Assembly of International Students holds first discussion forum

In Houston Hall, friends greeted each other with kisses and tossed jokes around in Spanglish and a Chinese Students’ Association member introduced himself to a member of UMOJA, the umbrella organization for black student groups at Penn.

These students were participating in the Assembly of International Students’ first discussion forum Saturday.

Student leaders from cultural groups like United Minorities Council, Latino Coalition, UMOJA, Chinese Students’ Association, International Relations Undergraduate Students Association and the Asian Pacific Student Coalition gathered to discuss various socioeconomic issues surrounding international students.

“There is a lot of talk of socioeconomic diversity,” Engineering junior Sohaib Hashmi, president of the AIS said, “but the international aspect is missing.”

More importantly, they tried to bridge the gap between domestic and international students by discussing perspectives from both sides.

The topics addressed were as diverse as the collective group: Is Penn’s atmosphere friendly to low-income students? Is there tension between low-income students and wealthier ones? What is the middle class?

The discussion didn’t attempt to answer these questions; rather they provided neutral territory where every opinion could be expressed.

Students also reminded each other that diversity has to do with more than the color of one’s skin. “There are very stark cultural differences,” College sophomore Jose Romero of Penn Society for International Development said. “I feel a disconnect with [certain] members of the Latino community.”

The signs of socioeconomic diversity are not always so blatant but they appear when a group of friends are divided between splurging on dinner and heading to a dining hall.

Engineering freshman Justin Cho, however, mentioned that his hallmates had very different socioeconomic backgrounds and still managed to get along very well.

The forum also touched on how there is usually a focus on the two extreme cases of rich and poor, and the middle class is often forgotten.

“There’s a lot of twisted perception about who really is the middle class and who defines themselves that way,” Wharton and College junior Juan Carlos Melendez-Torres, the United Minorities Council chair, said.

A general sentiment from the discussion was that students from middle-class homes may wrongly believe they are poorer than they are relative to their wealthier peers.

For example, a number of students said their friends often downplayed the fact that they had work-study jobs. “People are ashamed to say it. And that’s too bad,” College junior Victoria Pisini, IRUSA president, said. Pisini’s father is a doctor, and she grew up in a part of Maine where no one seemed to care how much money others made. But Penn’s high expectations and cash-focused atmosphere had her wondering when she arrived, “Isn’t this good enough?”

Students also discussed their discontent with Penn’s lack of need-blind admission for international students.

The remaining discussion focused on making a bigger impact on campus and increasing support and the retention rate for minority students. Later initiatives may touch on LGBT problems as well as other issues and lead to presenting a proposal to the university and bringing in speakers.

Students were inspired to attend for a number of reasons, including an interest in international relations, a Korean citizenship or, in the case of College junior Amy Li of AIS, her parents’ immigration to America from China. “[AIS] are motivated to bring change,” Li said.

The change will begin after they move past the discussion. “The next big step is to see if we can turn this into something tangible,” Hashmi said.

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