Starting this fall, Penn’s admissions materials will reflect the diversity of its applicants by going bilingual.
An initiative to make pertinent documents available in Spanish began in Fall 2008. Though Penn started offering financial aid publications in Spanish over the summer and hosts Spanish language introductory meetings in key recruitment cities, admissions brochures have been available in English only.
Since the admissions publications are going through what Dean of Admissions Eric Furda called a “discovery phase,” this is the right time to work on a translation, he said.
Providing information in Spanish has been established as a priority, Furda explained.
Wharton senior and chairman of the Cipactli Latino Honor Society Danny Fernandez said translating the materials will be one of the biggest obstacles, but that Penn has decided to have work-study students to do the translations.
Since applicants to Penn need to be fluent in English, parents will be the primary beneficiaries of the initiative.
Furda said applicants are already under a lot of pressure “without the added burden of translating for parents.”
While the process of converting the documents is costly and time-consuming, Furda said it is worthwhile.
As for Penn’s outreach to minorities as a whole, “we’re fairly extensive,” he said.
President of Hernandez College Consulting Michele Hernandez did not predict much need for materials in languages other than Spanish.
“Possibly Chinese … for parents or overseas schools, but Penn already gets a lot of apps from China,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Nursing sophomore and Latino Coalition chairwoman of programming Brenda Achille said these materials will help Latino applicants overall, due to their parents’ desire to be involved in the admissions process.
“Latino parents are very involved in their children’s lives and would feel more confident in Penn,” she said.
Latino Coalition chairwoman and Wharton junior Wendy de la Rosa said the biggest advantage will be the message it conveys.
“It sends out that we care about Latino admissions at Penn,” she said.
The process is one de la Rosa felt had to happen at some point, and after these materials are available, she said other languages should also be considered.
“I would have a problem just seeing the materials in Spanish,” de la Rosa said, clarifying that information should be translated to other major languages — particularly Mandarin.
When a school does not offer materials in Spanish, “they are making it harder for Latino students to go through the application process if their parents cannot understand English,” Fernandez said.
Without parents, students will need to turn to guidance counselors or teachers — relationships Fernandez said “may be very superficial, so they may not be able to provide the best help.”
Penn’s initiative, she added, “enables parents to give meaningful input.”
