weeklypress.com • ucreview.com • december 5 • 2012 7


Lea Students experience UPENN College Day S


By Nathaniel Lee UC Review Correspondent


tudents gathered at the University of Pennsyl- vania’s Houston Hall of Flags at 34th


& Spruce Street


Saturday to attend a special Marketing 100 class where they designed commercial products as a class assign- ment for the school of busi- ness Saturday. However, this was no or- dinary class at the UPENN business school and these were no ordinary students. The students in this class were students of Henry C. Lea Elementary school in West Philadelphia who were participating in Penn’s an- nual College Day.


Some thirty or forty stu- dents aged 11-14, along with four parents, took part in the day long event designed to give children an opportu- nity to get a taste of college life.


“The basic goal is to get kids excited about the possi- bility of going to college and the other goal is to actually get them to internalize the idea off going to college,” said Alex Amaniel, UPENN senior and lead organizer of the event.


During the event the elementary students had the opportunity to tour the schools campus, speak with university students and par- ticipate in a marketing class designed to show the youth exactly how such classes are conducted in the school. Providing this college ex- perience to inner-city youth, many of whom are eco- nomically disadvantaged, was one of the motivating reasons Amaniel became in- volved with organizing the event which he has served as a volunteered since his freshman days.


“The main goal I wanted to work on was on low economic student access to Penn because I came from a low income background,” said Amaniel who attends Penn with the help of fi- nancial aid. Amaniel said that watching his mother struggle as a single parent to bring up her children, pay bills while simultaneously pursuing her own goals, in- spired him to reach back to help other youth who might be facing similar situations. Having the event on a weekend as opposed to a weekday also had several advantages, according to Jonathan Paz, co-director of


the event. “We always had the op- tion of doing it on a Friday but that was always kind of rushed,” said Paz. Holding the event on a Saturday al- lowed them more time to spend with their elementary school visitors and made it possible for more parents, who typically work week- days, to attend with their children. Paz said that it also allowed more time to dialogue with the children. “We want the parents to be involved in this particu- lar program, especially since we are talking about higher education,” said Paz. The parents, according to Paz, are key to the organizers of College Day.


“Although we are giving them (the children) a tour, we are giving them a class and we are giving them a meal, we really want to hit the parents and we want to equip them with the in- formation they need about what it takes for them to get their children a higher edu- cation down the road,” said Paz.


In fact, while students


were engaged in the Mar- keting 100 class hosted by Penn students, the parents met with representatives who explained the college enrollment and selection process.


Things like SAT scores, tu- ition and other requirements for college were explained to the parents during the presentation. “They [parents] need to know that there are certain expectations and you need to be working your way up there the whole time,” said Paz who said that waiting for a child’s senior year of high school to began prepa- rations for college is no an ideal plan. Such prepara- tions need to begin much earlier he said. Another crucial point that Paz emphasized for parents had to do with the issue of financial aid.


“Everyone lives under the idea that the recession hit and we want to send our kids to college but we aren’t making it affordable. The reality is that there is help and they need to know what that help is and how to ask for it,” said Paz.


Although over 30 elemen- tary school children partici- pated in the event, only four parents joined them. Asked about the low parent turn out, Paz said that the effort


to get parents out to such events was ongoing and he hoped that the parents who did attend could help reach out to other parents as well. “What’s good about these parents are that they are very involved in their school so we are going to see if we can have their help to get parent support and by support we mean bringing them here,” said Paz. Daniel Fein is a sopho-


more at Penn and said that it was a pleasure working


with the children.


“It was a lot of fun and I was really happy to be a part of it today,” said Fein. Fein attends the University’s Wharton school of business and has some experience designing and producing products for consumers. Fein formed a company that produces foldable sunglass- es that can be folded when not in use. “We just got a contract with the Orange Bowl” said Fein and part of the


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proceeds of each sale goes to support research into the cure for juvenile diabetes. “My foundation called


‘Team Brotherly Love’ in honor of my brother who has type 1 juvenile diabetes and my foundation has raised over $1.6 million in research for the cure,” said Fein who facilitated the chil- dren’s Management 100 class. That’s the adult perspec- tive but what did the chil- dren think of the whole event? To find out I asked some of the young students themselves.


“College Day has actu-


ally helped me think about what college probably feels like because they gave us a tour around the campus and showed us what it really means to be in college, said Dominic Bright, 13.


Amanadou Diallo, 12, said that he really liked the event because it informed him about what was necessary to prepare for college. “I learned what to do to get there and now I know more clearly what I want to be,” said Diallo. When asked what he wanted to be, Diallo said he wanted to be a computer tech.


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