Master of Applied Criminology and Police Leadership in the Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former police officer, a scientific advisor to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and host of the popular Reducing Crime podcast. After an ice-climbing accident ended an 11-year career with London’s Metropolitan Police, he earned a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
When Jason Wang wakes up in Geelong, Australia and attends classes in his first year of medical school, he’s a world away from his previous life as a civil engineer in Canada. “I had my path laid out for me and never thought about different careers or going to universities abroad,” he recalls. Once the idea of pivoting to a career in medicine took root, it took a few years before he was ready to commit to the change—and then he was all in.
As a professional master’s degree, Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies (MES) is designed to support emerging environmentalists who seek to translate their passion for the environment into a meaningful career—and there are many paths that career might take. “The MES program is so incredibly broad, and has grown a lot in the last few years. We have concentrations that span a wide range of topics in environmental studies,” says Dr.
The College of Liberal and Professional Studies is pleased to congratulate Clayton Colmon, from the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program, and Nazli Bhatia, from the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program, for being named 2025 distinguished teaching award winners.
On Friday, March 28, 2025, the Department of Earth and Environmental Science hosted the 17th annual Graduate Student Research Conference celebrating academic excellence among the department’s Professional Masters Programs.
The lifelong learning division of Penn Arts & Sciences
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lps@sas.upenn.edu
