The student body of West Philadelphia Catholic High School represents 37 different countries from around the world.
This statistic is just one of many reasons why the school is forging an international studies program -- and Penn is one university that is helping out.
Administrators and instructors at West Catholic -- located at 45th and Chestnut streets -- have been weaving international studies into their curriculum since last year and hope to officially launch a program for a select number of students in each grade in fall 2005.
"We're in the process of deciding how exactly we're going to approach the universities. We've had many, many contacts with the University of Pennsylvania," said Joseph Selfridge, Social Studies department chairman at West Catholic. "The outreach program[s] there [have] been a tremendous help already in providing speakers and resources."
The outreach programs are representative of Penn's four National Resource Centers -- the Middle East Center, the South Asia Center, the African Studies Center and the Center for East Asian Studies.
Each of these centers has already been involved with West Catholic's international studies program in some capacity, primarily by sending speakers to freshman world history classes to talk about their country of origin or interest.
One of these speakers was College sophomore Andrea Seligman, who spent three months in Ghana during high school and now studies Swahili and African Studies at Penn.
While these National Resource Centers are Penn institutions, they are also partially funded by the U.S. Department of Education, which mandates that they "help strengthen the [Penn] curriculum ... and provide services for educators and the larger community," said Kathy Spillman, associate director of Penn's Middle East Center.
In addition to the assistance from the University, as well as some help from La Salle University and potentially Drexel University, West Catholic faculty members are using their own imaginations to integrate international themes into their specific departments.
Certain details of the international studies program remain unclear -- namely, the process by which students will be chosen to participate, as well as financial considerations.
"We have not actually begun that process [of deciding how students will be selected for the program] yet. We're hopeful that this year that's going to fall into place. We're also waiting for -- hoping for -- a major funding source. That is still up in the air," Selfridge said.
According to Selfridge, West Catholic has not approached any universities for financial assistance, primarily seeking their intangible resources of expertise and enthusiasm.
Eventually, West Catholic's goal for the program is to have international studies majors. Currently, there are no focused programs of study like this at West Catholic.
Selfridge said of the plan, "There will be a select number of students from each class who will major in international studies, and they will be the core group of many of our activities that will support the program -- such as the World Affairs Club, which is already under way, and the Cultural Diversity Club, which is already under way -- and hopefully some of them will be scholarship students."
While there is no binding agreement between West Catholic and Penn regarding the international studies program, Associate Director of the Center for East Asian Studies Frank Chance foresees that these two institutions will maintain their relationship.
"I think certainly our outreach program will continue, and we'll make ourselves available for West Catholic and other schools in the area as best we can," Chance said.
Selfridge commented on the logic of having an international studies program, specifically at West Catholic.
"We have many kids that are native speakers from these countries ... Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Laos, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Togo, Sudan. ..."
Last year, some of these students educated their peers about their foreign homes by speaking to world history classes.
Regardless of their countries of origin, all high school students can benefit from an international studies program, according to Spillman.
"It is important for young people to have ... international studies curricula to understand the complexities of the world today."
Chance echoed her sentiments.
"High school is certainly not too soon to start learning about other countries and the way that they approach things," he said.
"So basically, from my point of view, it's what little we can do to help foster world peace and world understanding."
