Poverty Among University Students in Pennsylvania

Karis Choe, Gauri Sharma, and Melissa Qin

Poverty among Pennsylvania university students reflects broader systemic economic inequity. It alludes to a lack of financial resources to cover fundamental needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare, which affects millions of people in the United States. This Wicked Problem extends beyond the unemployed and includes low-wage workers, such as students juggling between work and education.

With Pennsylvania’s poverty rate of 11.8%, especially in urban regions like Philadelphia, college students confront distinctive challenges. While education is sometimes viewed as a way out of poverty, many students continue to struggle with tuition, housing, and living expenses, particularly those from low-income families or with minimal financial aid. These constraints force students to choose between academics and basic needs, which exacerbates stress and mental health. As a result, poverty remains a persistent issue among Pennsylvania’s university students.

Poverty can look different in different people as a result of many factors. For our map, we used books as a motif to represent the thing that this Wicked Problem revolves around: education.

Each book represents a different aspect of the impact of poverty on college students in Pennsylvania. While each book floats as a separate island, they are all very interconnected with various subcategories, distinguished by colour. As university students ourselves, we recognize the importance of the nuance that ties into our peers’ financial situation and how that affects their well-being and academic performance. We also identified three possible intervention points that can be implemented into this system. By laying the problem out this way, we hope to inspire empathy that lays an essential base for any progress that can be made.