Ryan Benjamin | This lesson brought to you by YouTube

The first time Susan Boyle popped onto my computer screen, I had no clue she would become a phenomenon within days, shocking the world with her unbelievable singing talents despite extremely low expectations.

"Susan really makes you wonder how much undiscovered and unharnessed talent there is in the world," Engineering senior Mike Abuschinow said. "If everyone had an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams, how different would the world landscape be today?"

True, and while the lessons are abundant, the one most significant in my mind for Penn students and alumni is how this story inspires us to respect people regardless of their individual identity or where they might lie compared to us in a perceived social hierarchy.

Susan Boyle, in case you've been living under a rock, is the 48-year-old Scottish woman who sang on Britain's Got Talent - but she's not exactly Carrie Underwood. With bushy eyebrows and frizzy hair, she looks a lot older than 48, and viewers are made to believe she'll be a complete disaster due to the quirky music, audience jeers and a particularly snobbish-looking girl rolling her eyes (sucks to be that girl now, doesn't it?). Of course, Susan goes on to prove us all wrong.

If that isn't enough, her life story is more compelling. The youngest of nine, she's lived in the same small, plain house her whole life, has never been kissed, took care of her sick parents for years, suffered oxygen deprivation at birth and was the target of taunts throughout childhood.

I remember what it was like to be made fun of in school - people called me "rhino" because I was chubby. (A play on my name - how clever). But I survived as most of us do, and I ended up at Penn. Not everyone is so lucky.

Here at one of the best schools in America we strive for great things. We are ambitious, fairly intelligent and have a leg up just by being here. Because we've mostly spent time with people from similar backgrounds to our own, we are quick to judge others for not being as worldly as ourselves, both in Philadelphia and in the greater world.

"Susan Boyle, for a bright shining moment, told us not to be so quick to write off the over 40s, in particular the frumpy over 40s," Women's Center director Felicity Paxton, herself a Brit, said. "I like to think there's a lasting lesson there."

The truth is we, especially, have the credentials to write off a lot of people. Fresh Grocer comes to mind as somewhere we often interact with people less "book smart" than us. We might judge the cashier even though we know nothing about her, where she comes from, what happened at home today or even if she's an amazing singer. But some mistake background for worthiness, and are therefore rude when paying for their bananas and rice cakes. (Readers might think that I, too, am judging and making assumptions. You're right, but that's part of the column-writing business.)

Penn students have the potential to change this. And we have: On any day you can see various students enjoying great conversations with guests at Soup Kitchen, or other "undesirables" normally unacknowledged by society at large. But we can try harder to be inclusive and respectful. Take 30 seconds to say hello. Everyone's got a good story to tell.

When Larry King asked Susan if she would pursue a makeover, she quickly responded, "Why should I? Why should I change? It would take away my identity." Indeed it would. We now know that embracing anyone's individual identity is within our reach - perhaps with a little prodding - and we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss society's "rejects" without a fair trial.

The nugget in Susan's story about rising to fame means little because the chances of that actually happening are slim to none. But we must give the millions of Susan Boyles out there - others we normally would brush aside - a chance for our respect. The woman from West Lothian, Scotland, may cause change greater than perhaps anything in the course of human relationships ever seen.

Ryan Benjamin is a College senior from New Haven, Conn. A Connecticut Yankee appears on Fridays. His email address is benjamin@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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