On an especially windy October afternoon, Catherine Chow (E ’26) sits with me on a bench outside Charles Addams Hall, her tote bag overflowing with riso graphs and prints. Surprisingly, there's no rush today—the campus feels briefly suspended, as if the wind itself has pressed pause. It’s somewhat poetic, given how much Chow’s world revolves around finding stillness amid motion. The senior reflects on hosting creative spaces at Penn, leading projects that foster connection over competition, and learning what it means to move through college with intention rather than urgency.
Name: Catherine Chow
Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
Field of Study: Major and accelerated masters in computer science, minor in design
Activities: Dear Penn Freshmen Project, The Signal Society, Ulises Books, PEER Mentoring Program
How would you describe your extracurricular experience at Penn?
When it came to extracurricular activities, I wanted to explore my creative passions. I joined Signal my freshman year because I felt really pressured by the preprofessionalism on campus; I felt like I needed a creative outlet. Since then, I've felt like I needed to spend more time doing personal side projects and be more intentional about how I spend my free time.
You are involved with Dear Penn Freshmen. What got you into that?
I first heard of Dear Penn Freshmen before I came to Penn when someone showed it to me. I just think it has a really meaningful mission. Before I started working on the project, I had a really shallow understanding of friendships. For me, friendship was mostly about hanging out and spending time with someone, but I wasn’t really thinking about how people around me were influencing my life, and how I’m also having an impact on the way they live. Someone in Signal ran the project in 2023, and in 2024,they wanted to pass down the project to someone else. I came across that info, talked to them, and asked, “Can I do this? Because it sounds really fun.” I wanted to be intentional with taking on a mission that could impact campus life.
Was there any specific story from that project that stuck with you?
In 2024, we did a Signal project called Humans of Penn, where we interviewed people on campus and published a special issue in collaboration with Dear Penn Freshmen. We collected letters and interviewed 10 seniors, having conversations with them about their Penn experiences. I remember talking to one of them in particular—his name was Arnav. He told us that when he got COVID–19 during his sophomore year in 2020, he was stuck in India and couldn’t come back to Penn. He decided to take a gap semester his sophomore spring and backpack across India for the entire semester. Having that experience made him want to have more fun and dedicate more time to learning for the sake of learning rather than learning just to get good grades or earn a good job.
That really had a huge impact on me, so I decided to do the same thing that summer. I spent a month in China just learning how to do pottery, and that had a really big impact on how I view life in general. Although I don’t really have any idea of what I want to do long term or who I want to be in life, that summer made me realize that one, I could do anything, and two, I could be anyone.
What do you hope freshmen take away from Dear Penn Freshmen?
I hope people can appreciate the passage of time. A lot of times, you don’t realize how precious certain things or certain people are until after they’re gone. I think that’s definitely something I understood when I was working on the project because I was talking to so many people who were leaving campus. At the same time, I think that’s really hard to understand without having the necessary life experiences. When I first came to college, I didn’t know how to appreciate people making time to hang out with you. The only things I was thinking about were my classes—which was valid, because freshman year was such an overwhelming time. But this project gives you the opportunity to sit down, think about something you own right now that you’re soon going to lose, and just appreciate it.
What role do you think creativity and nonprofessionalism played in shaping your Penn experience?
Since sophomore year, my whole thing has been about expressing creativity and empowering creatives like artists and writers. Having a creative community has made me really intentional about the things I say and the things I want to learn from people; it's made me realize that people have so much to offer. Every time I want to go on a sidequest, like when I want to run an art pop–up in my house, I can text people and be like, “Let’s do it.” In the past, I always had so much anxiety over planning—now, I just do things on the go, which I really enjoy.
Tell me more about these in–house art pop–ups. What inspired them, and what did they look like?
They were just so, so casual. Fiona Herzog (CAS '27) and I co–hosted the pop–ups last spring; everyone sat on the floor, everyone ate food, and everyone painted.I’d done two to three of those events already. I also invited people to bring their own snacks; then, we would eat together and intentionally create art. I'd always had this vision of having a place where people could come by and be creative together. Although I can be creative on my own—I’ve done a lot of personal art projects—I think by bringing in other people’s voices, you get to bring in other people’s ideas. Every time I talk to someone and they tell me, “You have an insane vision,” I just think to myself, “Yeah, I like seeing insane visions come true.”
