Kwanzaa at Penn


Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Kwanzaa, a cultural holiday celebrating the cultures of Africa and the African diaspora, is celebrated from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. At Penn, a celebration was held in the ARCH building with a ceremony and feast, offering sustenance and support for students during the final stretch of their fall semester.

“What we hope this moment does for you is just energize, recharge,” said Brian Peterson, director of Makuu: The Black Cultural Center, urging students to “summon that sense of purpose” during finals.

Peterson advised students to stay focused and offered help. He said, “Life is challenging. If you’re having problems staying focused, come to this building. It’s quiet. Knock on my door. Let me know what you have to do,” Peterson said. “And I might ask you to check in on me.”

Charles “Chaz” Howard, University chaplain and vice president for social equity & community, gave a word of prayer and offered libations, a Kwanzaa tradition honoring forebearers. Members of the audience offered names of people who have died: James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and Sadie T. M. Alexander among them. After each name, Howard poured out a measure of water, offering acknowledgement and thanks.

 

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Chaz Howard poured out libations at Kawanzaa.

Student leaders from UMOJA then reviewed the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja, or unity; Kujichagulia, or self-determination, Ujamaa, or cooperative economics; Ujima, or collective work and responsibility; Noa, or purpose, Kuumba, or creativity; and Imani, or faith.

At the event’s close, Peterson urged students to offer support and to take care of one another. “Let’s remember we do control that,” he said. “It sounds cliché, but we do change the world.”

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"What we hope this moment does for you is just energize, recharge," Peterson said.

Class of 2023 Ivy Day


Tuesday, May 30, 2023

For 150 years, Ivy Day has been an annual tradition at Penn, with each graduating class installing at least one new plaque and planting a sprig of ivy. On Saturday, May 13, the class of 2023 added to the 200-plus plaques throughout campus with a stone designed by Marah Sanchez, a Class of 2023 student in the School of Nursing, and remarks from Vice Provost for University Life Karu Kozuma.

“The Ivy Day Award Ceremony is a special celebration that gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of our graduating student leaders,” Kozuma says. “It is also an occasion to create connections. At the ceremony, we have the privilege of meeting family members and loved ones who have supported the students, while the students can connect with alumni who received the same recognition 25 years ago.”

More images are available on Penn’s Flickr site.

The 2023 Ivy Day awardees and presenters, all Class of 2023 unless otherwise noted, are:

Contribution and Athlete Awards:

Ceremony host: Carson Sheumaker

Sol Feinstone Undergraduate Awards
Presenter: Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein
Recipients: Jacqueline Chan and Jasleen Gill (third years); Iris Horng (third year); Emilia Onuonga

Association of Alumnae Fathers’ Trophy
Presenter: Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein
Recipients: McCaleigh Marr, Kayla Padilla 

Class of 1915 Award
Presenter: Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein
Recipient: Piper Bond

Academic Achievement and President’s Prizes:

Penn Student Agencies Award
Presenter: President Liz Magill
Recipient: Isabella Mirro

James Howard Weiss Memorial Award
Presenter: President Liz Magill
Recipient: Emily Tu

President’s Engagement Prizes
Presenter: President Liz Magill
Recipients: Seungwon (Lucy) Lee, Catherine Chang, Kenneth Pham

President’s Innovation Prizes
Presenter: President Liz Magill
Recipients: Tifara Boyce, Gabriela Cano, Gabriella Daltoso, Sophie Ishiwari, Caroline Magro

Student Awards of Merit:

Penn Alumni Student Awards of Merit
Presenter: Penn Alumni President Michael Barrett
Recipients: Ryan Afreen, Joan Dartey, Margaret Gladieux, Rebecca Nadler, William Seklar 

Senior Honor Awards:

R Jean Brownlee Skimmer Hat Award
Presenter: Bethany (Rubin) Henderson
Recipient: Alisa Ghura

Spade Award
Presenter: Jason Judd
Recipient: Derek Nhieu

David R Goddard Loving Cup Award
Presenter: Marti Speranza Wong
Recipient: Annie Vo

