SCHOLAR THE MAGAZINE OF THE SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE
2019-2020 Annual Report
IN THIS ISSUE Student group focuses on inclusion Assessment leads to new student learning outcomes Scholars respond to pandemic Donors inspired by Schreyer legacy
Message from Dean Peggy A. Johnson Table of Contents Message from Dean Peggy A. Johnson
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Mission and vision statements
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Scholars lending a hand during pandemic
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New student organization champions diversity
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Schreyer for Women impacting communities
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The year in review
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Student and alumni award winners
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Assessment leads to defined student outcomes
8-9
Nursing student hopes to break damaging cycles 10 Scholar maps cancer-suppressing protein Facts and figures
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Semester abroad shows Scholar importance of conservation
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Scholar researches humanitarian applications of drones
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Honors College set path for Medtronic CEO
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Alumnus using Oxford program to expand impact
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Admissions director helping students find their fit
18-19
DHFP shows students another side of faculty
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Data analyst uses numbers to tell stories
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Founder’s influence inspires donors
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Our boards
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Brunings helping parents and families stay
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connected
Credits: Creative Director: Wade Bennett Director of Strategic Communications, Schreyer Honors College Editor-in-Chief: Jeff Rice Public Relations Specialist, Schreyer Honors College Graphic Design: Jim Pryslak
This year has been nothing if not remarkable! Our Scholars and staff have been learning and working remotely since spring break in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, in spite of what might be considered a major disruption, our Scholars, staff, faculty, and alumni have responded with creativity and determination that will surely impress you as you read these pages. One year ago, Dr. Lynette Yarger joined us as our new Assistant Dean for Equity and Inclusion. The timing has proven to be fortuitous. In recent months, as people around the nation voice their desire for a more just society, our Scholars and Scholar alumni have voiced concern for diversity and equitable support of underrepresented students at Penn State and in the Schreyer Honors College. Dr. Yarger has been working tirelessly with student groups, including the Scholar Diversity Task Force and Minorities in Schreyer (see story on page 4), and the Scholar Alumni Society Board (SASB) to develop ideas and action plans that leverage the energy of this moment. The SASB has also formed a new committee that will focus on supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community. Together, and with a renewed commitment to these issues, we will continue to move the College forward to a place where everyone is welcome, recognized, valued, and supported. This is necessary change and it has the full focus and attention of my leadership team, the staff, and our partners across the University. Some of you may befamiliar with the Penn State Fact Book, which includes statistics on admissions and enrollments for graduate and undergraduate students at University Park and the campuses. The statistics include the number of students enrolled at each campus and in each academic college, along with demographics in a variety of categories, including underrepresented minorities and international students. Unfortunately, the Schreyer Honors College is not represented in that composite for several reasons, including the fact that our Scholars are already counted in the data from the academic colleges at the University. Thus, we have added those statistics to the ‘Facts and Figures’ section on page 13 and will continue to do so in the future. For consistency, we have used the same categories that Penn State uses. We clearly have much work to do to increase the minority population in our College. In the meantime, and just as importantly, we must work harder to ensure that our underrepresented students feel welcome, included, and equitably supported. I hope you will enjoy reading this issue of SCHOLAR: The Magazine of the Schreyer Honors College. Our mission and vision are embedded in everything our students, faculty, staff, and alumni do. They are the embodiment of the Schreyer legacy and I am so proud and honored to be part of this extraordinary community!
Photography: Steve Tressler, Pat Little, Jeff Rice, Kerry McCann, Michelle Bixby, Provided images Produced by the Schreyer Honors College Office of Strategic Communications Contact: 814-863-2635, shcpr@psu.edu
Peggy A. Johnson, PhD, F.EWRI Dean, Schreyer Honors College Penn State
shc.psu.edu
/PSUSHC @pennstatehonors /PSUSHC
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Scholars rise to meet challenges of pandemic Ezra Gershanok, a 2021 economics major, helped create a non-profit organization called the COVID Response Network, which raised funds to distribute masks across the country to those in need who may not have existing connections to a medical supplier. Their masks went to homeless shelters in New York, state prisons in Alabama, a retirement home in Harrisburg, and several other places. The team reached and exceeded its goal of distributing 100,000 masks by June 1. “If one of our masks prevents someone from spreading the disease or contracting the disease, the whole process was worth it,” said Gershanok.
Mission
The mission of the Schreyer Honors College is to promote: • Achieving academic excellence with integrity • Building a global perspective, and • Creating opportunities for leadership and civic engagement
Vision
To educate people who will have an important and ethical influence in the world, affecting academic, professional, civic, social, and business outcomes. To improve educational practice and to continue to be recognized as a leading force in honors education nationwide.
The COVID-19 pandemic sent the world’s healthcare systems into overdrive and created numerous challenges at every level of society. Schreyer Scholars and Scholar alumni were among those who stepped up and stepped in to help those in need. Brendan Bernicker, a 2019 philosophy and political science alumnus, and
Scholar Steven Budzinski, with the help of several other Penn State students and his younger sister, Cindy, an incoming first-year Scholar, created the Corona Caveman Challenge, a fundraiser designed to direct money that would have gone to regular grooming expenses to help feed schoolchildren. All of the proceeds went to Blessings in a Backpack, a national nonprofit organization that normally delivers meals to elementary
schoolchildren in need on the weekends but, with schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, expanded those efforts throughout the week. Schreyer for Women and Days for Girls — with assistance from Dean Peggy A. Johnson — organized an effort to sew cloth onto medical face masks to help them last longer. Scholar Ninad Mahajan participated in a food donation program in his neighborhood in Morrisville, helping to feed nearly 200 people per week through a local community center, and Scholar Amanda Grube started an informal community agriculture garden and a free library at her church while quarantined in her home in Manheim. Scholars, as is often the case, were often inspired by one another. “I think when you’re in a group of motivated people who also have a concern for their community at large, it’s infectious,” said Budzinski, who raised more than $2,000 through the challenge. “I think it motivates you to want to strive to be that as well. Being in a community of people that care, makes you care.”
TOP: Steven Budzinski raised more than $2,000 to help feed schoolchildren. BOTTOM: Brendan Bernicker (right) and his team distributed more than 100,000 face masks around the country.
History of the Schreyer Honors College The Schreyer Honors College is a leading force in honors education. Under the leadership of director Paul Axt, Penn State launched the University Scholars Program in 1980. In September 1997, William and Joan Schreyer presented a $30 million gift, and the College was expanded and renamed in their honor. A gift of an additional $25 million in 2006 was part of the “For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students.” In the last four decades, more than 15,000 Penn State graduates have earned the distinction of being a Scholar.
