The Signal Society

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Description

Applications for Fall 2023 are now live here 

The Signal Society (thesign.al) is a community of developers, designers, writers, and everything in between at the University of Pennsylvania that works on passion projects to help Penn students explore their passions and reflect on Penn's culture. We are a close-knit group that values mentorship, community, and impact.

Check out some of the projects we worked on last semester listed below:

  • Anti-Resume: Highlights failures and accomplishments of Penn seniors that wouldn’t normally show up on a resume. Promotes that people are more than their resume, GPA, internships, or jobs.
  • Squirrels Without Morality: A light-hearted deck of ~200 cards for students to laugh at the occasional absurdity of Penn’s culture.
  • Interviews: This team engages with people of diverse career paths and backgrounds in order to collect stories about failures and career finding.
  • Existential Bread: Inspired by 3am existential dread, conversations, and curiosity for answers to difficult questions, Existential Bread invites Penn students from different backgrounds to discuss purpose, religion, relationships, philosophy, and more over dinner.
  • Hot Ones: A video series that features members of the Penn community eating hot chicken wings while answering questions about their Penn experience and potential career paths. (Trailer out!)

Application Deadline: Saturday, September 16 at 11:59pm. If you have any questions, we'd love to answer them! Just email thesignalwriters@gmail.com. Feel free to also reach out to Isabel An (isabelan@wharton.upenn.edu), Henry Putney (putney@sas.upenn.edu), or Shayan Ashraf (shashraf@sas.upenn.edu).

Info Session Slides linked here! 

FAQ

Most Recent
Question: Can I, Austin Zhuang, become the supreme leader of this club? - Anonymous

"No man or society of men has a power to hand over their preservation to the absolute will and arbitrary domination of someone else... In this respect the community may be said to be always the supreme power."

- John Locke, Second Treatise, C. XIII, Sect. 149

- Shayan Ashraf
~6 people found this question helpful~
Question: What technical skills do you look for in an applicant? Graduate students as well? - Anonymous

Some technical skill examples:

Designer - apparel designs, website UI/UX designs, promotional materials, and more. 

Developer - web development, React, Node, HTML/CSS

Videographer - setting up filming scenes, optimizing lighting and sound quality, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, or Lightworks.

We currently have one grad student in The Signal Society and open to more if there's a great fit

- Anna Wang
~0 people found this question helpful~
Question: Hi! I was just wondering, is The Signal Society open exclusively to Wharton students, or are students from any undergraduate schools able to get involved? - Anonymous

The Signal Society is open to students from every undergraduate school!

- Yanjie Zhang
~0 people found this question helpful~
Question: What if I am not a developer, videographer, or designer? Can I still apply? Will I still have a role at the Signal Society? - Anonymous

Yes! We also have writers, creatives, and business developers. If you think you would be a good fit for a role other than those listed above, note that down in your application.

- Anna Wang
~0 people found this question helpful~
Question: What is the community like at The Signal Society? What types of people can I expect to meet? - Anonymous

The incredible thing about The Signal Society is that there is no "average applicant". This means that our community consists of various genders, sexual identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. However, the commonality between our members is that everyone at The Signal Society is super passionate about what they do. For example, our members are crazy talented in areas like graphic design, baking pastries, guitar playing, and many other cool talents! In terms of the overall community, though, to make sure that all of our new members are integrated into the club, there will be frequent coffee chats and social events such as retreats, picnics, BYO's, and holiday celebrations that are always a blast!

- Jerry Gao
~2 people found this question helpful~
Question: How will I be placed onto projects? - Anonymous

After your interview, if you are accepted, you will be initially placed onto a project group based off of your passions and interests that you express in your application and interview. If you would like to change project teams, that's more than okay too and we will work with you to put you in a project team that you want to be in.

- Jerry Gao
~1 people found this question helpful~
Question: What makes a strong applicant? - Anonymous

There are a combination of factors that make a strong applicant! First, we want to make sure that you have the technical abilities that are expected from our applicants. You can easily talk about your technical skills and familiarity with different software in our application, and you can definitely reference previous projects or portfolios that you have! We also want to make sure that our applicants fit the community that we have here at the Signal Society. This means being welcoming and inclusive of all genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic background, races, etc as well as just being a fun person to be around. Don't stress out too much though as The Signal Society at the end of the day just values seeing passion in our applicants and if they can transfer that passion onto our projects!

- Jerry Gao
~3 people found this question helpful~

Basic Info

43 Registered (20 - 50 Members)

Not Currently Accepting Members

Application Required

Both Semesters


Contact

How to Get Involved

Check out our website and stay up to date with our events through our Facebook page and newsletter!

Apply here: https://tinyurl.com/signalf23

Additional Pages