Hello Liberal Arts Undergraduates:

Over the past few years, we in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office have sought to create a living online presence that is designed to cultivate community around the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State.

While many see social media as a marketing strategy that pushes information out to “clients,” we in LAUS have sought to use social media technologies as an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to engage one another and to reflect in public about the liberal arts experience at Penn State.

With the excellent support of our students, staff and faculty, our online community is thriving. But for its continued success, we need your voice.

As we begin this new academic year, I want to invite you to participate in our online community.

Our LAUS website and our newly redesigned College of the Liberal Arts website serve as a HUB for all the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office. I hope you will visit it frequently and make it a favorite bookmark.

Our main LAUSatPSU blog is co-authored by liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. This blog focuses on the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts. Here you will find posts from students writing about recent internship experiences; tips about advising from CLA advisers; episodes of Liberal Arts Voices, a bi-weekly podcast produced by the LAUS Office which highlights undergraduate life in the College; and much more.

Our LAUS Announcements blog draws attention to news, updates, and announcements that are important for CLA undergraduates. You should subscribe to LAUS Announcements to get the most recent internship postings, study abroad application deadlines, dates for a variety of College events, and other information related to life in the College.

The Education Abroad Experience blog is generated by the stories and experiences of Liberal Arts undergraduates as they study abroad and travel around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad this is a great opportunity to hear directly from your fellow students and to start thinking about the type of program that is right for you.

If you are an admitted or aspiring Paterno Fellow, make sure to check out the Paterno Fellows Program blog. You will receive direct messages from the PFP Director Jack Selzer and read posts written by students involved in the program when you subscribe to this blog.

I invite you to follow me (@LAUSDeanLong) and the LAUS office (@LAUSatPSU) on Twitter, to become our fan on Facebook, to subscribe to all of our blogs, to listen to the Liberal Arts Voices podcast and, most importantly, to join the ongoing conversation about the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience.

Sincerely,

Dean Long