2nd Annual Diversity Weekend

This weekend the Graduate School of Education (GSE) held its 2nd Annual Diversity Weekend. The purpose of the weekend was to invite students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges, to UPennGSE to give them a taste of graduate school. The 13 students came from various schools such as, Spelman College, Philander Smith College, University of Mass-Boston, Morehouse College, and Lincoln University-PA. The students were flown in and stayed at the Inn at Penn. The first day, Friday, we had an icebreaker and mingle, reception and dinner, and then a no faculty/staff allowed student panel (made up of current students of color from various programs in GSE), where the student's asked any questions they liked. Saturday started off with breakfast, tips for applying to graduate school (admissions process, financial aid etc), two mock classes, a tour of Penn's campus, a tour of Philly, we visited the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the art museum and then topped it off with dinner downtown at Maggiano's.
The weekend was grreat! The students were clearly good students, juniors and seniors, who had deeply thought about the next step of their lives, and had come with good questions and intentions. We had fun during our time out in the city, and later that night went to the infamous South Street. I honestly connected and bonded with many of the students and was quite sad to see them go. I look forward to keeping in contact with them..and helping out at the next Diversity Weekend!