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New student organization aims to create more inclusive community A newly formed group of Scholars created an organization this spring to help the College recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups. Minorities in Schreyer includes more than a dozen students, from various backgrounds and areas of study, who share common goals of increasing the diversity of the student body and helping students of color become more connected with each other and with the College.
students is its top priority for the upcoming fall semester, but as membership grows, Minorities in Schreyer plans to have a presence at recruitment events such as Scholars Day and to find ways to pair incoming Scholars of color with current Scholars. Yarger also envisions the group eventually serving as a bridge to other diversity and inclusivity organizations throughout the University community, and she
Schreyer for Women fostering community in and outside of College
believes Minorities in Schreyer can have a positive impact on majority students in the College as well. “We talk about being globally minded,” Yarger said, “and so they see part of their mission as working with majority students in helping to improve those relationships and in return, those students would also have a broadening of their intercultural communication and competencies.”
“We were trying to find a way to meet other students that looked like us who were also in the Honors College and going through the same things that we’re going through,” said Madison Burnard, a rising junior and Bunton Waller Fellow and the organization’s president. Dr. Lynette Yarger, the Schreyer Honors College’s assistant dean for equity and inclusion, had a number of conversations with students throughout the year. Many expressed a desire to get involved in both recruiting and retention efforts. “It’s about bringing people in, but also what can you do in the living/learning community to make it more inclusive,” Yarger said. Scholar Victoria Francois, a Bunton Waller Fellow, said she knew she would experience a bit of a “culture shock” when she came to Penn State. She hopes to help lessen that culture shock for future Scholars. “Realizing how important it is to have representation is what is driving me to continue to do things related to diversity in this organization and other orgs,” Francois said. The organization initially came together through word-of-mouth and mutual friendships. The coronavirus pandemic made building the group’s membership difficult during the spring, but members met virtually to draft a constitution and maintained a group chat to stay in touch. Burnard, who represents the organization on the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, said recruitment of additional Madison Burnard is the president of Minorities in Schreyer.
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A growing student group whose mission closely resembles the College’s continues to empower female students at Penn State and around the world.
the same partnership, they sewed cloth onto medical face masks to make them last longer during the coronavirus pandemic.
Schreyer for Women is modeled on four pillars — community building, career development, service, and special projects — that represent a wide range of activities and priorities and reflect the diverse membership of a group that became a registered student organization this year.
The organization also hosted an open mic event for International Women’s Day, where students from throughout the Penn State community shared poetry, songs, or other messages that celebrated women; a pen pal program with Power Dada, an organization that strives to create safe communities for women and girls in Kisumu, Kenya; and a virtual panel for students at Tyrone Area High School, among other initiatives.
“As a broader community, those pillars help us focus on how we can help each other,” said Siena Baker, the 2019-20 president of Schreyer for Women. During the 2019-20 school year, Schreyer for Women members created sustainable feminine hygiene kits through a partnership with Days for Girls, an international nonprofit organization whose Penn State chapter also recently became a registered student organization, to send to young women in developing countries. Through
“They’re reaching out beyond their cluster to make that impact, to be an important part of the community,” said Schreyer Honors College Dean Peggy A. Johnson, “and I think that is absolutely fantastic.”
including Fulbright alumni Marcy Herr and Maddie Taylor (the first president of Schreyer for Women) and Assistant Dean for Equity and Inclusion Lynette Yarger. They worked with Scholar Alumni Society Board mentors Alayna Auerbach and Kristin Lambert to help find professional opportunities for members. “We were definitely focused on trying to provide support professionally, even though we couldn’t be there in person,” said 2020-21 president Anushka Shah. In the coming year, Schreyer for Women hopes to continue to grow its membership and let all Scholars, especially women and non-gender-conforming individuals, know they are welcome. “We are always trying to make our initiatives and programming more meaningful and better cater to the members that we have,” Shah said.
When forced to meet remotely for the second half of the spring semester, Schreyer for Women hosted guest speakers,
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A Year-in-
Review Scholar Kerry Abello, a rising co-captain of the women’s soccer team, received Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and was one of 11 varsity athlete Scholars who were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for 2019-20. Scholar alumnus Joshua Branch was honored with a Youth Justice Leadership Institute Fellowship, a year-long leadership development program for youth justice reform advocates, by the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN). Dean Peggy A. Johnson delivered a convocation speech to graduating Scholars as part of a pre-recorded video in May, as the College replaced its usual Medals Ceremony with a virtual Medals Ceremony as a safety precaution due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Jeanine Staples, an associate professor of literacy and language, African American studies, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, spoke about social and emotional justice during the Mark Luchinsky Memorial Lecture in January. An off-Broadway play written, directed, and produced by Scholar alumna Ellis Stump, “The Only Coffee Shop in the City,” made its debut in October as part of the NY Theatre Festival, Summerfest 2019 in New York. Scholar Daniel Zahn, who graduated with degrees in communication arts and sciences, English, and philosophy, was presented with the 2019 Scholar Involvement Award during the College’s annual Founders Day celebration in September 2019. Scholar Kylie Weaver competed in the Jeopardy! College Championship with 14 other college students from around the country. The episode aired in April.
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Student Awards Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Ava Self Boren Fellowship and Scholarship Jocelyn Krieger DAAD Grants for Study and Research in Germany Maria Badanova DAAD RISE (program cancelled) Joshua Forrest Madison Reddie Lasair Ni Chochlain Erickson Discovery Grants Brooke Arner Jason Cherry Julia Cipparulo Nina De Luna Emily Eiss Elinor Farber Danny Glickman Samantha Grecco Christopher Hudson Lydia Jordache David Kennedy Xianqing Li Annie Liu Anthony Mannarino Taylor Pust Lauren Rickert Oliver Rose Matthew Schubach Taylor Slusser Kelly Snyder Josephine Soddano Thomas Starr Cristina Valentina Craescu Yuyang Wang Colin Williams Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Program Joel Balzer William Baumgardner Nicholas Shea Amanda Talbot Mikaela Walker
Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Panini Pandya Sarah Petri Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Autumn Deitrick Rachel Swope National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Matthew Aronson Anna Brogan Sojung Kim Katelyn Kirchner Ananda Rankin Andrew White Schreyer Honors College Awards Outstanding Scholar Alumni Award 2019 Joseph Kazprzyk ’07 Eng, ’12g Eng Quinta Nwanosike Warren ’05 Eng Outstanding Alumni Mentor Award 2019 Maura McLaughlin ’94 Sci Penn State Awards 2019 Alumni Fellow Award Robert Edwards ’75 Bus, ’83g Bus 2019 Alumni Achievement Award Benjamin Ross ’06 Eng, ’07g Eng Aniyia Williams ’07 A&A
Longtime leadership program partners with Deloitte The Deloitte Foundation Leadership Development Center offers Schreyer Scholars from all majors a personalized, direct-feedback experience and a chance to learn about their leadership skills under the watchful eye of trained professionals. As of July 1, the Center, which was previously sponsored by PNC Bank, began a partnership with Deloitte that will last through at least the 2024-25 academic term. “Deloitte has a fantastic network of Penn State alums and friends,” said LDC director and teaching professor of psychology Greg Loviscky. “They have a perspective on leadership that few organizations bring to the table.” Since 2008, the LDC has hosted more than 500 students over 47 sessions. Typically held in spring and fall, the sessions are limited to 12 students at a time. Students are assigned a simulated business organization and given the chance to show how they would respond to challenges they might face in real-life situations. “Unlike interviews, where you just say what you would do, you walk the walk,” Loviscky said. “Can you conduct these meetings with a little audience?” Participants of the program have grown to appreciate the exercises and assessments even more as they enter their various careers. “They make you think right on the spot,” said Scholar alumna Lan Li. “Regardless of what field we wind up pursuing, the ability to lead, work, and communicate effectively with different people is crucial. LDC gives students the opportunity to receive feedback in the most honest way possible.” LDCs are held each fall and spring, with smaller-group virtual possibilities being explored for the Fall 2020 semester. Students receive a customized feedback report and a one-on-one meeting with an assessor within two weeks of the session, helping them go into job interviews with a clearer understanding of their professional selves. “Students have shared that they aced the infamous ‘What’s your biggest weakness?’ question by describing how the LDC activities and feedback helped them to identify specific strengths as well as an action plans for improvement,” said Lisa Kerchinski, the Honors College’s director of career development. The LDC has come a long way from its early days, when organizers brought baked goods from home for participants. Loviscky credits the center’s original founder, professor emeritus of psychology Rick Jacobs, with starting a program that caught the attention of former Schreyer Honors College dean Christian Brady and driving it to what it has become today. “We all owe a debt of gratitude to Rick Jacobs for the impact that he’s had,” Loviscky said.
