2008 Woodie Awards
Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 2/18/08 Section: News
A push for Latino applicants
Minority group aims for diversity that represents national demographics
Jody Pollock
Penn prides itself on hosting the "largest community of color in the Ivy League," according to interim Admissions Dean Eric Kaplan.
But that figure can be deceiving as Penn simultaneously ranks low when it comes to Latino students.
College junior Angel Jacome, chairman of admissions and recruitment for the Latino Coalition - the umbrella organization for Latino student groups - hopes to reconcile Penn's small Latino population with its reputation for diversity with a series of recruitment initiatives targeted at Latino students.
The Latino population at Penn - which composes 7 percent of the general student body - represents one of the lowest percentages of Latino students in the Ivy League, Jacome said.
The figure is also an underrepresentation of the Latino population in the United States as a whole, which made up 14.8 percent of the national population as of July 1, 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Last December, Jacome contacted the Kite and Key Society, the volunteer organization of the admissions office, about organizing upcoming training sessions to send current Latino Penn students back to their own high schools to recruit other prospective Latinos.
The program will establish an "intimate connection" between Penn and prospective Latino students, said College junior and former chairman of the Latino Coalition Oscar Benitez. "You put a face to the institution."
With a high-school outreach program already in place, adjusting Kite and Key training to fit the needs of the Latino Coalition will be relatively simple, said Engineering junior and Kite and Key President Danny Lustig.
Jacome, who has recruited Latino students from his high school on his own over the past two years, said the training will provide a more formal forum to prepare Penn students to aid both the recruitment of Latino students and eventually an increase in Latino applications and matriculations.
In addition to these trainings, the Latino Coalition is also pushing for the publication of admissions and financial aid information in Spanish.
But that figure can be deceiving as Penn simultaneously ranks low when it comes to Latino students.
College junior Angel Jacome, chairman of admissions and recruitment for the Latino Coalition - the umbrella organization for Latino student groups - hopes to reconcile Penn's small Latino population with its reputation for diversity with a series of recruitment initiatives targeted at Latino students.
The Latino population at Penn - which composes 7 percent of the general student body - represents one of the lowest percentages of Latino students in the Ivy League, Jacome said.
The figure is also an underrepresentation of the Latino population in the United States as a whole, which made up 14.8 percent of the national population as of July 1, 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Last December, Jacome contacted the Kite and Key Society, the volunteer organization of the admissions office, about organizing upcoming training sessions to send current Latino Penn students back to their own high schools to recruit other prospective Latinos.
The program will establish an "intimate connection" between Penn and prospective Latino students, said College junior and former chairman of the Latino Coalition Oscar Benitez. "You put a face to the institution."
With a high-school outreach program already in place, adjusting Kite and Key training to fit the needs of the Latino Coalition will be relatively simple, said Engineering junior and Kite and Key President Danny Lustig.
Jacome, who has recruited Latino students from his high school on his own over the past two years, said the training will provide a more formal forum to prepare Penn students to aid both the recruitment of Latino students and eventually an increase in Latino applications and matriculations.
In addition to these trainings, the Latino Coalition is also pushing for the publication of admissions and financial aid information in Spanish.
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