Penn welcomes high school students for Asia Day

A cavalcade of high school students will be on campus next week, but they’re not coming for the usual college tour. It is Asia Day at Penn on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The one-day event, hosted by the International Classroom at the Penn Museum, the Center for East Asia Studies, and the South Asia Center, is held each year to increase 9-12 graders’ interest in Asia and teach them about the world’s largest continent. 

Raili Roy, assistant director of the South Asia Center, will welcome the students at the Asia Day opening session at the Penn Museum. She says 170 students from six area high schools are expected to attend the event, now in its 13th year.

“What we do is give the kids an experience of being on Penn’s campus and learning about Asia through lectures, performances by Penn student cultural arts groups, and demonstrations by Penn students doing origami and henna tattooing,” Roy says. “[The high school students] have lunch made of food from the region and take a self-guided Museum tour.”

The students’ virtual field trip to Asia will begin with a “Where in the World?” map contest testing their knowledge on the geography of the region. Afterwards, they’ll hear from Penn experts, graduate students, and faculty members, speaking on “Everyday Life of Youth in South and East Asia.”

Students will get to see more of Penn’s campus with a visit to the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall for a buffet lunch of Indian food (including tandoori chicken, chole, and naan) and Chinese food (vegetable lo mein, beef fried rice, eggrolls, and more). They’ll be encouraged to sample both cuisines.

Asia Day