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In Focus Assessment delivers learning outcomes that will better define honors experience
The mission of the Schreyer Honors College gives its students worthy goals to aspire to. After a comprehensive two-year assessment, the College is now in a better position to determine if its Scholars are reaching those goals. Working with College administrators and members of the Faculty Advisory Committee and gathering input from staff and students, College of Education associate professors David Guthrie and Karen Paulson collected data, conducted surveys, studied other honors programs, and ultimately helped the College create four distinct student learning outcomes. Students who graduate from the Honors College will: 1.) Develop, engage in, and communicate scholarship in their field in order to examine and critically analyze selected topics, issues, or problems; 2.) Embody ethical principles in personal, academic, professional, and societal contexts; 3.) Demonstrate respect for human differences, understanding of global interdependency, and engagement in civic life; and, 4.) Collaborate with others and demonstrate leadership by exploring opportunities or implementing initiatives. The assessment team also created suggestions to document achievement of those learning outcomes, such as Scholars tailoring class papers or even their thesis to topics linked to those outcomes or providing evidence of the impact of their study abroad experiences. Beginning in the summer of 2018, Guthrie and Paulson conducted interviews with more than a dozen staff members to gain a better understanding of the day-to-day workings of the College and big- picture goals. They surveyed various student subpopulations to get an idea of their understanding of their honors experience.
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They also formed four subcommittees, which included members of the Faculty Advisory Committee and the Rock Ethics Institute, assigning one outcome to and leading multiple meetings for each.
“The data that we’ve collected from the survey would suggest that a second- or third-year entry student has a different experience than a student who entered as a first-year student,” Guthrie said.
Parts of the mission, including academic excellence and integrity, were already relatively easy to measure and thus fold into the outcomes. Other parts, such as global perspective and civic engagement, were more difficult. The assessment led to the creation of initiatives that should make those aspects more quantifiable.
To that end, the College will hold workshops for entering students to selfevaluate their moral and ethical baselines. When they are about to graduate, they will be asked the same questions in exit workshops.
A newly designed and required ENGL202 honors course, in addition to helping students with thesis prep, will include ethics discussions as part of the curriculum, and a redesigned honors experience tracker in the Student Records System will allow Scholars to track and identify how their extracurricular activities align with the learning outcomes. The assessment will also help staff ensure that student programming and services have direct connections to meeting the outcomes. “It has made us more mindful about aligning our policies and trying to make them more coherent,” said Schreyer Honors College Associate Dean Keefe Manning. “The assessment has been a little bit more eye-opening for staff that there’s a more structured way to do this and help us improve the student experience.” By more clearly defining outcomes, the College also will help ensure that students who enter during their sophomore or junior years will be held to the same standards as the first-year entrants.
“For the first-year student, the change could be significant,” Manning said. “For the third-year student, their change may not have been as impactful, but they’ll have gone through the same experiences as other students in terms of how they’re thinking about themselves.” Paulson believes the assessment will help honors advisers and faculty have a better understanding of what is expected from them in those roles and also give prospective students a clearer sense of what the College can provide. “What do they get from being an honors student?” Paulson said. “The Honors College wants to know ‘Did it make a difference to this student?’ It will also help identify which students actually want to come, which want to do more than just do their homework and get straight As. It’s so much more than that.” Schreyer Honors College Dean Peggy A. Johnson says the outcomes will help students and staff better measure the impact of things like community service — on both the students and the communities — and better define terms like “global perspective.” She also believes it will help Scholars feel more connected to the mission regardless of their level of interaction with the College.
“My hope is that it doesn’t have much of an impact on the students’ burden,” Johnson said. “I don’t want them to be loaded down with stuff that isn’t working toward them getting a degree. I would love for them to be aware that what they’re learning ties directly to our mission.” The assessment plan used existing data but also helped the College identify which data it will prioritize moving forward. It now has an existing framework to use for future assessments, which can be adjusted to changing technology or changing administrators but will provide an important starting point. “We have now reached a point where we can articulate ‘This is what we want our students to do and think and create,’ but this is an ongoing process,” Manning said. “It’s a process that in any organization, you do yourself a disservice if you’re not constantly evaluating yourself.”
THE SCHOLARS MEDAL The medal, which Scholars receive in recognition of their achievements, and which they will wear at commencement, was designed by John A. Cook, professor emeritus of art in the College of Arts and Architecture. He describes his design for the medal in this way: “While the lion is certainly no stranger to Penn State, this particular species with flowing mane has not been much in evidence since 1942 when Heinze Warneke’s version established residence as the athletic logo.” “A suitable symbol for the Schreyer Honors College requires something agile and alert with the potential to reach out and encompass new dimensions of thought.” “The lion thus depicted emerges with extended claws to become the University’s symbol of intellectual excellence. The qualities of ‘Scholarly Achievement,’ ‘Integrity of Purpose,’ and ‘Intellectual Curiosity’ form the legend of the medal and define the field from which the lion gathers his strength.” In August 2008, Mr. Cook and his wife, Dickie Jessen-Cook, donated all rights for use of the Scholar medal design to the Schreyer Honors College in perpetuity. The Schreyer Honors College gratefully acknowledges this gift.
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Nursing student looks to break the cycle of substance abuse
Aspiring neurosurgeon maps cancer-suppressing protein either serve as a suppressor or a perpetuator of breast, brain, and pancreatic cancers, three of the most aggressive forms of the disease, and potential applications of their findings for therapeutics. “You can imagine if half of all cancers are related to this one protein,” Kelly said, “it’s pretty important.” Evans had already built a strong foundation at various internships. She was a neurosurgical clinical research intern at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a research and development engineering intern at Medtronic, a medical device company, and a process development engineering intern at BioMagnetic Solutions, a biotech company in State College. She was also part of the Women in Science and Engineering Research (WISER) program at Penn State. She has enjoyed and learned from each experience, but she enjoyed the opportunities to interact with patients one-onone the most, which was one of the reasons her interested gravitated from engineering to medicine. “I want to have the experience interacting with patients. The internships helped me figure that out,” she said. “I loved the work I was doing, but I realized with those experiences that I wanted to be around patients more.”
