For rising first-years, transfer students, and returning students, building community at Penn can take shape in myriad ways. Three undergraduates share how they’ve developed their sense of belonging at the University, offering empowered perspectives on finding one’s place on campus.
In the spirit of Move-In, New Student Orientation (NSO), and the new academic year, Penn Today spoke with undergraduates Lucas Hudson, Marissa Prager, and Victoria Largaespada-Tercero to learn how they’ve cultivated their sense of belonging on campus.
‘Lots of different corners and places’
Lucas Hudson found his first friend at Penn even before Move-In, on the bus riding to a pre-orientation program. “We met on the bus there, and our dorms were very close in the Quad and we’ve been good friends ever since,” he says.
Hudson, a fourth-year from Miami, Florida, has found his community in the Under the Button magazine team, in Greek life, as a fellow in the SNF Paideia Program, and DJing at local events.
He honed the latter skill as part of DJ@Penn during his first year on campus. “We would get together every week in the basement of the experimental psychology building, and these two guys would teach us how to DJ,” he says. “It was pretty fun.”
“You have to try a lot of different things out,” advises Hudson, an economics and health and societies double major in the College of Arts & Sciences. “There’s lots of different kinds of people at Penn, and so naturally there’s a lot of different corners and places on campus that you might find yourself in. … You really have to keep an open mind and explore—and you might find that there’s multiple corners that you find yourself fitting into.”
From NSO to the ‘Glee House’
Marissa Prager, a fourth-year urban studies major in the College, will usher in her final year at Penn as president of the Penn Glee Club and proud friend of all 50—yes, all 50—of her clubmates. But her Penn journey didn’t start as socially.
Marissa Prager, center, with fellow Penn Glee Club performers at a Penn Jazz Ensemble event.
Although from Montville, New Jersey, Prager had never visited Philadelphia before coming to Penn. A choir singer in high school, even Glee Club felt like unknown territory when she encountered it at NSO’s Highball to Hey Day. When she joined, however, it ultimately was her conduit to community: Late-night chats and long text threads culminated in her living at what the group cheekily calls “The Glee House,” or “Glouse,” an off-campus home that’s been in the “glee family” for four years and is adorned with glee-themed décor.
Prager adds that volunteering with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships for the Community School Student Partnerships summer program was also crucial to her Penn experience. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in what Penn is and forget you’re in a broader city until you actually experience it,” she says. The Netter Center informed her academic path: “Working with students made me realize I wanted to go into education,” Prager adds. “It’s been a really wonderful experience.”
Her advice to incoming first-years? “Treat certain spaces of Penn as non-academic,” she says. And some of her best networking, she says, has inadvertently come through her Penn Glee Club alumni.
First-gen perspectives
While immersed in NSO during her first year at Penn, Victoria Largaespada-Tercero—a third-year psychology major in the College from Miami, Florida—discovered a campus resource that would become a home away from home: Penn First Plus (P1P), the University’s hub for supporting first-generation and limited-income undergraduates.
“I feel like Penn First Plus made me more connected with Penn,” says Victoria Largaespada-Tercero.
(Image: Courtesy of Victoria Largaespada-Tercero)
It’s where Largaespada-Tercero met one of her roommates. It’s also where she goes to study, do homework, enjoy a cup of coffee, and connect with first-generation peers. “We all understand each other in some way,” she says.
Largaespada-Tercero joined P1P’s Gateway Student Mentorship Program (GSM), which pairs student-mentors with mentees, as a first-year. Having a mentor, she says, fueled her sense of belonging at Penn. Empowered by this uplifting experience, Largaespada-Tercero became a GSM mentor herself, which she calls “rewarding” and her way of “giving back.”
“I feel like [P1P] made me more connected with Penn,” says Largaespada-Tercero, who has expanded her campus community through involvement with Casa Latina and serving as co-president of the Penn Psychology Undergraduate Society.
For students from first-generation and limited-income backgrounds, Largaespada-Tercero says, being in the P1P space means “you’re going to be surrounded by people that care.”
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