I am Behrend, the poster proudly proclaims. It showcases a student with a smiling face, often engaged in a major related activity. The poster makes a point to provide their hometown, from Egypt to Puerto Rico, in an effort to represent the diversity found on campus. I am Behrend, the poster announces, with a slightly smaller tagline beneath: One Community, For/Of All. The I am Behrend campaign is organized by the Office of Educational Equity and Diversity. This is the second time the posters have made an appearance on campus, with the first set having rolled out in 2014. This year, the campaign features both students and faculty to better represent the unique backgrounds here at Penn State Behrend.

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The Office of Educational Equity and Diversity is a branch of Student Affairs. Its purpose is to provide services to all students to ensure an equal chance at higher education, and to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for the student body. Andy , the director of the Office, is the creative mind behind the I am Behrend campaign. He explained the inspiration for the posters, “we are always trying to promote awareness, diversity, and community.”

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He went on to say that the goal of the posters was to advocate for diversity across the campus, “I am Behrend, you are Behrend … We are all Behrend. So that was the idea behind that. And then it says, One Community For/Of All. I wanted to say both, one community of all us who are here, and one community for all.” Herrera describes the posters as “an initiative” to raise awareness within the student body and throughout the faculty of diversity across campus.

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“As you can imagine, we have students, faculty, staff, who are at different levels of awareness, sensitivity, understanding, so it’s very difficult...so anything and everything that we can do to promote it, at least maybe somebody, one of the students, will see something or attend something...at least hopefully we’re making little differences,” Herrera said.

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Herrera explained that the campaign had first launched in 2014, then was brought back this year. Across both campaigns, he says that the response has been mostly positive from both students and faculty. The promotion of Behrend’s diverse population has been met with open arms. But what is Behrend’s diversity? Herrera explains that “Diversity is everybody. So, somebody asked me, ‘hey, what’s the diversity on your campus?’ I said the diversity on our campus is 100%, cause everybody is unique and different.” Of course, there is a breakdown of the numbers to illustrate the representation on campus. Herrera states that about 15% of the student body is comprised of minority students. When factoring in the international student base, the number rises to 20%, giving Behrend a makeup of 80/20 majority to minority students.

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So, what should students and faculty take away from the I am Behrend campaign? As members of the Behrend community, the continued promotion of an inclusive environment should become a primary focus. Herrera’s advice on advocating for diversity is to endeavor to keep an open mind, recognize personal biases and work to overcome them, and to take an active role in learning about the cultures represented in the world today. Penn State Behrend is an excellent place to develop in the sense of and sensitivity to differing cultures, through interaction with fellow students and the multi-cultural events across campus.