Katie Boeckenhauer worked as a nurse extern on the behavioral health floor at Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie last summer and came to understand how the effects of childhood trauma manifested in those patients as adults. “That kind of got me thinking, ‘What can we do for these people to prevent the development of mental health issues and substance abuse?’” she said.
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at risk, what can we do to help them develop more effective coping mechanisms and understand that there are alternatives. “There are a lot of skills she’s learning through this process of doing her thesis that will apply and suit her well in life as a professional nurse.”
For her honors thesis, the 2020 graduate conducted a systematic review of literature on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their negative effects.
At Penn State, Boeckenhauer was involved with The Mentor Project, which is led by the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research and Evaluation (CORE) and pairs Behrend students with local elementary school students to help develop resiliency and pro-social behavior.
“Children who experience ACEs are more likely to use substances as adults, which subsequently puts their children at risk for adversity,” Boeckenhauer said. “It creates a cycle that is passed from parent to child, so it’s really important to find a way to break that cycle.”
Boeckenhauer is preparing for the National Council Liscensure Examination (NCLEX) and working in the intensive care unit at Saint Vincent. She wants to continue to promote mental health in Erie and hopes her research can be applied to any type of nursing.
Boeckenhauer’s research has shown that identifying and encouraging modifiable variables, including mindfulness, resilience, and positive adult relationships, can have a significant impact on people who have experienced ACEs.
“Nurses in any specialty area will run into substance use and mental health issues,” Boeckenhauer said. “Understanding that people who use substances are much more likely to have had traumatic experiences as a child will better prepare nurses to care for these patients.
“There isn’t much we can do with the genetic component,” said Carolynn Masters, an associate teaching professor of nursing at Penn State Behrend who was Boeckenhauer’s thesis adviser. “But if we can help with the other risk factors, identifying early and knowing those individuals are more
Evans, a native of Fulton, Maryland, started working as a consultant focusing on health and public services following her graduation in May. She has also shadowed doctors and served as a hospice volunteer at her local hospital as she prepares for medical school.
“There are still a lot of misconceptions regarding substance use. Asking ‘What happened to this person?’ instead of ‘What’s wrong with this person?’ may be a way nurses can intervene and connect them with resources to help them resolve their trauma and recover from substance use.”
Madison Evans, who recently graduated after majoring in biomedical engineering, would like to become a neurosurgeon.
“I want to work with communities that are lacking resources or that don’t have the education on certain treatments or vaccines, don’t have access to a hospital nearby, or just generally don’t have what they need to be healthy,” she said.
During her time at Penn State, she was part of a research project that could change the way her future patients receive treatment. Working in the lab of Professor of Biomedical Engineering Deb Kelly in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Evans mapped a full-length model of p53, a tumor suppressor protein found in various forms of cancer, in glioblastoma cells. “If you have the structure of p53, it won’t only help you with brain cancer, it will help you with pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, so many cancers,” Evans said. “It’ll help you to figure out better treatments because you’ll understand how that protein works.” Using established protocols to isolate p53 proteins from breast cancer cells, Evans examined the protein in human glioblastoma cells, helping Kelly and her team learn how p53 can
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Facts & Figures
38 27
Scholars come from and
states (including PA)
Arts & Architecture
countries
97
Business
Schreyer Honors College students (55 percent female, 45 percent male)
Division of Undergraduate Studies
1,412
36
Eberly College of Science
Pennsylvania residents (72%)
344
Education
40
Earth & Mineral Sciences
75
Engineering 538 108
Information Sciences & Technology
403
420
School of Nursing
International students (7%)
First-Year Students Fall 2018
Fall 2017
SHC mid-50% range High School GPA 4.20 – 4.33
4.00 – 4.33
4.00 – 4.33
PSU mid-50% range High School GPA
3.55 – 3.90
3.55 – 3.97
3.55 – 3.97
SHC mid-50% range SAT
1370 –1500 1330 –1490 1340 –1490
PSU mid-50% range SAT
1240 –1410 1250 –1430 1250 –1430
Total: 2,002
Some Scholars have multiple majors across different colleges.
173 (9%) Business
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Total
First-year entry
23
Second-year entry
Third-year entry
11
12
Altoona
7
3
1
3
Berks
14
3
3
8
2
1
Beaver
1
1
Brandywine
6
3
Dubois
3
2
1
Erie
47
16
13
Greater Allegheny
1
1
29
9
13
Hazleton
1
1
Hershey
1
1
Lehigh Valley
1
1
Mont Alto
1
1
1,814
1,181
Worthington Scranton
1
York
1
1
Total
1,951
1,223
332
357
2017 – 18
211*
320*
237*
44
50
50
Number of Countries Represented:
50 countries
MA/MS 34% PhD 35% MD or MD/PhD
Scholars studied abroad
*Many students take advantage of multiple experiences. **Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all study abroad opportunities from mid-March and forward were canceled.
Underrepresented Minorities (by percent per class)
AM HAW/ Total BLK HSP IND/AL PAC URM Int’l
Incoming 1st year (Fall 2020)
2.4
8.6
Incoming 2nd/3rd year
2.5
5.0
Received Spring 2020 medals
2.6
4.7
0
13%
JD 6%
297
Australia, Brazil, China, Fiji, Hungary, Jordan, Russia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom (sample)
DVM 2% Other 10%
2019-2020 Graduate Outcomes *Other 6%
0.7
11.6
4.1
0
0
7.5
16.71
0.0
0.0
7.3
7.9
Graduate School 39%
Workforce 55%
How Graduating Scholars Perform 2019 – 20 2018 – 19 2017 – 18 †
Summer†
Fall†
Spring†
Total
Avg. GPA
IUG^
19 30 26
52 36 43
467 438 486
538 504 555
3.83 3.86 3.83
59 47 67
Number of Graduating Scholars IUG is the Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate Program in which Scholars simultaneously complete requirements for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in selected disciplines.
^
344 (17%) Eberly College of Science
420 (21%) Liberal Arts
Five- and Ten-Year Outcomes The Schreyer Honors College tradition of academic excellence follows our Scholars well into their futures. Review the break-down of post-baccalaureate degrees obtained by Scholars five and ten years after they’ve graduated from the honors college online at shc.psu.edu/outcomes.
Second-year entry 371
Sample listing of Graduate Schools
Third-year entry 357
First-year entry 1,223
301
1 371
538 (27%) Engineering
18
Harrisburg
7
97 (5%) Agriculture Sciences
322 (16%) Other
*-PSU scores are for University Park only. SAT figures changed to a 1600 scale in 2016.
