Street: What are some of the cool things you’ve been doing with the African American Arts Alliance (4A)?
Ingred Prince: 4A is a collective of black students who put on black theater productions written by black playwrights or speak about black culture. The whole mission is to raise awareness of the intricacies of black culture to Penn community and the West Philadelphia community. We just performed ‘For Colored Girls’ and that show was about black women and some of the tragic issues they face within our community and how despite those tragedies they still find a way to uplift themselves and move forward. That’s really important to us because our shows are always very socially relevant. Surrounding this show, because we want to empower women, we did a public makeup event. We had different makeup companies specifically made for colored girls, like Bobbi Brown and ColorPop, donate a lot of free makeup and we had makeup artists come in and do tutorials.
Street: What has been your favorite role in a 4A production?
IP: Acting wise my favorite role was Khadijah. It was my first play in 4A called "Amari Each Day Forward” written by Penn student Alexis Van Eykan. I had never acted before and Khadijah was this stubborn princess but no one knew she was a princess. It was hard for me because I had to kiss someone and it was like my first show and I was like, “I don’t know where your lips have been.’ It was so hard but the guy I kissed became one of my really good friends in 4A and we’ve managed to maintain a platonic relationship.
Street: Can you tell us about Sayre Health Initiatives, Education and Leadership Development (SHIELD)?
IP: SHIELD is a community service initiative where Penn students go to Sayre High School and mentor Sayre High School students to become certified medical assistants. We teach them practical skills like how to administer medicine, how to read EKGs, how to get urine samples. At the end of their four years at SHIELD they can take the certified medical assistant exam. We also motivate them to go to college and help them with whatever they’re going through.
Street: First AIM screenname?
IP: Oh my god. It was PrincessIngred954. Princess because my last name’s prince so I thought that was intuitive and my area code in Florida is 954. So basic.
Street: Describe yourself in three words
IP: I would say ‘passionate, confident sponge.’ I try to soak in a lot of things.
Street: What is your spirit animal?
IP: A butterfly.
Street: What’s your favorite holiday of the year?
IP: Low key, I’m a hopeless romantic so I would have to say Valentine’s Day. I’m so cheesy. I actually like it better when I’m single because there’s no expectations on my part. When I’m single it’s great because I can eat all the chocolate I want because it’s readily available, I can watch all the rom coms that I want and cry in bed because it’s Valentine’s Day and no one will judge me.
Street: What’s your favorite rom com?
IP: Maid in Manhattan. JLo is blessed.
Street: What’s something about the nursing school that other students at Penn don’t know?
IP: To be honest, if you can survive nursing school, you really can survive anything. Between the long hours and in clinical, you really are put in these real life situations where the stakes are really high and you really are disrupting people’s lives if you’re not thorough and detailed. The nursing school teaches you how to be resilient because you are thrown into these really shitty situations, literally and metaphorically.
Street: What advice would you give to your freshman-year self?
IP: I was such a worry-wart. Now I’m a little more calm about things and reassured. I would tell her to stop worrying and live in the moment.
Street: If you are what you eat, what are you?
IP: I’m a little salty.
Street: Where in the world have you travelled?
IP: I’ve been to Spain and Korea more recently. In Korea I was working for a pharmaceutical company in Seoul and taking classes at SNU, Seoul National University. I also went to Israel over a break because we were studying community health in Jerusalem.
Street: What do you love most about Penn?
IP: I’m starting to really love the people and the network which is kind of crazy. Penn is this shared experience. It could be traumatic, or fun, but because you went through it with a certain cohort or people you can always refer to those memories and look back and laugh. Everyone at Penn is going to be popping in their own way. It doesn’t matter where you live or what industry you’re working in, there’s guaranteed to be one Penn person you can lean on.
Street: What do you hate the most about Penn?
IP: I think people get really caught up in their spaces. And when they get really comfortable they don’t step into spaces that would challenge them. I think that a lot with shows and different performing arts group at Penn. Some of the smaller groups, especially cultural groups, students don’t go to their shows purely for their interest in them. They go because their roommate is in the show so they have to. Would you have gone to that show if your roommate wasn’t in it? I wish people would get out of their comfort zones and challenge themselves and go and see that show that might make you feel a little salty. Go see it and learn from it.
Street: What is your dream job?
IP: My realistic goal is to be a nurse abroad working with low-resource, low-income communities as a family nurse practitioner. I think that would be amazing. I love caring and I love primary care and preventative medicine so to bring those two together would be amazing. I’m one of those people that would raise her kids in three different countries if I could. Then for a an unrealistic dream job, I want to be a professional cuddler. Is that weird? I’m such a good big spoon.
Street: What would a professional cuddler service look like?
IP: I don’t know if I would have cuddle-buddy spidy senses, but if you need me call me for my big spoon services.
Street: If you were going to be famous what would it be for?
IP: I would be famous for designing my own brand of scrubs.
Street: If you were going to be infamous for something what would it be?
IP: Probably falling down a flight of steps and chipping my tooth. I actually have nightmares about that.
Street: There are two types of people at Penn…
IP: Those who make it into the Ivy League Story and those who don’t. I feel like getting in the Ivy League Snap story is harder than getting into Penn.
Street: What’s one question we forgot to ask you?
IP: If you had to write a dissertation on any figure in pop culture who would it be. It’d be TLC. I think they’re low key public health practitioners. They wore condoms all over their clothing in the ‘90s. It was right about when the AIDS epidemic was really hitting black communities and especially black youths. One of the many multifactorial reasons is because people aren’t using condoms because there was such a stigma around condoms. So they decided ‘we’re going to normalize condoms’ and they wore condoms as a part of their clothing all the time and pinned them to their jeans.
