On Thursday Penn State Behrend Students gathered together to participate in the Students Powerfully Express Any Concerns or “S.P.E.A.C. up” series. The series allows students from diverse background to come together and discuss any topic presented. The event took place from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in Reed 113.

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The series is run by Walaa Ahmad the Assistant Director for the Office of Educational Equity & Diversity Programs. She warmly welcomed students with a variety of food and drinks, providing a comforting atmosphere. The meeting kicked off with an ice breaker where students picked out an M&M and shared a fast fact based on its color. After the icebreaker students wrote down topics they had questions about or wanted to discuss. Topics which came up included: dealing with constantly negative friends and understanding why Accounting 211 is set up the way it is. However, the question which caused the most conversation for the evening was, “What would happen if women ruled the world”?

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The question opened up several areas of discussion such as how would the world be different historically, what is feminism, why women should have more say in their rights, and women's roles in society, and negative stigmas for women who enjoy traditional roles, and modern working moms. After the event Walaa Ahmad commented, “I like the idea of allowing students to write their own questions… it allows them to break down [broad topics], and give thoughts and inputs and allows them to hear one another.” Ahmad was also thrilled with the outcome of the event, 14 students RSVP for the event but 19 showed up which according to Ahmad is “excellent”.    

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The series comes at an interesting time as recent studies have found college freshman are spending less and less time interacting with their peers.  A study done by the  University of California-Los Angeles collected responses from 153,000 full time freshman at various universities, a surprising 38.8 percent said they spend less than five hours a week with friends. Scientists are now saying the low human interaction rates may be linked depression. Events like  the S.P.E.A.C. up series allows not only freshmen but all students to come together and participate in healthy conversations that interest them. Amariah Holiday a freshman majoring in creative writing has attended four S.P.E.A.C. UP series events. She joked that the good food helps but then stated, “It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be, [it’s] some students and some faculty just talking about the issues and when you just talk about the issues and you don’t throw names out and stuff like that it becomes easier to talk about what's going on and get everyone's perspective.”     

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Walaa Ahmad also runs a fast start mentorship program F.R.I.E.N.D.S that matches up freshman with other students to help them learn about campus resources and give them more connections on campus. She hopes to to continue the series on a monthly basis, however the next meeting date has not yet been determined.