Enrollment by Campus as of the beginning of fall 2019
2018 – 19
16
108 (5%) H&HD Fall 2019
46
Liberal Arts
136
Out-of-State residents (21%)
University Park
(service, research, internships)
173
Health & Human Development
Abington
Travel Grants Issued:
Communications 54
1,951
Campus Location:
2019 – 20 55
Agricultural Sciences
2019-2020 Graduate School Breakdown
Building a Global Perspective
Scholars at University Park by Primary College as of the beginning of fall 2019
* Current Penn State students are offered admission to the Schreyer Honors College upon the conclusion of at least one semester at Penn State having demonstrated a record of academic achievement and having merited a recommendation in support of their application from their academic department.
Brown University Cornell University George Washington University Harvard University Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northwestern University Princeton University Sidney Kimmel Medical College Stanford University Tufts University University of British Columbia University of California, Berkeley University of Chicago University of Oxford Yale University
*Breakdown of Other Outcomes Internship 8% Fellowship 12% Other 36%
Research 12%
Travel 14% Service 18%
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Scholar learns importance of conservation to Bhutanese culture during semester abroad
Scholar researches humanitarian applications of drone technology
On one hand, the appeal of spending a semester in Bhutan was simple for Scholar Olivia Richart.
Katie Gustas’ time as a Penn State supply chain major taught her that effective supply chains aren’t just good for business. They can also save lives.
“I thought to myself, I’ve literally never heard of this country in my life,” the agriculture science major said.
For her honors thesis, the 2020 graduate examined how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are utilized to bring medical supplies and resources to citizens in Rwanda, and how they could be applied in other areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
Though the idea of wanting to explore a new part of the world was a factor for Richart, her semester spent in the South Asian country through The School for Field Studies in Fall 2019 was also an ideal blend of her interest in the outdoors and her primary areas of study, as well as fertile ground for her honors thesis research on forest management policy. “I thought that would be a great way to do hands-on thesis work and also to do it in a context that a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to go to,” said Richart, who graduated in May.
Gustas, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, wanted to pursue a thesis that showed direct outcomes and how supply-chain technology could be used for more than commerce. “I like the motive of having an impact be your driver for creating something,” she said. The Kingdom of Bhutan, a nation of roughly 740,000 people, has heavily restricted visitation and tourism policies. It waives its visa requirement for participants of the SFS program, though, so Richart and her fellow students in the directed research program were guests of the Bhutanese government. Richart was able to collect the bulk of her research on the effects of Buddhism on forest management policy. Her group studied how climate change was stressing trees and how secondary infestations like mistletoe and beetles would cause unprecedented levels of diebacks — trees slowly dying from peripheral parts being killed — in pine trees. They discovered two potentially new species of beetle in the process. Richart also learned that the environment is closely tied to Bhutan’s government — the nation has a mandated forest cover of 70% — its economy, and its religion. The species of blue pine that is dying, Pinus wallichiana, is its primary building material and very important in its culture. “They encourage people to steward the land with conservation in mind, not specifically because of climate change but more because they feel like it impacts Bhutan’s wholesomeness as a primarily Buddhist country. They feel like it makes it a less holy place if you’re not stewarding the forest with conservation in mind.” Being immersed in Bhutan and spending time with its people — including a group of Buddhist monks who had been living alone for the previous eight months — helped Richart better understand the importance of the specific species of pine she was researching to the Bhutanese.
For her thesis, Gustas focused on one UAV company, Zipline, and how it served a particular population: transporting blood to mothers suffering from post-partum hemorrhaging in Rwanda. Gustas spoke to multiple drone carriers and discovered one of the biggest issues they faced was finding ways to quantify the benefit/impact drone blood delivery can make. She learned that centralizing blood storages to a pair of distribution centers in Rwanda as opposed to a variety of hospitals both limited waste and increased the number of available blood types. The UAVs also allowed doctors access to frozen plasma and other products that would otherwise require specialized freezers, which most local hospitals could not afford. She used population statistics, combined with hospital data and Zipline’s geographical/max capacity in an Excel analysis to quantify the potential number of mothers’ lives that could be saved annually by alleviating postpartum hemorrhaging. Gustas, who now works for KPMG as a product operations and procurement advisory assistant, has seen firsthand the devastating effects of post-partum hemorrhaging. During a study abroad trip to an orphanage in Kenya, she worked directly with girls who had lost their mothers to complications in childbirth. “I would love to see the implementation of this drone delivery service save mothers all around the world,” she said. “There are endless ways these services can help save lives through blood delivery or provided medical services.”
Richart is currently working as a wildland firefighter in Ukiah, Oregon, and was recently accepted into the aviation division of the Washington State National Guard.
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Help Scholars take advantage of global study opportunities. Visit giveto.psu.edu/SHCTravel
Help Scholars conduct impactful research. Visit giveto.psu.edu/SHCResearchGrants
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Scholar alumnus ready for next step as CEO of Medtronic “I was already pretty motivated to get good grades, but at the end of the day, if that is your motivation — ‘I want to get an ‘A’, I want to get promoted or paid more’ — those type of goals don’t last,” Martha said. “You have to be really interested in something. The Scholars Program helped pique my curiosity in things and helped me become an active learner.” Martha’s path to Penn State was largely influenced by hockey. He spent his final two years of high school at Culver Military Academy, where he played alongside future NHL and Olympic athletes and prepared for a rigorous academic slate in college. He spent one semester at Colby College in Waterville, Maine before transferring to Penn State midway through his first year. The University Scholars Program – which would become the Schreyer Honors College — played a key role in Martha’s decision to transfer. He credits his advisers in the Scholars Program and his advisers in Smeal with helping him to map out his academic goals, explore scholarship options, and push himself in and out of the classroom.
Geoff Martha is drawn to people who never stop learning. “When I interview people or I evaluate people, I’m always trying to figure out, are they still learning?” said the Smeal College of Business and University Scholars Program alumnus. “Or are they trying to apply old takes to new scenarios?” Martha became the chief executive officer of Medtronic, a global health care solutions company, in April. His time at Penn State and in the honors program fed his desire to continuously learn, he said.
After going through GE’s Financial Management Program, Martha worked in various roles with GE Capital for 15 years, then as the managing director for business development for GE Healthcare for nearly five years. He enjoyed the switch to healthcare and moved to Medtronic in 2011. Martha likes that the company seeks solutions to unmet clinical needs, such as a catheter that removes blood clots from the brain and a new therapy that treats uncontrolled hypertension. “I’m not the one inventing these therapies, but I’m in a role to help facilitate that process. Make the right investments, allocate capital to clear the way and enable our engineers and clinical scientists to invent these things and help our sales force globalize them into new standards of care,” he said. “That type of work is so fulfilling. I’m pinching myself that this is what I do for a living.”
