From First-Year to PHINS

The palestra doors were held wide open: inside was the sweet smell of delicious pastries, philly cheesesteaks, and the unmistakable excitement of no less than three hundred Penn first year students. Happy conversations and nice-to-meet-you filled the inside but could not be contained, with its passion and ecstasy seeping out onto Shoemaker green.

A year ago I was immersed in this chaos of greetings, and now here I am once more, yet in a hugely different role.

As a PHINS (Peers Helping Integrate New Students) leader, I was here, once again, at the international student orientation picnic, now helping facilitate and set up the event. Fond memories flooded my mind, as this picnic just one short year ago was my first ever Penn event. Countless friendships were started here between myself and the people I hold closest to me. What satisfaction and strange nostalgia it was to now look back as an outsider to the event – from one of the first year students myself to now helping first years build new relationships and transition into their new life.

Looking back at the past year I had, I am incredibly grateful for NSO and the connections it helped me build. College can all of a sudden be a lonely place, and knowing a few familiar faces walking down Locust Walk makes the difference.

For this reason, I was motivated to become a PHINS member as a returning sophomore. For the first time, I saw what the passionate chaos of NSO looked like from the other perspective: the great challenges of event planning, the logistics of managing two and half thousand new faces on campus, and the desire to support our new peers as they move onto campus.

It is unbelievable to think about how many of those faces I saw will return a year later, just as I did, as a PHINS leader, to help transition the new generation.

Welcome to our collective home, Class of ‘28!

- Tony T.