Hi, we’re Elizabeth & Robert Scheyder, Faculty Fellows at Hill College House. The reason we are here is for you, the students. We both have years of experience at Penn, having earned degrees here and now working, teaching and advising undergraduates here, so we know a lot about the people and organizations that make up Penn. We also have a lot of experience outside the ivory towers, working and traveling, which has given us friends around the world and an understanding of different cultural and generational expectations. We want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable in Hill and in our home, and want to make sure that everyone’s culture is honored and all holidays are celebrated. We had to improvise during COVID, so we made ANZAC day biscuits (cookies) and hung them on students’ doorknobs with a contest to guess the cookies!

We genuinely enjoy getting to know students, so we host Sunday dinners and brunches for four to six students at a time. It’s a time for relaxation from school duties and just conversation. We believe people can really connect over a meal, so we hope you’ll join us for one. Once in a while, we’ll also have a pop-up “Cocoa with the Cats and Canine”, where you can stop by for cocoa during the evening, interact with our menagerie, and play one of our many board games. During final exams, we host “Cafe 472”.  Students can stop by anytime between 7pm and 2am for a cup of espresso, tea or cocoa and a variety of cookies and pastries, to take a study break and relax for a bit, wind down for the evening, or recharge for the next push to finish an assignment. We also love to participate in house-wide events. One of the events we sponsor is The Great Hill Chair Race, which takes place at the end of Spring semester classes.  It involves one student pushing a desk chair with a second student riding it it. The goal is to race around the Atrium in the shortest time. The winners get crowned with ivy, a reference to Ancient Greek athletics, and also pizza for their entire suite.  It’s a lot of fun and we hope you will participate. 

Most importantly, students can stop by our apartment (Room 472 - 4 Green) any time of the day or night.  If there is something you want to talk about, even at 2am, we strongly encourage you to knock on our door.  We may be in pajamas, but after all Hill is our collective home. We are serious about this and have had students stop by at 2 am and leave at 5am after talking through their particular problem or concern.  Again, we are here for YOU and our first concern is for your collective and individual well-being.  We have seen it all in life and at Penn, so there is no topic that you want to talk about that will surprise us. Of course, we will keep all conversations confidential unless you want us to share them or we think you’re at risk. But we’ll always tell you about that first.

We want to leave you with a paraphrase from the song “She Will Be Loved”, written by Maroon 5.  It is this: “Our hearts are full and our door’s always open, come by whenever you want”.  Hope to meet you all very soon.  Don’t be a stranger!