Pattni hopes to use MBA to create social change Shaan Pattni ’16 Econ and Bus has used data analytics to help clients across private, public, and security sectors improve their decision making in African markets. Along the way, the Scholar alumnus began to think about how he could drive social impact more directly. To that end, Pattni will spend the next two years in the University of Oxford’s 1+1 MBA program, which will allow him to combine a master’s degree in African studies and an MBA. The African Studies degree will allow him to develop an in-depth knowledge of the social, economic, and political forces driving change on the African continent, where he hopes to continue to create a positive impact. The MBA degree will give him a breadth of knowledge across business functions that can help him scale sustainable technologies. “For the last four years, I’ve predominately focused on data analytics, and I wanted a business education to augment the technical skill set,” Pattni said. “Most importantly, I wanted to apply it to emerging economies, specifically countries in Africa.” Pattni was awarded a Pershing Square Scholarship, which covers the full cost of the Oxford 1+1 program and is given annually to five individuals who, according to the university, “can demonstrate the potential and commitment to finding scalable and sustainable solutions to world-scale social challenges.” His desire to create social change stemmed in part from his experiences with the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) program during his time as a Penn State undergraduate student. His interest shifted from nonprofit work to using technology to create sustainable solutions.
After Oxford, Pattni hopes to find more opportunities to merge his interests in data, business, and clean energy with a company of his own.
Pattni said he enjoyed the “diversity of people and thought” in the Schreyer Honors College and is grateful for the connections he made with alumni while he was a student.
“When you help a lot of clients, you think, ‘Wow, I wish I was the one implementing this,’” he said. “I loved helping them, but what can I contribute directly?”
“They push you and challenge you to think critically about how you see the world and what you want to see,” he said. After graduating in 2016, he spent two years as a consultant at Bates White. With a strong foundation in data analysis, he moved to Fraym, a Washington, D.C.-based startup that uses localized data to help organizations make data-driven decisions in emerging markets. His project work included informing the NBA’s market entry into African countries with its inaugural Basketball Africa League, and most recently, supporting African governments in their COVID-19 responses.
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Admissions director
helps students find their ‘fit’
Her father wanted her to be a lawyer. She wanted to work in politics. But after her path led her thousands of miles from home and into a career she had never even considered, Moradeyo (Deyo) Olorunnisola now helps students find their own paths as admissions director of the Schreyer Honors College. Deyo was born in the United Kingdom but grew up in Nigeria. Her father, Sanya Dosunmu, was a successful television producer who would later go into politics. When she was 16, she visited New York with her family, as a reward for graduating from high school. Two weeks into the three-week trip, Sanya told Deyo and her sister, Moradeun, they were going to stay in the United States for the next part of their education due to educational and political upheaval in Nigeria. The siblings enrolled at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, where Deyo studied political science and volunteered as a peer mentor and tutor. It was there that she began to reconsider her career options. Growing up, she had only known a culture in which children decided what they were going to study do at a young age, then stayed on that track with few opportunities to change. “When I came here and finally realized that people can change their mind, and the educational system was flexible enough to allow you to change, it was fascinating to me,” she said. “It saddens me that there are pockets in this country where that opportunity is not available to people.” After graduating, Deyo worked as the admissions coordinator in the admissions office of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She came to Penn State in 1995, working in the undergraduate admissions office, then the College of Information Sciences and Technology before joining the Honors College in 2016. The relatively small size of the student population — the Honors College admits approximately 300 first-year Scholars each year — allows her to get to know more of the students on a personal level, both during and after the recruitment process, than she might in other admissions positions. “If I can help just one student a month discover their fit academically, I’ve done my job,” she said. “Every student that I help find a fit gives me a sense of accomplishment and success.” Deyo says the hardest part of the job “is that we’re not able to admit more students.” She also believes the major challenge facing Penn State and higher education in general is expanding the pool of applicants to include more underrepresented and underserved students. Recently, the admissions office has been working to help high school students prepare for the essay questions they will see on the application. “I grew up with tribalism which gives advantages to certain tribes within Nigeria. In that context, as in many places around the world, I know that education is the great equalizer. It is one factor that can change the trajectory of life and elevate people from poverty to the middle class,” she said. “And we don’t just need people to be in the middle class. We need diversity at all levels especially the higher levels of our economy. If I can bring more underrepresented students into this environment, where they can acquire the knowledge, skills and connections that help them soar, it changes the matrix not just for their lives but for their communities.” In May, Deyo was appointed as one of three Penn State Administrative Fellows for the 2020-21 academic year. Her mentor will be Tracey Huston, vice president for Outreach. She is looking forward to the chance to spend the next year learning more about how decisions are made at higher levels of the institution. “What don’t I know that I should know that will help make me successful in my job here? What is it about my perspective that I can bring in that situation to help change the thinking and the dynamic and help us to be what we want to be?” she said. “I have an open mind about this experience. This is the next step in my education, as it were.”
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Programs allow Scholars to engage with faculty in different ways
Data analyst brings new perspective to College Chi Nguyen is a storyteller at heart and an accomplished writer. Telling stories with data just happens to be her day job. “A lot of times, people think that a data analyst is just a person who crunches numbers,” she said. “But to me, it’s more like the person who tells the story behind the numbers.” Nguyen recently concluded her first year as the Schreyer Honors College’s data analyst. She has streamlined the College’s data-gathering processes and used data to help inform the staff about trends in the student population, such as a retention study to identify the reasons Scholars withdraw from the College. She also contributed to the College’s two-year assessment plan (see story on Page 8). “This is a place where people welcome change and are willing to look into what they’re doing, what works and what doesn’t work,” she said. It was an eventful year in other aspects of Nguyen’s life as well. She completed her doctorate studies in educational leadership and comparative and international education and became a naturalized U.S. citizen during the summer.
Penn State teaching professor in meteorology Jon Nese gets all kinds of questions about the weather, most of them relating to accuracy of forecasts.
where they learned about the equipment meteorologists use to formulate forecasts and recorded themselves in front of a green screen.
When the questions come from Schreyer Scholars, though, Nese says they are typically more nuanced and curious — not as much about the forecasts themselves but about the science that goes into making those forecasts.
In the spring, Nese was one of several faculty members who opted to hold programs via Zoom for students, bringing in former colleague David Titley, a retired meterology professor and former Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, for a discussion about climate change.
“It’s truly inquisitive,” Nese said. “They really want to know.” That was one of the reasons Nese enlisted in the Distinguished Honors Faculty Program, which pairs select faculty from across the University’s 12 academic colleges with small groups of Scholars for localized field trips, discussions, or both, relating to a breadth of topics. “It’s connecting them to faculty in a different context,” said Schreyer Honors College Associate Dean Keefe Manning. “They can see the other side of faculty, that faculty are human and have other interests. When you engage and show interest in what the faculty are sharing with you, you get a lot more depth about what they are sharing, and they will react to students in a different way.” During the 2019-20 academic year, Scholars visited the National Comedy Museum with assistant professor of film and media studies Pearl Gluck, conducted a large-scale shake table test to simulate an earthquake with associate professor of civil engineering Ming Xiao, and accompanied Nese to the Joel N. Myers Weather Center in the Walker Building,
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“The faculty really respond to being selected and see this as a huge opportunity for them to expand their horizons as well,” Manning said. The College encourages first-year students to register for the programs as both a way for them to get early exposure to honors faculty and to subjects they might be interested in but had not considered. Distinguished Honors Faculty Programs are also unique opportunities for Scholars already established in their majors to expand their knowledge on topics unrelated to their normal area of study.
