My name is Jonny Wise. I’m from Lock Haven, a small town just 30 minutes from State College. I remember attending my first Penn State football game when I was just a little kid, probably around seven years old. It couldn’t have been a better game to see for my first time, as we were hosting arguably our biggest rival, Ohio State. I remember being very upset because I couldn’t see over all the taller people in front of me. Seeing my frustration, my dad lifted me up to see the rest of the stadium. It was like nothing I had ever seen. More than 100,000 people dressed in all white, rooting for their beloved team. All the sudden, I heard a mighty roar from the other side, “WE ARE!” I was very confused as to what this meant, but not for long… “PENN STATE!” My dad belted, along with 50,000 others from my side of the stands. I watched bewilderedly as the crowd continued to chant. Eventually the noise of these two sayings had overtaken me, and soon enough I had become part of it. 

This experience has stayed with me all this time, and definitely had a huge impact on my decision coming to Penn State. But other than the amazing football games, I have also realized all the other opportunities that this University has to offer, such as Thon, Awesome Professors, Great Networking Opportunities, etc. These opportunities and the overwhelming pride this school has is what ultimately lead me to come here. Although I could have went to my hometown college for free with a decent education, I chose Penn State because I wanted to expand my experiences. And with all these great opportunities and the diversity here, I knew PSU was the right choice. 

This class is the perfect example of what I wanted to get out of coming here. It offers a class I hate in a unique way – something I’ve never experienced before. Andrew has already made me realize that I don’t hate science, I just despise all the math and science-related work it takes to solve technical problems. This is why I could never be a science major. Luckily for me, however, Science 200 will not require me to do all the math and science work I dread, but rather it will require me to think critically about topics that I find very interesting. This is perfectly fine with me!