For freshmen, first impressions of diversity are less than ideal

For many new minority students, the opportunity to connect with peers of shared backgrounds is incredibly important.

“You need to find somewhere you belong," College freshman Adam Abebe said. “It’s important to find people that will understand what you’re going through.”

College freshman Aminat Balogun agrees that while race doesn’t determine her friendships, racial or ethnic identity can often be a uniting factor for minority students.

“I don’t exactly feel pressure to hang out with people of my own ethnicity, but I do find myself attracted to the group,” Balogun said. “I am of Nigerian ancestry and I feel the need to reach out to people of the same nationality — not because that is where I belong, but because I am interested in learning more about my culture and people.”

Balogun feels as if Penn culture can sometimes be isolating for minority students.

“In comparison to other elite schools that I visited during the college process, Penn is fairly diverse, but that’s all relative,” Balogun said. “It still needs to be much more racially diverse.”

Many students note that even if Penn appears diverse, social situations can often be quite segregated.

“I think Penn is a diverse community by design,” Balogun said. However, “oftentimes people of similar racial and socioeconomic backgrounds group together. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes students will have to work to meet new people.”

While Abebe disagrees that Penn is as a whole segregated, he says that some of his friends have experienced segregation while attending parties over NSO.

“I don’t think Penn is segregated, but frats maybe. When I went to parties I saw my friends being turned away, while they kept letting in white people behind them,” he said, adding though that he couldn’t be sure it was about race.

Despite the possibility that parties themselves might be segregated, Abebe maintains that most groups on campus are open to all.

“You see people of color everywhere," he said. “Everyone seems to be welcome in every club regardless of race.”

As for Balogun, while she still values interacting with people who share her ethnic identity, since coming to Penn, she said she feels less pressure than she did at her high school to only be friends with people of her race.

“Sometimes I do feel like I should hang out with other black people just because I am tired of being labeled as the black girl who ‘acts white,’” but she added, “I feel comfortable enough at Penn to be myself. And if that means I have to be the white-black girl, then so be it.”

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