Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

From the Board to the Blog: A Recap of the Paterno Fellows Program Student Advisory Board’s First Meeting of the Year

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Hello everyone!

The Paterno Fellows Program’s Student Advisory Board had their first meeting of the Fall 2013 semester on Sunday, September 22.  For most of us, this was our first time meeting with our new director, Dr. Cathy Wanner.

At this meeting, we discussed the general state of the PFP and our goals for this year for the program.

Some of the topics discussed include:

  • Students’ motivation for joining the program and the rate of students who continue with the program throughout their academic career at Penn State.
    • Is it just for the money?
    • Problems clarifying some of the requirements?
  • Creating “Real Benefits” of being a part of the Paterno Fellows Program.
    • Undergraduate Research Fund (already exists via Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network)
    • Dinner Discussions with PFP faculty (dinner for a group of Penn State students and a faculty, discussion determined by the faculty member, free of charge)
    • PFP Mentoring (upperclassmen Paterno Fellows advising the underclassmen Paterno Fellows/Aspirants)
    • Backstage/Special access to speakers and events on campus and downtown.
  • Creating a series of meetings to help students navigate the advising system (professional and honors advisers) and other academic issues.
  • Checking-In on how the new PFP SLO in Sproul Hall (East Halls) is doing.
  • Ideas for Paterno Fellow Socials:
    • Ice Skating
    • Tussey Mountain
    • Trivia

 

Visit the Pinwheels Garden!

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pinwheel.jpgHello everyone! Happy spring and end of semester! Just a little over 1 more week until classes end.

But do you know what doesn’t end? The fight to prevent child abuse.

Did you know that more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse?

Did you know that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates? (Stats found on ChildHelp website)

pinwheel image courtesy Penn_State.jpgLast year, you may remember the enormous success the College of the Liberal Arts had with the Pinwheels for Prevention Program, an event sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse PA to raise awareness about child abuse and the prevention efforts. If you don’t, you can watch a video or read stories about it.

This year, a few students in the Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority and Paterno Fellows Program teamed up to make the 2nd annual Pinwheels garden at Penn State. In fact, we are “planting” the garden today around 1pm! Come stop by the Pinwheels garden outside of Sparks Building near the Pattee Library.

You can help us too! Spread the word to a friend or share this post on Facebook or Twitter. Take a picture by the garden and upload it to Facebook or Flickr. Every bit counts towards making people more aware of the issue!

Although we’ve already had our 2 HUB-table sales, you can still donate by:

Remember, “we all play a role in the healthy development of our nation’s children.”

Help play a role in making Sexual Abuse and Violence Awareness month an even greater success. We’ve already seen events like Rock Against Rape and the Only Do It With Consent shirt giveaways doing a fantastic job at spreading awareness. Help us do the same!

Attention Sophomore Fellows!

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trivia.jpgHappy New Year everyone from the Paterno Fellows!

To all the sophomore Paterno Fellows — we thought we’d kick the new year and new semester off with a social night. Come out to the Memorial Lounge in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center from 7-9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16th, for a trivia night. If you like Sporcle, this will be perfect for you. We plan on having some team challenges as well so bring your friends and your brains for some food and fun! Pizza and drinks will be served.

Pinwheels for Prevention Update!

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Pinwheel.jpgHello everyone!

Last time we gave you some updates on our future plans for the PSU’s efforts with PCA America’s Pinwheels for Prevention program.

Today we have some good news: we have our HUB tables booked now!  We will be at HUB table #8 from 11:00am – 2:00pm on:

  • Tuesday, April 3rd
  • Wednesday, April 4th
  • Monday, April 16th
  • Tuesday, April 17th

So mark your calendars!

You can buy a pinwheel for yourself or donate it to the garden for $2.  We would, of course, accept any other donations as well. 

Remember, all proceeds go to child abuse prevention!

Also, look for our Facebook event and join today for more updates!

Any questions?  Want to get involved?  Contact: psupinwheels@gmail.com

Pinwheels for Prevention Plans Ahead

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Thumbnail image for Pinwheels for Prevention.jpgHello everyone

I wanted to give an update on the Pinwheels for Prevention program that the College of the Liberal Arts and Paterno Fellows Program are organizing for the spring.

