In fall 2019, Lotus Collective was formed at the University of Pennsylvania, with roots in the labor organization SLAP which was restarted in early 2019.
When we witnessed firsthand how traditional methods of activism on campus failed us, we came together as a group of undergraduate students who were determined to reinvent our understanding of how society is transformed.
For the next several years, we met weekly to read and discuss together in order to grapple with new ideas and to furnish ourselves with a true education—what we defined as knowledge that explains and clarifies our responsibility to society, and which arms us with the history, philosophy and ideas to transform it. Through our discovery of new ideas, we "transformed ourselves to transform the world" as Grace Lee Boggs would say.
Along the way, we sought to honestly confront and reconcile the questions we felt were most important for knowing ourselves and determining the blueprint of our futures, such as: Why were our educations at Penn deeply unfulfilling, and how could we make our learning more complete? What are the possibilities of young people who are striving to make a contribution to society? What does it mean to live a life of moral courage, and to know the truth? What does it mean for us to be based in the city of Philadelphia? And many more.
Check out our past events and projects that we have undertaken over the years.
Now, renewed in the fall of 2023, Lotus @Penn aims to continue in this purpose.