创办时间：1740年
所在城市：美国宾夕法尼亚州费城市
学校性质：私立综合类研究型大学
学生总数：24,000+（本科生10,400+，研究生13,700+）
师生比：1:8
优势学科：护理学、会计与金融学、商业与管理研究、经济学、医学、统计学、心理学、法学
Penn's History 宾大的历史
Penn dates its founding to 1740, when a plan emerged to build a Philadelphia charity school that would double as a house of worship. After construction was underway, however, the cost was seen to be much greater than the available resources, and the project went unfinished for a decade.
宾夕法尼亚大学的建校溯源至1740年——当时费城出现了一项筹建慈善学校的计划，该建筑同时兼作礼拜场所。然而工程启动后，实际成本远超可用资金，导致项目搁置十年之久。
Franklin's Vision 富兰克林的愿景
In 1749, Benjamin Franklin—printer, inventor, and future founding father of the United States—published his famous essay, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth,” circulated it among Philadelphia’s leading citizens, and organized 24 trustees to form an institution of higher education based on his proposals. The group purchased the building and in 1751, opened its doors to children of the gentry and working class alike as the Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania. Franklin served as president of the institution until 1755 and continued to serve as a trustee until his death in 1790.
1749年，本杰明·富兰克林——印刷商、发明家暨美国未来开国元勋——发表著名论文《关于青年教育的建议》，在费城精英阶层中传阅，并组织24位理事成员依据其教育理念筹建高等教育机构。1751年，该团体购得校舍，以"宾夕法尼亚省学院与慈善学校"之名向富家子弟与劳工阶层子女同时敞开校门。富兰克林于1755年前担任该校校长，并持续担任理事直至1790年逝世。
Franklin’s educational aims, to train young people for leadership in business, government, and public service, were innovative for the time. In the 1750s, the other Colonial American colleges educated young men for the Christian ministry, but Franklin’s proposed program of study was much more like the modern liberal arts curriculum. His fellow trustees were unwilling to implement most of his then-radical ideas though, and Penn’s first provost, William Smith, turned the curriculum back to traditional channels soon after taking the helm from Franklin.
富兰克林旨在培养商业、政府及公共服务领域青年领袖的教育目标在当时具有革命性。18世纪50年代，北美殖民地的其他学院均以培养基督教神职人员为宗旨，而富兰克林设计的课程体系更接近现代通识教育。但由于其理念过于激进，多数提案未能获得理事会支持。首任教务长威廉·史密斯从富兰克林手中接管学校后，很快将课程体系回归传统模式。
In addition to challenging the educational conventions of the day, Franklin pushed boundaries that moved science and society forward and helped shape America’s very nationhood. He was a member of the Second Continental Congress, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, and played a pivotal role in recruiting French aid for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Franklin later signed the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the conflict with the British Empire.
除了挑战教育传统，富兰克林推动的边界突破促进了科学与社会发展，助力美国国家形态的塑造。他曾任大陆会议代表、《独立宣言》与《美国宪法》起草签署者，并在独立战争期间为争取法国援助发挥关键作用。1783年，富兰克林签署《巴黎条约》，正式结束英美战争。
His broad knowledge spanned multiple disciplines, and far from regarding it as an end in itself, he saw knowledge as an asset that required practical application to be of value. His many essential inventions range from bifocals and the lightning rod to the iron furnace stove and odometer.
他的广博知识横跨多个学科，且始终强调实践应用价值。诸多重要发明包括双光眼镜、避雷针、铁制炉具和里程表等。
Beyond that, the civic institutions that Franklin helped launch include the country’s first subscription library (1731) and first hospital (1751), in addition to what would become America’s first university, the University of Pennsylvania, in 1749.
此外，富兰克林参与创建的公民机构包括美国首家会员制图书馆（1731年）、首家医院（1751年），以及于1749年奠基的美国第一所大学——宾夕法尼亚大学。
In the years that followed, Penn went on to obtain a collegiate charter (1755), graduate its first class (1757), establish the first medical school in the American colonies (1765) and become the first American institution of higher education to be named a university (1779). In 1802, the University expanded to another campus, but by the 1860s had outgrown even that space, so in 1872 the trustees built a new campus in the street-car suburb of West Philadelphia.
此后数十年间，宾大相继获得学院特许状（1755年）、迎来首届毕业生（1757年）、创立北美殖民地首家医学院（1765年），并成为美国首个获"大学"称号的高等教育机构（1779年）。1802年大学扩建新校区，至1860年代原有空间再度饱和，1872年校董会于费城西部的有轨电车郊区兴建新校区。
Franklin's Influence & the Modern University 富兰克林精神与现代大学
To this day, Penn’s 299-acre West Philadelphia campus reflects its rich heritage—a heritage closely bound with the birth of the United States—boasting more than 180 buildings and many notable landmarks, including the nation’s first student union and first double-decker college football stadium.
至今，宾大在费城西区占地299英亩的校园仍延续其与美国诞生紧密相连的深厚传统，拥有180余座建筑及多个标志性地标，包括全美首个学生会馆和首座双层大学橄榄球场。
The 190 research centers and institutes on campus also reflect the University’s innovative, civic-minded, and pragmatic creator: More than 250 years after Ben Franklin broke new ground in founding Penn, its faculty, students, and alumni continue to make breakthroughs in research, scholarship, and education. Its many subsequent “firsts” include the world’s first collegiate business school (Wharton, 1881); the world’s first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer (ENIAC, 1946); and the first woman president of an Ivy League institution (Judith Rodin, inaugurated in 1994). Rodin was succeeded by Amy Gutmann, inaugurated in 2004, and then M. Elizabeth "Liz" Magill, inaugurated in 2022.
校内190个研究中心与研究所始终体现着创校者的创新精神、公民意识与实践理念：在富兰克林奠基宾大250余年后的今天，师生与校友持续在科研、学术与教育领域取得突破。后续创举包括：全球首个大学商学院（沃顿商学院，1881年）、世界首台电子大型通用数字计算机（ENIAC，1946年），以及常春藤联盟首位女校长（朱迪斯·罗丹，1994年就任）。其后由艾米·古特曼（2004年就任）和M·伊丽莎白·"丽兹"·马吉尔（2022年就任）接掌校务。
From campus walkways engraved with Franklin’s words of wisdom to the University’s most important strategic initiatives such as the Penn Integrates Knowledge Professorships, the President’s Engagement Prizes, and the President’s Innovation Prizes, Penn continues to educate and inspire future leaders to move our now-global society forward.
从镌刻富兰克林智慧箴言的校园步道，到"宾大整合知识教授计划"、"校长参与奖"、"校长创新奖"等重大战略举措，宾大持续培育启迪未来领袖，推动当今全球社会向前发展。