Thank you

A few weeks ago, we had sent out a memo announcing the program.

Thank you all for a great response!  So far, we have over 17 student volunteers for the program.  If you are still looking to volunteer, we could still use your help – the more the merrier.  If you would like to get more info on volunteering, please e-mail us at psupinwheels@gmail.com.

Our Next Moves

During the last week of March, we will be handing out flyers with dates of when we will be selling the Pinwheels.  We hope to be in the HUB during the first week of April to sell the pinwheels.  Check back this week for final selling dates.

Remember, you can buy a pinwheel for $2 and either keep it yourself, or donate it to the Pinwheels Garden we will be creating for our concluding event on April 18th outside Sparks Building.

If you would like to purchase a pinwheel or donate to the program and do not want to wait until we are in the HUB, you can e-mail psupinwheels@gmail.com or stop by 5 Sparks Building.

Once again, we ask for your continued support of this program as the Spring marches on.  Without a doubt, one of the great things I’ve learned here so far at Penn State is the tremendous good that a united community can do.  While we may not raise $10.6 million, we can still join together in order to help underprivileged children.  After all, it’s still FTK just in a slightly different way.

Thanks again and enjoy the weather!

Sean Dooling

Hats Off or Rather Hoods Up for Paterno Fellows

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For those of you who don’t know me, which is probably a good deal of you, my name is Sean Dooling. I am a freshman Paterno Fellow and Schreyers Honors Scholar majoring in Biological Anthropology and French. I come from Bensalem a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. However, Dear Old State is quickly becoming home for me. But more about me later…

For now I wanted to give a shout out of congratulations to the Paterno Fellows who were recently recognized Monday, January 9, 2012!

I thought this recognition ceremony was a great way to kick off the new semester and to reward students for all the hard work they have put in so far. Plus, it was also really special to have all of the Paterno Fellows and Aspirants together for the night since we rarely ever gather like that. The event definitely had a strong community feel – especially with members of the Paterno Family in attendance, as well as alumni such as Rick Barry returning to give some words of wisdom. It wouldn’t be possible to have this program without the generous contributions of our PFP supporters.

Danielle Mackintosh ’13, our student speaker, also gave a great speech, recounting some of her experiences such as honors mythology courses and studying abroad in the Netherlands. She really made me excited for all the connections and opportunities I hopefully will have in the future as a Paterno Fellow.

Last but not least, we also got awesome sweatshirts! I wear my hoodie all the time when I do homework. While simple in design, they are incredibly warm and comfortable – perfect as the snow and temperature begins to fall on campus.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic beginning to the second semester!

Sean

In light of recent events…

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We still are… hurt.
We still are… angry.
We still are… confused.

After talking with a number of my friends and classmates, it’s undeniably clear that we still have no idea how to feel or how to react to what has happened in our community and what will happen to our community in the future. In search of some resolution, we’ve tried protesting and rioting. We’ve tried a peaceful vigil. We’ve tried to rally around one another for a sense of comfort and support. Yet I’m still not sure if any of us have found that stability or reassurance that we’ve been searching for.

One of the main reasons for this lingering sense of anxiety is that we have heard no clear answers. There’s been a shroud of mystery hanging over the entire situation. We’ve received little to no answers or explanations from anyone at the university. Instead we’ve had to rely on the twisted reports of the news media and Twitter feeds in order to find out what is going on in our own home.

If only we could know some of the reasoning behind the actions of the board of trustees such as firing Joe Paterno and having Graham Spanier resign while Tim Curley kept his job during the past few weeks. If only we could ask the Board of Trustees or the administration just a few questions to help us make sense of this complicated mess.

And so, the Paterno Fellows Advisory Board would like to know your opinion on some of these issues:

For instance:
– What was your initial reaction to hearing about the scandal? How has your viewpoint changed has the situation has progressed?
– After going home for Thanksgiving, what impressions (if any) have you received from your home community about Penn State?
– If you could ask the Board of Trustees and/or administration one question, or get one issue of the scandal clarified , what would it be?

We ask that you give us your thoughts. Objectively, maturely, and most importantly, honestly.

And above all, always remember:

We still are… committed.
We still are… determined.
And We still are… going to set things right.
We still are… Penn State!
Thank you.

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