“It makes me very humble when I think about becoming an immigrant here and the meaning of it,” she said. Nguyen grew up in Hanoi, Vietnam, in a family steeped in writing and research. Her grandparents and mother were journalists and her father a dictionary editor. She has a popular blog about personal development and has published two editions of “A Book about Minimalism” in Vietnamese. She was an international studies major at Hanoi University with aspirations of becoming a diplomat the first time she came to the United States, at age 19, as part of an AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation conference. The second part of that conference was held in Lima, Peru, where Nguyen interviewed politicians during the day but, exploring the city by night, was disturbed by the poverty she witnessed only a few miles away. That was a turning point for Nguyen, whose interest began to shift away from diplomacy and toward social justice and educational equity. She earned a master’s degree in education, culture and society at the University of Pennsylvania, and then began work toward her doctorate at Penn State.
“The more I spend my time doing research in education, the more I realize there are a lot of systematic issues in education that actually perpetuate injustice and inequality,” she said. Some of the solutions to those issues can be better understood and implemented, Nguyen believes, by exploring the data. The numbers help her tell a story, whether that is publishing her research in academic journals or assessing student outcomes in the Honors College. “In order to do my job well, I need to understand the context,” she said.
Nese likes the small-group feel of the sessions, which usually include between 10-20 Scholars and often incorporate a lunch or dinner, and the chance to interact with students eager to expand their breadth of knowledge. “Walking our campus are lots of future leaders,” Nese said, “but when you get the Scholars, the probability of these students going on and becoming leaders in their field is a notch above.”
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Schreyer’s influence inspires donors Sheldon Chaiken had always admired William Schreyer’s path to success — from trainee to branch manager to, eventually, CEO of Merrill Lynch — because he knew how tough that road was, having made a similar journey himself to senior vice president at Paine Webber. Once Chaiken got to know Schreyer and learn about the mission of his namesake honors college, the 1956 Penn State graduate was inspired to support the College and its students.
Student Awards: (travel grants, internships, and research awards) Program Support: Total:
Ms. Kristin Smith, senior vice president and chief counsel, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Mr. William Bogdan, attorney at law, Hinshaw and Culbertson, LLP
Ms. Melissa Marshall, chief compliance officer, Westinghouse Electric Company
Mr. Stephen Snyder, Haven Partners, LLC
Mr. Louis D’Ambrosio, former chairman of the board, Sensus
Mr. Edward Marx, director of strategic analytics and operations, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Medical Center Mr. Ryan Newman, managing director, Goldman, Sachs & Co. Mr. Robert Poole, president and CEO, S&A Homes, Inc.; CEO, Poole Anderson Construction; chairman, External Advisory Board
Ms. Lisa Hart, vice president, M&T Bank
Mr. Edward Hintz, president, Hintz Capital Management
Mr. Brian Stern, general counsel, Cetera Financial Group Ms. Kathryn Sutton, partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Mr. Joseph Versaggi, senior vice president — real estate, Washington Capital Management Mr. David Wagner, president and CEO, Zix Corp
Mr. Mark Prybutok, managing director, GI Partners
Mr. Edward Weber, senior vice president and CFO, MLB Advanced Media, LP
Mr. Rick Riegel, principal, LMC Advisory, Phlexglobal
Mr. Richard Whitney, chairman and CEO, Radiology Partners, Inc.
Ms. Tracy Riegel
Mr. James Wiggins, retired managing director, Morgan Stanley & Co.
Mr. Brian Schmanske, program manager, U.S. Government
Mr. Reginald Hedgebeth, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Marathon Oil Corporation
Ms. Brenna Wist, retired partner, KPMG
Ms. DrueAnne Schreyer, president, BDR Properties, Inc.
Mr. Jack Yoskowitz, litigation partner, Seward & Kissel LLP
Mrs. Joan Schreyer
Mr. Nicolas Zavaleta, analyst, Hintz Capital Management
Scholar Alumni Society Board Bob Poole ’72, chairman of the External Advisory Board, and Sandy Poole
Ms. Alayna Auerbach ’15 Bus, prospective graduate student; chair, student engagement committee
Mr. John Hemmer ’03 Eng, partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Mr. Michael O’Conner ’05 Eng, global head of litigation
were going to take what they learned at Penn State and take it to a whole other level, no matter what they did. He wanted them to make a difference in the world and make Penn State proud.”
Dr. Samuel B. Bonsall IV ’04 Lib, ’04g Bus, ’12g Bus, associate professor of accounting, Penn State Smeal College of Business
Mr. Basel Kayyali ’96 Eng, senior partner, McKinsey & Company
Ms. Carol Packard ’99 Lib, ’18g Edu, associate dean of alumni affairs and development, Cornell University College of Engineering
The Pooles believe the man who helped shape the College into what it is today would be pleased with the impact its students have. “I see a lot of Bill Schreyer-type kids coming through there,” said Poole, the chairman of the External Advisory Board. “We give because of what these kids are accomplishing.”
1,152 295
$5,462,202 $1,392,004
228 –
$139,762* $706,808*
1,675 $7,700,776
Total Endowment Value: $115,026,258.68 (as of 6/30/2020) *Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Schreyer Honors College went to a remote environment in March, which significantly affected travel and internship grants and programming.
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Mr. Todd H. Lippincott, vice president, Global Rewards, Mars
Mr. Arthur Glenn, retired vice president, General Electric Company
Number of Awards Amount Awarded
Academic Excellence Scholarships: (includes charitable and institutional funds) Need-based and Merit Scholarships:
Mr. Mark Bogar, global portfolio manager, The Boston Company Asset Management
Ms. Linda Gall
Endowment and Gift Spending 2019–20 Fiscal Year
Mr. Andrew Sieg, head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch
Mr. Charlie Frazier, treasurer, BDR Properties
Brenna Wist, a 1977 Penn State alumna who worked as a longtime partner at KPMG, would return to campus a few times each year, often for football games. She began hearing stories of the Honors College’s students from members of Penn State’s development office and was inspired to not only accept an invitation to join the College’s external advisory board but also to support the College financially — and to pass along those stories to friends and colleagues.
“He really wanted to create a college that was going to make a difference in the world,” said Bob Poole, a 1972 Penn State graduate. “It wasn’t that these students just got As; they
Mr. Thomas Lindquist, senior vice president/ general manager for government programs, Medica
Mr. Robert Edwards, retired executive vice president, PNC Bank; vice-chairman, External Advisory Board
Many of the Schreyer Honors College’s donors are Scholar alumni who know firsthand the impact and influence of an honors education at Penn State. Chaiken is one of several donors who initially had no direct ties to the program but, often influenced by Schreyer, have become ardent philanthropic supporters of the College.
Bob and Sandy Poole became friends of William and Joan Schreyer through a mutual friend, Penn State alumnus Philip Sieg. They saw the influence William Schreyer had as a global leader and his desire to see that global leaders were developed in an honors program that had already been successful for nearly two decades prior to his involvement.
