Two new groups on campus have embarked on a "quest" to "push" for more lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender awareness.
Queer Undergraduates in Engineering, Science and Technology, founded last semester, will primarily serve students studying science and technology in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences or the College of Arts and Sciences.
Nurses at Penn Understanding Sexuality in Healthcare, founded this semester, will primarily serve students in the School of Nursing.
Both groups emphasize that they welcome any interested students, whatever their sexual orientation or field of study.
Leaders of both groups said they founded their organizations in response to voids in their respective schools.
Engineering junior and QUEST founding president Matt Feczko said he was approached by LGBT Center director Bob Schoenberg to fill the LGBT void in Engineering. He also expanded QUEST's scope to include students studying science or technology-related fields in the College.
Nursing junior and PUSH founding president Yana Sigal said she was frustrated by the lack of a Nursing LGBT community. But more than that, she was "totally blown away" by a lack of awareness among her fellow students.
"If a patient is transgendered, how do you address that patient? What pronoun do you use?" she asked. "[Students] don't realize that there are more options for gender than just male and female."
Sigal added that there are specific health risks affecting the LGBT community that future nurses should be aware of, such as higher breast cancer rates in lesbians.
After QUEST and PUSH are fully-established, there will be LGBT-specific groups in nine of the 12 Penn schools, said Schoenberg.
While the agendas of QUEST and PUSH may seem similar, the groups' specific goals are unique.
QUEST's goals are similar to those of the Wharton Alliance, a group founded a few years ago to serve LGBT Wharton undergraduates.
Feczko said QUEST's three objectives are diversity recruiting, professional outreach and social outreach.
Similarly, the Wharton Alliance helps pair recruiters seeking more diversity with LGBT students interested in business, explained president and Wharton junior Baylee Feore.
But PUSH is aimed at both teaching students interested in medical professions how to care for LGBT patients and at providing a social support system for LGBT students interested in healthcare.
Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, assistant dean of diversity and cultural affairs in Nursing and PUSH faculty advisor, said she "recognized a real need" for an LGBT group in the school.
"We have the right person at the right time in the right environment, and it came together," DeLeon-Siantz said.
The network of support provided by groups like PUSH, QUEST and the Wharton Alliance helps people who can feel marginalized, said College Dean Dennis Deturck.
"These groups make people feel that all of these doors are open to them," he added. "There's nothing stopping anybody from studying anything and from succeeding."