Cane Award
Presenter: JP Lespinasse
Recipient: Justin Acheampong 

Gaylord P. Harnwell Flag Award
Presenter: Daina Richie-Troy
Recipient: Maria Jose Rodriguez Velazquez

Bowl Award
Presenter: Tal Golomb 
Recipient: Carson Sheumaker

Althea K Hottel Shield Award
Presenter: Rachel (Ehrlich) Albanese
Recipient: Hunter Korn

Spoon Award
Presenter: Benjamin Dietz
Recipient: Yaaseen Mahomed

The Clothing Closet


Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Button downs, black leather jackets, summer jumpers, and stacks of sweatshirts were neatly folded, stacked organized into sections in a meeting room in the LGBT Center, ready for the Center’s inaugural Clothing Swap & Drop. The event, kicked off the new Clothing Closet, which will be a permanent community resource. 

Housed in the LGBT Center’s lounge area, the closet will be open to the public starting on Nov. 28 on Mondays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are welcome to drop off used, freshly laundered clothing or peruse the racks to take a new outfit home.

The Clothing Closet is presented in partnership with Wellness at Penn, which commissioned canvas bags and notecards reminding closet patrons to “wash before you drop and after you swap,” all designed by Wellness’ student interns.

Julia Mills Burton, a nurse practitioner and gynecology section chief at Wellness at Penn’s Student Health and Counseling division, serves as the chair of Wellness’ LGBTQ working group. Students told her they needed more access to affordable clothing, Burton says. “Sometimes there are financial hardships, particularly as people are going through gender transition,” she says. This program will “provide opportunities for them to have access to clothing that might be gender affirming for them.”

Jake Muscato, the Center’s new associate director, and Wes Alvers, a master’s student at the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Center’s social work intern, worked together to set up the space.

The significance of Indigenous People’s Day


Tuesday, October 11, 2022

The second Monday in October is Indigenous People’s Day. The date, which had formerly been named after Christopher Columbus, was marked as a federal recognition of the contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their inherent sovereignty, in a 2021 proclamation made by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Indigenous People’s Day was first proposed by Indigenous people at a 1977 United Nations conference to counteract anti-Indigenous discrimination, as well as the inaccurate narrative that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, which had been inhabited for millennia by over 600 Indigenous nations. 

While Native people have long celebrated their cultures with or without federal acknowledgement, Penn Today spoke with students Nyair Locklear of the Tuscarora Nation and an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and Ryly Ziese, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Both are involved in Natives at Penn, an organization that supports students, faculty, and staff interested in Native issues, raises awareness, and builds community at the University.

Nyair Locklear of Raeford, North Carolina, is of the Tuscarora Nation and an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe. She is a fourth-year in the College of Arts and Sciences, studying health and societies.

In the school system I grew up attending, they only honored “Columbus Day.” We learned about Christopher Columbus’ contributions to Western society—and very little about his horrendous impact on Indigenous people. Despite not even knowing about Indigenous Peoples’ Day, that didn’t stop me from celebrating my Native heritage. As an eighth grader, I started wearing traditional native attire and jewelry to school every second Monday of October and declared to anyone who looked twice that I was “celebrating Anti-Columbus Day.” 

For me, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has always been about standing against colonialism, celebrating my culture in a visible way, and making sure that my peers knew that Native people are not “extinct”—an actual comment I’ve received many times, even at Penn). 

Imagine my surprise the first time I realized that although I stood alone in my actions in school, there were many others across Turtle Island and beyond doing the same thing I was. I felt seen and understood outside of just my home community, and I felt proud to be in solidarity with other Native Americans.

As I’ve developed my personal connection with my tribe, my family, and Natives at Penn, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has also become a day centering community and reflection. I don’t want other Indigenous youth to feel as I did for many years, alone in my hurt for everything that was taken from my ancestors and for everything we still endure today. I want to celebrate the achievements of Indigenous people and the perseverance of our culture after all this time. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I can see myself in all of my communities—Lumbee, Tuscarora, Natives at Penn, and Native American. I am part of a global community of Indigenous People who are grappling with complex emotions and remembrances. Even though I am reminded of all the work that is still to be done, I take the time to acknowledge all the people who came before me doing the same work, and all the beautiful things we can still celebrate.

