In an effort to overcome the the pressure associated with maintaining the "Penn Face," students and faculty shared personal stories of resilience Friday afternoon on College Green.
The "speakeasy" was held to mark the launch of PennFaces, a website that provides a forum for Penn students to share any form of expression, whether it be a poem, a painting, a story or just thoughts.
College junior and Penn Faces co-founder Emily Hoeven, who is also an opinion columnist for the DP, said she hopes the website will bring about a positive "feedback loop" by allowing people to share stories of failure and success, which she hopes will encourage others to recognize the good and the bad in life and to be resilient.
She added she hopes the website will be a place to help everyone realize that they are not isolated and that “our experiences are inherently connected to the people around us."
"I think the thing that makes me most excited about PennFaces is generally is this idea of getting to know a lot about different people who you would ordinarily never even know anything about," she said.
The website will give people a chance to “internalize the message that everybody struggles and nobody’s perfect, no matter how perfect they may seem," said Ben Bolnick, a 2016 College graduate who now works as the student wellness communication coordinator for Penn's Division of the Vice Provost for University Life. "We want people to give themselves the permission to struggle and be imperfect."
The theme of honesty was reoccurring throughout the speeches presented. Students and faculty shared stories of struggling with mental health, vulnerabilities and other challenges.
“People don’t like to be vulnerable and share the bad things about their lives, they only want to talk about the good things — the accomplishments, the jobs, all the wonderful things that Penn gives,” said Emily Paterson, a 2016 College graduate and current graduate student in the Perelman School of Medicine's Master of Public Health program.
"In order to get those wonderful things you have to go through the other things, so I just think the more events like this that happen the more it's going to be normal for people to talk about everything, not just the good things," Paterson added.
Hoeven said she hopes the website will help students recognize that others may be going through similar experiences, helping to strengthen the campus community.
She added that she herself will challenge herself to share personal experiences on the platform.
"I can’t just ask people to give, but also [I should] give in return," she said.
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