This week, PennWorld is “mixing up” students on campus.
On Oct. 28 this year, PennWorld is hosting its Mix It Up event to encourage intercultural conversations, as well as identifying and questioning social boundaries . Students will be assigned seats in dining halls so they can eat and talk with someone they don’t normally interact with. The dining hall location creates a symbol for change in a place where, normally, segregation is common.
Club founder and College junior Joy Zhang said that last semester around 30 people attended Mix It Up at 1920 Commons. Based on a sign-up sheet, each student was seated with someone from a different cultural background . The stimulating conversations students had prevented the need for the previously planned icebreakers.
“A lot of people said they met someone they would not have met, and it was an interesting experience,” Zhang said.
Mix It Up at Lunch Day is a nationwide campaign developed by Teaching Tolerance over a decade ago. Zhang said that her inspiration to bring Mix It Up to Penn is to promote interactions between different groups of people.
“I deeply believe that diversity is not a number but measured by experience,” she said.
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