Ryly Ziese, of Cookson, Oklahoma, is a second-year student in The Wharton School, concentrating in finance. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. 

Indigenous People’s Day recognizes the resilience of my ancestors and the legacy I carry with me. It is a day dedicated to the impact colonialism had on my family and many others. If it weren’t for the assimilation my great-great grandparents faced, I would be speaking Cherokee, telling old Cherokee family stories, and potentially feel more in tune with my culture.  

Growing up, I felt as if I had to make up for lost time and experience as much of the Cherokee culture as I could. I attended an all-Native American high school set in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, one of the best decisions I could have made. The resources there were incredible. I got to learn how the nation worked politically, and the school would bring in storytellers and powwow dancers so we could learn from our elders. 

Coming to Penn was definitely a shock. Everyone here is very goal-oriented and focused on the future; some of my classmates grew up knowing they wanted to go to Penn since the 8th grade. The native youth I saw were more carefree and fun. In my high school, we didn’t know who was going to which college. It’s about living in the moment. 

Indigenous People’s Day is also celebration of the strength of modern-day Indigenous people. I use the past as a motivator to continue to follow my dreams and fight for what I believe in. There’s a stereotype that natives are bad with money. There’s not a lot of natives in finance or consulting. I want to show young female natives that it’s not impossible to achieve, and to help Cherokee Nation citizens with financial stability. Every day, I work to be the voice my great-great grandparents never got to use.

Penn’s Climate Week organizers will mark Indigenous Peoples Day with an event on Oct. 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. Native Land, Native Knowledge: A Conversation and Rap Performance About the Climate Crisis” features alumni Megan Red Shirt-Shaw C11 (Oglala Lakota) and Talon Bazille C15 (Crow Creek Dakota and Cheyenne River Lakota).

The problem solvers


Friday, April 15, 2022

Sharon Smith started working in Student Intervention Services in the aftermath of 9/11. It was the onset of the fall semester, and almost 3,000 people died in the attacks. Others were reported missing. It was almost impossible to secure a flight. In the aftermath of chaos, confusion, and grief, the Office of the Provost wanted to respond in a comprehensive way to students in distress, Smith says. With the support of Vice Provost Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Smith worked with a small group of volunteers to be on call 24/7 for students needing help.

“What we found is that once a critical incident occurred, we needed postvention, if you will,” Smith says, “time to support the students after something large or major had happened that will impact our students. So that’s how we started.”

Formerly the executive director of Student Intervention Services, Smith is now associate vice provost for University Life. Student Intervention Services (SIS), the office she founded, is now a national model with four full-time staff members, plus the assistance of a shared administrative assistant. The office has what Smith calls “a multi-disciplinary approach,” partnering with the Chaplain’s OfficeStudent Health and CounselingFinancial AidCollege Houses & Academic ServicesPenn First Plus, and the Division of Public Safety, along with the University’s 12 schools. The office responds to a range of student needs, from participating in well-being checks to booking flights to helping students dress for job interviews.

SIS identifies and meets student’s most urgent needs, Smith says. When a pattern emerges, like when students go from bringing a pen and notebook to class to taking notes on personal laptops, SIS works to formalize partnerships with other offices to anticipate the shift. “I like to demonstrate a need and then get commitment from the University,” Smith says.

After a critical incident occurs, SIS takes time to support students, says Sharon Smith.

“We don’t throw Band-Aids at the problem,” says Elaine Varas, senior university director of Student Financial Aid, who is frequently in partnership with the SIS office. “We’re creating a plan that helps students succeed at Penn.”

In 2017, SIS received a class gift to establish the University Life access and retention fund. Smith used part of that funding to purchase 40 laptops. The next year, the office began partnering with financial aid, which now provides laptops for all highly aided students. On top of that, SIS provides additional laptops for students through the emergency and opportunity funding program, which serves as a safety-net to make sure students don’t fall through the cracks. “Sometimes students are not defined as highly aided; that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have the means to get everything they need,” Smith says.