What drives you to foster space for others to express themselves creatively?
I just really like facilitating conversations. Creating a space where people can express themselves and share their experiences—I think that’s far more powerful than me just stepping out and talking about my life for two hours. Having a space where people get together and talk is really important, and I think that's something you don’t really get at Penn because inherently, in an environment like this, there’s a lot of competition. The reason why I wanted to do Dear Penn Freshmen is to tell people that spaces like these exist.
I also know how limited my own thinking can be. Every time I collaborate with someone, they bring in all these different skills, which makes me want to acquire new skills. Talking to people gives me inspiration to learn new things, and it also brings forth new perspectives and energy. Sometimes, when you’re working on your own, you really do get depressed, so I try to talk to as many people as possible about my ideas to see what they think and if they want to be a part of them. It’s just awesome.
How has that collaborative work shaped your own art?
I've accepted myself more. I used to be very self–critical and put a lot of pressure on myself. A lot of things I did were never good enough. If I loved someone else's work, and they also loved my work, then why was I not appreciating my own work? The energy I get from collaboration carries through my life and makes me more receptive to change, more accepting of my own work, and more appreciative of myself beyond the art space.
One really important concept to me is that you may not like yourself, but you can accept yourself, and you just have to move on with your life. You don't have to have this burning passion for everything. I've become less self–critical when I mess things up, and I think that relieves me from the stress of not being successful.
What challenges have you faced balancing creating your own art with creating spaces for others?
Finding a balance. Now that I'm facilitating all these spaces, I have less time to create my own work, which is not a bad thing. Sometimes these collaborations makes me forget that I want to keep my momentum going as an individual artist. There are a lot of personal art projects that I said I would do at the beginning of the semester that I haven't started working on yet.
When you first start doing art, you can feel really self–conscious because art isn't something everyone does on campus. You worry about whether or not people are going to be like, “Why are you doing this instead of all of these other things that you should be working on, like recruiting?” I's a very Penn thing.
If you could capture your entire Penn experience in one piece of art, what would it look like?
I would paint a riverside walk, or a river, because something I say often is, “Go with the flow.” My Penn experience feels a lot like a journey. I use the word “floating” a lot because I love how it sounds, and I love the concept of it, so I think the piece would have me floating down the river. It'd also have all these emblems symbolizing major events like the classes I've taken, the setbacks I've been through, and the things I've struggled with.
I would paint trees, for sure. During my sophomore year, someone told me that everyone should hug 12 trees every day. I somehow remembered that, so I started hugging trees and connecting with nature. Later on, I started creating a lot of artworks that featured trees and nature. Little things like this that made an impact on how I approach life would be what I include in the drawing.
I also have a lot of love for Philly, so I think I'd include a lot of Philly themes—like cafes and just a shit ton of coffee—in the piece.
What advice would you give to other creatives trying to find their voice on campus, especially at a place like Penn?
Get out there. Before I “went out there,” I was pretty much stuck in my own bubble, and I didn't really know anyone on campus like me who was passionate about being creative. You really have to put yourself out there—just go to events, take classes, and talk to people. A thing about people at Penn is that they don't like talking to their classmates. But I love talking, and it's working really well for me; I'm really good friends with people in my photography studio and my printmaking studio. We've even done side projects together, and I think those have been a really important part of my Penn experience and creative journey because they've given me so much more substance and energy. All in all—just put yourself out there.
Lightning Round:
Dream job when you were a kid? Designer
Favorite Philly restaurant? Laser Wolf
Favorite Penn library? Van Pelt Grand Reading Room
Go-to karaoke song? “Supercut” by Lorde
There are two types of people at Penn... people who give and people who receive.
And you are… I’ve received a lot during my time at Penn, but I have a lot to share now, so I would say the first one.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Do you know that one senior who brings a smile to everyone’s face or always has the craziest stories? It is time to give them the recognition they deserve. Ego of the Week seeks to showcase seniors not for their grades or any other academic construct, but for who they are as a person and the joy they bring to the people around them! Nominate your favorite Penn seniors for Ego of the Week!