Ms. Dawn Behnke, executive vice president — product and strategy management, Pacific Life
Mr. William Donato Jr., president and chief operating officer, Safegard Group, Inc.
“I truly believe in the mission. It has such potential benefit,” Chaiken said. “If I can help kids that couldn’t afford to be there, then that’s great. That’s what we need to do.”
“It’s the impressive number of majors, the coursework, but also the good citizen kind of things they do, the volunteer work,” Wist said of Schreyer Scholars. “They get involved. They’re a part of their communities. They want to make this world a better place.”
Schreyer Honors College External Advisory Board
Mr. Timothy Cooney ’00 Bus, senior vice president and private client advisor, Bank of America
Ms. Natalie Keller ’17 Agr, associate scientist II, Mondelez International; vice-president, Scholar Alumni Society
Ms. Lori Feathers ’90 Lib, co-owner and book buyer, Interabang Books
Mr. Ryan Koch ’97 Eng, director of strategy — Financial Services, Intapp
Ms. Dulce-Marie Flecha ’13 Lib, assistant director of learning centers, Cayuga Centers; co-chair, diversity, equity, and inclusion committee
Dr. Kristin A. Lambert ’14 Agr, ’19g Hershey, MD/PhD student, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Mr. Keith Graham ’85 Eng, senior instructor, University of Colorado at Boulder; former managing partner, Thorson Rocky Mountain; chair, career development and mentorship committee
Mr. Jared Edgar McKnight ’11 A&A, ’11 Lib, associate and designer, WRT Design
Ms. Asia Grant ’17 Bus, consultant, Capco; president, Scholar Alumni Society
Ms. Noelle Musolino ’21 Lib, president, Schreyer Student Council
Dr. Aleks Radovic-Moreno ’05 Eng, entrepreneur in residence, Longwood Fund; chair, diversity, equity, and inclusion committee Ms. Emily Kowey Roth ’12 Lib, associate attorney, Duane Morris LLP; chair, alumni engagement and membership committee Mr. Nikhil Shekher ’16 Bus, vice president of sales, Embel Diversified Business Consultants, Inc. Ms. Kathryn Pruss Zeltwanger ’98 Lib, deputy general counsel, Armstrong Group
Schreyer Parents Council Mrs. Betsy Bruning, co-chair, parents council
Mrs. Jennifer Wilson Hewitt ’85 Law
Mrs. Debi Goldstone Rubin ’87 Lib, chair, outreach committee
Mr. Ronald Francois ’93 Lib
Ms. Denise McCarthy
Mr. Andrew Rubin
Mr. David Bruning, co-chair, parents council
Mr. Patrick Hewitt ’83 Law
Mrs. Valerie Gray Francois ’93 Com
Mr. Mark McCarthy
Mrs. Laura Gardner
Ms. Bonnie Pontell
Mr. Todd Gardner, chair, development committee
Dr. Jonathan Pontell
Mrs. Jill Semmer ’88 Lib Mr. Mark Wiggins Dr. Nancy Wiggins
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Brunings helping parents stay connected When the Brunings joined the Parents Council, one of the organization’s main goals was to spread awareness of the Honors College throughout the country, particularly among high school guidance counselors. As the University’s switch to use of the Common Application put the Honors College on more prospective students’ radars, that focus shifted to helping parents feel more of a part of their students’ experience. One of the ways the council connects with parents and families is through a private Facebook group that now includes nearly 700 members. Though council members do not always answer questions from other parents directly, “they can make the connections or provide the insight, having been through the process before,” David said. The council has also created a newsletter to be proactive with information that might be useful to broader groups of parents. They cover topics such as the thesis process to clear up any confusion parents might have or at least help them in talking to their students. “We really want to use that newsletter to help address some of those misconceptions and explain what the thesis is and how it works,” Betsy said. “Or just give them some prompts to ask their students. Arm them with information.”
Alumni Admissions Interview Program The Schreyer Honors College Alumni Admissions Interview Program (AAIP) brings Scholar alumni together with first-year applicants for optional, 30-minute interviews that allow the students to gain a deeper understanding of what life is like as a Scholar at Penn State from the people who experienced it. At the same time, it is a great opportunity for Scholar alumni to stay connected and to act as valued resources for the admissions team. During interviews each fall, Scholar alumni help move students toward the same kind of experiences they enjoyed as Scholars. Launched as a pilot program only seven years ago, AAIP received a 2019 Volunteer Group Award for Young Alumni Involvement from the Penn State Alumni Association. Learn how you can be a part of the College’s largest and most flexible alumni program by visiting the link at this code:
1. Register. 2. Review the training video and manual. 3. Enter your availability. 4. Interview matching applicants.
shc.psu.edu/alumni-friends/
The other primary focus of the council is development, including raising funds for the Schreyer Parents and Family Fund, which helps provide financial support for Scholars who have experienced unexpected hardship. David and Betsy Bruning are the parents of a 2019 Penn State graduate, Benjamin, and a current Schreyer Scholar, Rachel, a double major in French and Francophone studies and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. They have always looked to support their children but found that more challenging living more than three hours away in Germantown, Maryland. “One of the biggest differences, and it’s something I hadn’t seen until becoming a college parent, is that while your child is in high school, you go to all of your child’s events. You’re much more involved on a regular basis with your child’s activities,” David said. “Once your child heads off to college, that’s obviously much more difficult. While we are obviously pleased with the independence that our children developed, we still appreciate the chance to support them in a less direct manner.”
“We don’t want somebody to lose out on this experience because someone lost a job or a parent got sick,” Betsy said. The Brunings have been pleased to see Rachel’s leadership skills growing since she became a Scholar in 2017 and were happy to take on leadership roles within the council themselves as they continue to stay connected to the College. “It’s been enjoyable,” David said. “We’ve liked the people we’ve worked with and it has been great to be part of a group that is helping students that need assistance.”
Joining the Schreyer Parents Council helped the Brunings stay more connected to Rachel’s numerous activities and experiences as a Scholar, and as the current co-chairs of the council, they aim to help other parents and families feel connected as well.
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Make a gift to the Schreyer Honors College Parents and Family Fund at raise.psu.edu/SchreyerParents
Todd Bacastow ’05 IST (left), former SASB president and Asia Grant ’17 Bus (right), current SASB president receive a 2019 Volunteer Group Award for the Alumni Admissions Interview Program at a ceremony held by the Penn State Alumni Association in October 2019.
In the last year, the program conducted …
1,274 258 97%
interviews from
interviewers and
of alumni survey respondents said they would participate again.
“I love to hear about their passions, viewpoints on the world, and what keeps them curious.” — Asia Grant ’17 Bus, AAIP volunteer and Scholar Alumni Society Board (SASB) president
Schreyer Honors College The Pennsylvania State University 10 Schreyer Honors College University Park, PA 16802-3905 Phone: 814-863-2635 Email: scholars@psu.edu
This publication is available in alternative media on request. The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information, or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to Dr. Kenneth Lehrman III, Vice Provost for Affirmative Action, Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 168025901; Email: kfl2@psu.edu; Tel 814-863-0471. U.Ed. SHC 20-172
