Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona Carolyn Mahan is, to put it mildly, an enthusiastic researcher. In just the last 10 years alone she has studied the presence of pollinators in rights-of way, searched for chinchillas thought to be extirpated from Peru, and planted trees at … Continue reading
From adjunct instructors to full professors and everyone in between, college faculty can truly make a difference in a student’s path to success. Two Penn State Altoona alumni, Brandis Ajay and Sheriece Veazey-McNally, both graduates of the Integrative Arts program, have thrived thanks in part to the guidance they were … Continue reading
With their stunning blue color and reputation for bringing joy and optimism, bluebirds have a special place in human culture. What better subject for a research project during the pandemic? Allison Cornell, assistant professor of biology at Penn State Altoona, has been studying nestling development in wild bluebirds and observed … Continue reading
The subject of race does not often come up in casual conversation; in fact, it’s avoided. Admittedly, it’s not an easy conversation to have in any setting. But Amelia Paterno, a senior majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology at Penn State Altoona, is working on a research project … Continue reading
Just because someone is born and raised in a certain area does not guarantee that they know local history. For people from Altoona, the Horseshoe Curve may just be where the tourists go, not a Nazi target in World War II. The Mishler Theater might only be where the local … Continue reading
Harold Hayford was playing keyboards in local Altoona bands and going to high school when Pink Floyd’s landmark album Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973. Fifty years later, Hayford is Associate Teaching Professor, Mathematics, at Penn State Altoona, and Dark Side of the Moon is the third-best-selling … Continue reading
Fiction writing has many subgenres—fantasy, romance, sci-fi, historical, and so on. And those subgenres have subgenres of their own. Born out of horror, science fiction, and fantasy is “weird fiction.” One of the best-known authors of this genre was the early twentieth-century writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). Penn State Altoona’s … Continue reading
Opportunities for college students to participate in undergraduate research are plentiful. But a student may not know who to talk to, what the benefits might be, or even what questions to ask. At Penn State Altoona Student Pathways to Undergraduate Research (SPUR) was created to give students the information they … Continue reading
Anything new has a learning curve. A new cellphone means learning new features. A company changing its computer systems means learning an entirely new email system. Even something as simple as remembering to write the new year on a check can be a learning process. It is not always easy, … Continue reading
In the first months of the pandemic that began in 2020, research focused on finding the source of and a cure for COVID-19. With the passage of time, researchers have started examining other impacts of this global tragedy. In the multi-contributor volume The Emerald Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions … Continue reading
