July 5 – July 26, 2025
- Residential move-in date: July 5
- Student orientation: July 6
- Move-out date: July 26
Applications for summer 2025 will be opening soon.
This course is for you if you want to understand economic issues in the world. The course is an introduction to core economic concepts with examples and applications that emphasize a global context from current and recent events. Scarcity, the power of markets, market failures, and market structures (e.g., competition, monopolies), are among the economic issues you will study. Examples from different countries will be used to further theoretical and practical understanding. Students will engage with economic models and thinking, in an approach that relies on limited math background, enabling them to participate in discussions about economics and economic policies. Learning goals include an understanding basic economic terms and models of analysis, engagement with economics in the workplace and everyday life, connecting to economics as a field, and understanding the global contexts of economic policy making. In addition, we’ll have two field trips.
If you attend a School District of Philadelphia public or charter high school, you may be eligible to attend a Penn Summer Academy free of charge with a Penn Summer Scholarship.
Features
Lectures and workshops: Students are required to attend daily classes and activities led by the program directors and teaching assistants as well as guest lectures by experts in specific areas of economics. Students are encouraged to ask questions, debate issues, and participate in lively class discussions. You are required to fully engage in group assignments as you develop your ability to apply economic models and concepts to real world examples in various contexts.
We will have a Monday through Friday schedule from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET. Each day begins with the entire group meeting with the program directors, and then we will engage in small group activities to facilitate group learning processes. Around noon we break for lunch, and in the afternoon depending on the day we will have a guest speaker, engage further in global applications, or watch short films that connect to economics. Other activities after 5 p.m. and on the weekends are organized by Penn SAS High School Programs and Summer Discovery.
Capstone project: During the last week of the course, students will present a capstone project in a poster format. In groups, students will present a real-world economic challenge facing a country. They will use the models studied in class to analyze the issue and propose a solution or best approach.
Any real-world challenge is acceptable, and the course team will help each group brainstorm ideas, select a meaningful and feasible issue to present. The activities that take place throughout this course have been designed to support the students in the work required for the capstone project.
We will place a high value on participation. In addition to keeping up with readings and other assignments, everyone will be asked to lead discussions in your section on occasion, and we also expect to hear from you regularly throughout the program in class discussions. We hope to create a lively, stimulating class environment where you will feel welcome to ask questions, comment, and debate issues.
Required text: All resources will be provided on the Canvas course site. Click on “Course Reserves” to access books, films, and reference materials. The Canvas Learning Management System will be used daily for class time activities and homework.
Course outcomes:
- Know how to use economic terminology and apply it to the world
- Engage with economics in the news
- Identify some economic policies and their theoretical explanations
- Be able to analyze an economic challenge and advocate for a solution
Prerequisites
No prerequisites—no calculus is required. If you enjoy following current events you will be better prepared. Any readings will be available through the course site.
Program Co-Director: Rebecca Stein
Rebecca Stein is the executive director of the Online Learning Initiative (OLI). She co-leads the OLI team with the faculty director setting strategic initiatives for online learning at Penn, supervising the creation of online learning environments, and leading the charge to provide online students the services they need to succeed.
Before joining OLI, Rebecca taught large classes in the economics department and was an early adopter of teaching online. As an award-winning innovator in the classroom, she found it natural to embrace teaching online, first through Coursera and then in for-credit courses at Penn. She is inspired by the ability to reach students across continents and impact their lives and careers from afar. Rebecca hopes many Penn faculty will be drawn to this opportunity to extend our impact through teaching and the inclusion of new student populations.
Program Co-Director: Deborah Harrold
Deborah Harrold teaches in Penn's Liberal and Professional Studies program and in Political Science. As part of Penn's online degree, the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, Deborah Harrold has worked to build course content for the Global and Regional Studies concentration.
Her larger research concerns have revolved around the Middle East and North Africa, where she has studied issues of economic and political transformation seen in the economic liberalization in Algeria beginning in the 1990s. This research led to an extended interest in the political power of economic ideas, how economic ideas become economic policies in different countries, and how people plan their futures in changing economic worlds. She also developed research about the contradictions of economic liberalism in times of open conflict. She has published on the role of informal economies in economic thinking and politics in Algeria and on the articulation of business interests in Algeria.
Her Ph.D. is from The University of Chicago.
