A favorite leadership adage goes “Nothing begins without individuals, but nothing lasts without institutions.” 

Fox is different and better today than it was in 1999; it will undoubtedly be different (and, we hope, better) in 2020 and beyond than it is today. As the Fox archives attest, during its first decade, the program was never exactly “the same” for three straight years.  Moreover, Fox’s staff and student-leaders have never rested on their laurels.

Positive change and visionary, results-producing program dynamism are to be anticipated and embraced, not avoided or evaded.  Still, in the year 2107, Fox’s core mission, its undergraduate focus, and even its administrative character should be virtually the same as they were when Bob Fox and Penny Fox gave Penn a permanent endowment gift in 2007. 

Looking to the future, the Fox staff and student steering committee members are dedicated to ensuring that, just as it did during its dynamic and successful first decade, the program will model fidelity to its “study and serve” mission, with all responsible Penn officers doing so in active accordance with the terms of the 2007 donor agreement between Bob Fox, Penny Fox, and Penn, the concomitant 2007 memorandum of understanding between the founding faculty director and the faculty dean of the Penn School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), and the 2009 addendum to the donor agreement signed by the benefactor, the faculty director, and the SAS faculty dean. 

The tee-shirts distributed at the 2007 Penn President’s party celebrating the Fox endowment expressed it eloquently: “Fox Forever.”