Many of the questions Smith asks are the questions she wished someone had asked her in college, she says. “I was a first-generation student and myself an immigrant,” she says. “I came here as a teenager from Jamaica with my dad and siblings, finished high school here the in U.S., and went on to college.” Smith attended Cheltenham High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where in a student body of 500, she was one of six Black students. When asked what that experience was like, Smith paused. “It prepared me for the world,” she says.

Smith uses her experience to help vulnerable students at Penn, building SIS from the ground up. The program is a way for her to design the kinds of support she would have wanted as a young student, the support she helped to create for her younger siblings. “Our job is to create a safe space,” Smith says.

During the onset of COVID-19, SIS was part of the team that helped to depopulate campus, ensuring that students had a safe way to travel and a safe place to land. “With the pandemic, what stands out to me is the volume and the breadth of the impact,” says Lauren Rudick, director of SIS. “We worked with hundreds of students.”

Penn asked the team to pool their knowledge about students: Who could safely go home and sustainably study and who needed to stay on campus, says Varas. “It gives a holistic picture about a student,” she says. “Every one of us knows a piece, and when you put all the pieces together, it finishes the puzzle.”

“When you ask students to depopulate, what does it mean to a student who is highly aided?” Smith asks. For many, funding for housing and meals are crucial, she says. “Going home, those things might be a challenge. That’s where we come in, to be the advocate and the resource on behalf of the students.”

The fall of 2020 was an online semester, with students Zooming in from across in the globe. During the Africana Studies Summer Institute, professors noted that several pre-freshman students did not have their own laptops and were calling in on borrowed equipment or using their phones. “How do we admit students to a program that’s virtual, and they need equipment, and we don’t have it?” Smith asks.

Some of the students were international, adding an additional layer of complications. “I picked one and asked him to meet me on What’s App,” Smith says. She asked him if he knew someplace in the community that might work with Penn. The next day, Smith heard from him. He was calling from a store in Kigali, Rwanda, and Smith tried to give a credit card to the employee there. They wouldn’t take that form of payment. Smith asked if she could wire the funds and pulled in Varas. Because the store was such a small company, Penn couldn’t wire the money to a bank, Smith says. The only option was Western Union.

“Then I realized, wait a minute,” There were other students in the area,” Smith says. She asked the store owner if she could wire the funds for all the students and he could he get laptops to them. He agreed.

“So that was Friday,” Smith says. “I turned it over to Elaine, and they wired the money. I’m in bed, it’s like 1 a.m., and I hear my What’s App go off. So, I go and I look, and it’s the gentleman in Rwanda.” He had gone to get the Western Union funds and the police stopped him, saying they needed documentation from the institution on letterhead to verify the agreement. Smith got out of bed and got it done.

“It was definitely a piece that we, as an institution, had never embarked on before,” Varas says. “We were treading on brand new territory.”

A Thanksgiving greeting card reads "Dear Sharon, We remain forever grateful for all you did for James and our entire family back in May of 2010. May you have a blessed Thanksgiving."

Once they had a protocol in place, SIS and financial aid used this method to procure laptops for other international students, Smith says. “That’s one of my proudest moments.” Coming up with creative responses to support and advocate for students is “what we do in SIS,” says Smith. “We have a playbook like anyone else; we have protocols and so forth. But every single case that I’ve worked on, they have nuances that are just unique to what we do.”

The most challenging aspect of the job is informing the family that a student is injured, missing, or deceased, Smith says. The instances where SIS is able to make a difference—to connect a student to counseling services or house a family whose child is in the hospital after a car collision—are extremely rewarding, Smith says. Some families send the office Christmas cards every year.

“We’re seeing many students at one of the hardest times of their lives,” Rudick says. Watching them graduate is “our proudest day, to know the obstacles that they overcame in order to get there and to see their pride and their happiness in being able to achieve their goals.”