Episode 13--Ways to get involved in Penn GSE

Hey everyone ! It is Wednesday already. We are half way through this week.
Yesterday, I took a prospective student who is interested in my program to a campus tour. During the walk, she asked me if there was any way to get more involved in GSE as well as Philadelphia. I was thinking that this might be the question that lots of students would be asking. So I decided to write this blog to give a brief introduction on the ways to be engaged in the new community.

We have student organizations as well as university organizations. For all the graudate students, GAPSA is the most influential university organization at Penn that intends to offer a wide variety of activities, events, and parties for graduate students from twelve schools. I have touched on this organization in my previous blog, but I don't mind doing an intro again. The abbreviation GAPSA stands for Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. It is widely funded, and has interaction with administrative officials and university officials. I have personally attended several events that GAPSA held, and those were really great, such as the Great Gatsby Party, Halloween Party and Happy Hour. Some of the events were free as long as you were an early bird, registering the event way in ahead of others. Others will be charged, but the price is reasonable. So don't while away your precious time here sitting in front the computer playing games. Active participation in such events will allow you to mingle with students from other departments and help you expand your network. For more information, please check out its website http://gapsa.upenn.edu
Do not miss out on anything interesting when you're at Penn.

For Chinese students, (I know there are some reading my blogs) you might be interested in CSSAP, which is Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Penn. It is where Chinese students unite and congregate, planning great events. Some of the recent events CSSAP has created include trip to Premium Outlets (shopping), Penn Voice (singing contest), Single Party (socializing and dating) and etc. It strives to foster stronger bonding among Chinese students at Penn and bring dynamic vibe to Chinese students' community.  For CSSAP's homepage, please go to http://cssap.org/ By the way, its interface is also very user-friendly, with Chinese characters as guidelines.

One of the most important student organizations in GSE is GSE Student Government (GSESG). It is composed by representatives from each division in GSE and other sub-student organizations.  In addition, it provides funds to other student organizations.

Besides those organizations that I mentioned above, there are many others to consider. Most of the organizations are listed here: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/students/orgs. At the beginning of the semester/year, these organizations will be recruiting new members. You will get many emails saying "complete the application" or "send your application to us" from those organizations. So if you really want to expand your interests and have more interactions with other students, don't hesitate to apply. That's the way for you to get involved and make your life here meaningful.

Wait for the next update! See you pretty soon!