Senior Columnist Mia Vesely showcases the diverse experiences of the Black students at the University.
Credit: Chenyao Liu“Exuberant,” “diverse,” and “inclusive” are just some of the adjectives Black students at Penn use to describe the community. Commonly dubbed “Black Penn,” the Black community on our campus is rich in culture and involvement.
Personally, the adjective I would choose is “inspirational.” The first Black woman graduated from Penn in 1890 — over 150 years after its founding. Walking in the same halls where people like me were marginalized feels extremely empowering. Presently, seeing the Black community thrive at Penn fills me with inspiration. We didn’t just make it here — we help shape the past, present, and future of the University. To highlight just a sliver of the various personalities on campus, I spoke with four of my friends to hear about what being Black at Penn means to them.
Students come from all over the world to attend our University, and once they’re here, most dive headfirst into campus life. Black Penn is no different, with students bringing various interests and backgrounds to bear. For College junior Drew Bukasa, who is the president of the Mu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, attending Penn has meant many new opportunities.
“You have so many options of who you want to be and what you want to do, [to] choose the things that best fit you, and that can always change,” Bukasa said.
Bukasa knows this experience of change firsthand. He originally came to Penn as a member of the wrestling team but left as his interests changed and grew. Black Penn is anything but stagnant, encompassing majors from math, to communications, to cognitive science.
College junior Kyndall Brown, who is studying cognitive science, echoed this statement. Brown is a campus tour guide and involved in the greek community. In her day-to-day experience on campus, she reported feeling proud of her racial identity, which she said was “definitely relevant” to her extracurricular involvements.
“While I’m not explicitly involved in racial identity-based clubs, I often feel very conscious of my race in club spaces,” Brown said. “People often look to me as a point of diversity when opening up conversations relevant to race or offering room for further viewpoints.”
When people talk about “Black Penn,” I feel like the community is often generalized into one type of individual with known interests, but that is not the case. The vibrancy and variety of the community comes from the passion within it, spanning service clubs, sports, and everything in between.
For College junior Angeludi Asaah, a thrower on Penn’s track and field team and board member of Black Student-Athletes at Penn, attending Penn and being a student-athlete means celebrating her identity in her sport and beyond.
“Joining BSAP this year has allowed me to celebrate being Black at Penn in many different ways,” Asaah said. “As athletes, we’re a little bit more separated from Black Penn in general, so being able to help bridge and expand the community has been nice.”
Asaah spoke of a Super Bowl watch party event held between BSAP and the Black Student League, which brought out Black athletes and non-athletes to hang out casually and cheer on the Philadelphia Eagles together. Speaking on the purpose of the event, she highlighted the importance of community. “After all, we’re all part of Black Penn,” Asaah said.
In our current political climate, which is seeking to erase, stereotype, and subdue minority voices, it’s more necessary than ever to uplift, empower, and highlight our communities. As Penn moves to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I see it as our job to continue centering these values in our lives.
College junior Teia Hudson, president of the NAACP at Penn and member of the Philadelphia City Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, described Black Penn as meaning “everything” to her. Hudson highlighted her involvement with Penn’s NAACP chapter as an extremely impactful aspect of her experience at Penn.
“We get to do service for the Penn community and beyond,” Hudson said. “I’m very proud to say that we have an all-woman board. Black women here are trailblazers on campus.”
As a member of this all-woman board, I have to agree with Hudson’s statements. The work Penn’s NAACP chapter is doing on campus is invaluable, and coupled with other campus organizations, it has assembled a network of service here at Penn.
Hudson, a West Philadelphia native, recounted the community she has been able to find through Black Penn. “People will support you, we are versatile, we are extravagant, and we move,” Hudson said.
While I’ve been telling the stories of some of my closest friends, my message also goes out to the Penn community at large: There’s no “correct” way to celebrate your identity. Whatever works for you is yours, and whatever you want, you can find. And if you can’t, create it! Clubs like Descendants of Afro Americans at Penn — which I profiled last year — were created within the last four years, and there is always room for more.
There is no right way to be Black, no right way to act Black, no right way to look Black — and the diversity of experiences at Penn shows that. “There’s always a place for someone to fit in,” Hudson said. “Whether it’s ethnic-, service-, art-, or preprofessional-based clubs, there’s always a club or person waiting for you.” Now with that, go find it, and if you’re already in it, cherish it — today and always.
MIA VESELY is a College junior studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Phoenix. Her email is mvesely@sas.upenn.edu.
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