BloNdieFinalDefinition

Examining the statistics from the past ten academic years, Penn State University has become more diverse in both its demographic ratio of student population and of the reasons students choose for attending Penn State. Diversity, which is included in the "Penn State Principles," is now a focus of the University's administrative approach. The evidence can be seen throughout the campus, from the acceptance of more students from minority groups, to the designation of Pennypacker Residence Hall as a diverse living community. These two are only a couple of the many examples which exemplify the diversity Penn State offers today.

 

Diversity is not strictly a huge city compared to a small town, nor black compared to white; rather, it is simply something different from that to which you are or have been accustomed.

Since I first arrived on campus, I began to experience the diversity which Penn State University had worked hard to attain. The past 18 years of molding and shaping of my perceptions in my small town of Mars, Pa, has turned me into who I am today. I never moved to a new town, and all I’ve ever known has been a predominantly white, upper-middle society. At Penn State it’s been culture shock because I was thrown into a world of different people and ideas which I had never experienced before.

 

The reasons students have for choosing Penn State are very diverse, and are usually based on their backgrounds. The number one reason that people come to Penn State is because they are expected to. Many generations have graduated from Penn State, and a good majority of those people have children. Because of the almost cult-like setting of Penn State University, people are compelled to send their children here. Those children, brainwashed since birth on blue, white, and Penn State football, are conditioned to come; they WILL go to Penn State. Other students are here on a scholarship, because it was either the cheapest school they could find, or their parents work for the college. Instead of paying the forty-two thousand or so dollars for another institution, they chose Penn State because it cost them only a few thousand. Sports are a huge part of Penn State, and have been for a great number of years. Some of the students on campus, namely the football players, came here because they were recruited. Penn State, exceedingly concerned about doing well in the eyes of other colleges, sends recruiters all over the country, looking at high school students who excel on the playing field. Most of the students on the college teams are here because they were asked to come. There are also the students who completely missed the whole point of coming to college. This category includes those students who partied through high school and came to college to continue that important part of their lives. Penn State, a number of years ago, was named one of the top five party schools in the country. It’s sad, but true that a small minority of the students here came because they walked up the hill to frat row and said, “This is the place for me.”

 

Last, but not least, is the category to which I belong, and which makes up the final, diverse reason why students come to Penn State. This is because the student truly wants to come to Penn State, not because of their parents, or a recruiter, or because their friends told them to, but because of the amazing academic programs, the job placement opportunities, and the pride in the school. Those students who stepped onto this campus when they took their campus tour and got a chill. It is those students who knew by the end that this was where they wanted to spend the next four or more years of their life.

 

The latter are the reasons why people came; each in its own right is “diverse”. All of them are different, and many backgrounds, thoughts, and ideals went into the decisions. These decisions in themselves, not race or minority, is what, in my opinion, makes Penn State University a diverse college.

 

Minorities are a very large part of the diversity at Penn State as well. It could be said that the campus is not very diverse in this aspect because there are still so many white people here compared to other races. But Penn State is working on its integration of more minorities into the school. By again looking at the demographics for the past few years, it is evident that minorities are becoming a larger part of the campus, and, because of their more prominent presence, even removing themselves from the “minority” category on campus.

 

Penn State is so concerned with diversity that it even designated specialty housing to the topic. Pennypacker Hall is defined as a “scholarly and diverse living/learning community.” There are people in Pennypacker from around the globe. People of various backgrounds: rich and poor, urban and rural, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Students in this hall are “diverse” in every definition of the word. Yet all the residents are brought together with a common goal and purpose, to do well in school and to pursue a career in engineering, medicine, or science.

 

Campus diversity is important. The world is a very diverse place, containing people from everywhere and every different background possible. Because Penn State is a diverse university, in everything from its student’s reasons for attending to the actual race of the student, those who graduate are prepared for the world and the job market that await them.