We are…One Big Family!

Penn State original colors pink & black!

Reflecting back on the first day I got on campus, I am in awe of the opportunities that have been awarded to me only four short months. Being a freshman, I am pleased with how quick I assimilated on campus. After a few days of getting lost with the countless number of buildings and navigating the CATA bus system, I feel competent enough to lead my own tour around campus. Thinking back to the first day of school, I had high expectations for this university. Penn State had been a dream of mine since freshman year of high school and I told myself that when I got here, I would seize every opportunity that I have and make my time here at Penn State memorable.

Penn State Basketball!

While it has only been four months, I feel like I have achieved that. I am taking classes that I am really interested in and I have fantastic teachers who really care about my learning. I have been able to attend lectures from fantastic people such as Brandon Stanton, Damali Ayo, Reverend Jim Lawson, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Ziauddin Yousafzai. These speakers have given me the opportunity to learn and think critically about the world outside of the classroom.  I have learned life lessons from these speakers I will not forget for a very long time.

Volunteering with the Pregnancy Resource Center!

I have been able to be involved in various social progress seminars and retreats. I got to join a Social Justice Advocacy group and I will have the opportunity to speak at a symposium in the spring regarding social justice. I got to go on a weekend retreat through the global programming office which focused on global engagement and leadership with a group of international and American students. I also got to volunteer with the Pregnancy Resource Center and various THON events, thus teaching me the importance of social responsibility.

Camping out at Nittanyville!

We all know that college isn’t fun without sporting events! I got to go to a ton of those this fall. I got season tickets for football and I got to camp out at Nittanyville this year. I also went to every Penn State Men’s Soccer game and helped establish a student section for the soccer team that keeps increasing popularity. I got to go to Pegula Ice Area and see a few hockey games. I also got basketball season tickets and it’s been a blast going to those games. My goal is to attend at least one sporting event of every Penn State varsity team. I’m getting really close. I’m super excited for Penn State’s next fencing match. Through Penn State sports I’ve got the opportunity to go places such as a trip to the University of Maryland with the soccer student section to cheer on our guys in a game.

Global Engagement and Leadership Experience Retreat

Most importantly, I’ve met so many friends that I am confident that will be in my life for a very long time. I’ve met friends that I can be downright silly with and that I feel like I’ve known my whole entire life. I’ve gotten the opportunity to make friends from all over the world. How many people can say that they have friends from Sweden, Venezuela, India, Dubai, Korea, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, and Peru? Not many.

Roomate love in Hockey Valley

I’ve walked though almost all of downtown State College, explored local businesses, taken the bus to places around Centre County to explore, and visited almost every cool place on campus and luckily documented it all.

We’ve only known each other for a few months but it feels like we’ve been friends for life!

I owe all of this to Penn State. I look forward to the rest of my time here and I can’t wait to see what they next few semesters holds for me.

We Are Penn State!

PRCC logo

I’m sure that many of you go to the HUB almost daily grabbing food, attending events, or merely relaxing and doing homework throughout the various study spots. What a lot of students don’t know is that the HUB is actually the HUB-Robeson Center, home to not only the Hetzel Union Building but also the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

Located on the lower level of the HUB-Robeson Center (near Starbucks), Paul Robeson Cultural Center is named after Paul Robeson, a civil rights activist and singer from Princeton, New Jersey. While Robeson did not attend Penn State, he did visit Penn State many times and aligned with Penn State’s vision of both academic and athletic success with honor.

The PRCC is open daily from 8:00am until 8:00pm Monday through Friday and open to anyone who wants to come in. There are a number of cultural events that occur at the PRCC throughout the year and a great library of books available to check out with a PSU id. The PRCC also consist of Heritage Hall, a huge auditorium used for various cultural events and other student programming.

Art Gallery

For the art lovers, the HUB-Robeson Gallery is open most days and features art from all cultures in order to promote understanding across all cultures. The gallery is also free to the public so I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t gone to check it out. It will not disappoint!

If there’s one thing that separates Penn State from all other universities, it is pride of the school. Penn State has given out more than 700,000 degrees in it’s history. It started with 12 degrees back in 1861 and now every year, more than 18,000 degrees a year are handed out. As you can see, the Penn State family is large. There are about 631,000 living alumni in all 50 states and in over 160 countries in the world. The Penn State Alumni Association is the highest dues paying alumni association in the world and has been for the last 10 years (Source).  “We Are Penn State” really represents a worldwide family brought together by dear old State. 

While it seems hard to house all of this pride, Penn State does have a building on campus designated to the alumni association. The Hintz Family Alumni Center is located on the west end of campus tucked right behind the Engineering building. What makes the alumni center special is that a section of the alumni center is the original University House that Penn State presidents have lived in since the 1860s.

The alumni center is a great place for not only Penn State alumni but also current students. The building has various meeting area, reception rooms, and places to simply hang out. The center if full of Penn State memorabilia and yearbooks. What also makes the alumni center special is the alumni garden. It is full of bricks that alumni have inscribed with messages of support and pride of their Alma Mater.  The alumni building is a beautiful building both inside and out. It is also a great place to study for finals (shhh, don’t tell too many people!)

The center is open Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 5:00pm. It is also open on Saturdays from 11:00am until 3:00pm. The center also stays open during special weekends such as THON, homecoming, graduation, and special sporting events from 11:00am – 3:00pm on Saturdays and 10:00am until 2:00pm on Sundays. If you’re free tomorrow after the football game, why not stop by!

If you ask anyone about the mall around here, they’ll tell you not to even step foot in it. While it is not the best of malls, I wouldn’t classify it as the worst, either. 

If you’re a freshman like me, you don’t have a car on campus. That means that you must rely on the unreliable CATA buses. Recently, I decided to take a trip to the Nittany Mall. I grabbed $1.75 and hopped on the M CATA bus, headed to Nittany Mall. When arriving at the Nittany Mall, you will notice that the mall has decent anchor stores. There’s a Macy’s, Bon-ton, JCPenny, and Sears. For a small mall, those are decent anchor stores. The store is also full of staples such as PacSun, Victoria’s Secret, and Charlotte Russe, a few of my favorite stores. There’s also really convenient places to eat there such as a local pizza place, local pretzel place, and Auntie Anne’s. Another cool thing about the location of the mall is that there are other really great places to go. Across the street from the mall there is a Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Ross, and Barnes & Noble. Moral of the story is this: don’t knock the Nittany Mall until you try it. It’s nothing special but it sure is a great place to go to get off of campus and find a few sales on the way. If you have a free weekend, definitely check it out!