Tough recruiting helps push campus diversity

With 40 percent of its members being students of color, Penn's class of 2010 is its most diverse to date.

But this triumph of diversity was not won without aggressive effort.

As admissions officials nationwide, including Penn, fight for higher percentages of minorities at their schools, more and more are using a range of multicultural recruitment programs.

In order to attract a diverse applicant pool, Penn admissions officials travel all over the country "visiting key areas where students of all backgrounds reside," Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said. This includes inner-city high schools - not just the elite prep schools that have historically been feeders to the Ivy League.

However, it's often once the students are admitted that the hard sell begins.

Every April, the office of admissions hosts a Multicultural Students Weekend for about 300 accepted minority students. These students are flown in from all over the nation and stay with an undergraduate volunteer host. This opportunity "helps them explore Penn in detail and depth," Stetson said.

According to students who have attended these events, it is here that what Stetson called Penn's "more personalized approach" in recruiting multicultural students shines through.

Close to 80 percent of attendees at these events ultimately choose Penn, Stetson said.

College sophomore Erica Evans, who is black, cites her visit to Penn during Multicultural Students Weekend in 2005 as a high-school senior as the factor that solidified her decision to attend.

Also accepted at Harvard and Georgetown, Evans said Penn hadn't been a top choice. After her visit, however, she said she knew: "Penn is the choice for me."

The visit provided reassurance that she would find people she could relate to and that she could pursue her cultural interests, she said.

"You can sit in on info sessions and hear about Penn, . but it's [better] to have that one-on-one foundation with people," Evans said.

College freshman Daniella Jones, who is also black, attended a multicultural recruitment weekend as a high- school senior. She said she appreciated the opportunity to "actually see the people in person rather than seeing the numbers in a brochure."

Jones said this first-hand observation of Penn's diversity - especially the "closeness of the African-American community" - made her decision to attend Penn concrete.

For College sophomore Oscar Benitez, who also attended a multicultural recruitment weekend as a prospective student, the personal factor was once again key.

"It was the relationship I established with my host that really finalized my decision," Benitez said. "Things happened to click" on a personal level.

Along with providing guidance, his host showed him "the good and the bad" of Penn life. "To this day, I still use some of that advice," Benitez said.

Though Stetson is "very pleased" with the diversity of the Class of 2010, the work of attracting a diverse student body never ends: He is already back to work, recruiting the Class of 2011.

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