All in the SESP Family

Education is a family affair for the Meyerhoffs — with dad and daughter both enrolled in degree programs in School of Education and Social Policy.

Emma and Peter Meyerhoff

Students in the close-knit School of Education and Social Policy often say they feel like family. In the Meyerhoff house, it’s literal.

Peter Meyerhoff ’15 MA is working on his doctorate in SESP’s Learning Sciences program. His 20-year-old daughter, Emma, is a SESP sophomore who smiles at her dad in the hallways of Annenberg Hall but stops short of taking any class that he helps teach.

Jenny Meyerhoff — Emma’s mom and Peter’s wife — received her master’s degree from SESP in 2001. Emma was 6 six months old at the time and occasionally attended class with her mom when the regular babysitter fell through.

But dad and daughter being enrolled in degree programs in the same university at the same time, of course, is an entirely different situation.

“It’s Emma’s experience; I try to be very sensitive to that,” says Peter, 47. “Even if you have a close and loving relationship, it can be weird to go to school with your dad. But about halfway through her freshman year, she said, ‘Dad, it’s OK. We can go get coffee.’ ”

Jenny, who writes children’s novels, said she often is struck at the diversity of the three Meyerhoffs’ SESP experiences. Decades after she received her degree, she still is drawing on theoretical concepts she learned at SESP in her writing.

“We have three very different career trajectories, which speaks to how broad SESP is, yet there’s overlap,” Jenny said. “We definitely have interesting dinner conversations.”