A University of Pennsylvania student who claimed she was left “homeless” when administrators kicked her off campus for participating in an anti-Israel encampment is the daughter of a wealthy Filipino family.
Eliana Atienza, 19 — who told the Philadelphia Inquirer she had nobody to turn to for help in the US after she was kicked off campus in early May — is the daughter of Kim Atienza, a prominent media personality in the Philippines who is partial to showing off his extravagant lifestyle online.
Her mother, Felicia Atienza, graduated from the Wharton business school and has served as the president and CEO of several international schools over the years, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The family enjoys flaunting their wealth on social media, with posts showing their extensive motorcycle collection, first-class flights with private showers and caviar service and hobnobbing with celebrities.
Despite being supposedly destitute herself, Atienza recently took a trip to Antarctica, according to posts from her own social media, and has traveled across the world to places like Alaska and Paris.
Nevertheless, Atienza claimed in an interview with KYW Newsradio that UPenn administrators had left her out on the street with nowhere to turn.
“I don’t have any family to go back home to here,” she told the outlet.
She was one of six students suspended from campus on May 9 for participating in an encampment that had taken up a campus green to protest Israel and its war against Hamas following its deadly Oct. 7 terror attack.
Police began breaking up the encampment the following day.
Atienza participated in unsuccessful negotiations with school administrators over the demonstrators’ desire to have the university divest itself of any investments connected to Israel.
She is also a part of Fossil Free Penn — devoted to having the school ditch investments in fossil fuel companies — which co-signed a letter in support of “Palestinians who are fighting to liberate their lands from the Israeli Occupation,” published just days after Oct. 7.
Atienza did not respond to requests for comment.
