When applying to colleges, Autumn Griffin was initially unsure that Penn State was the best fit for her. Her interest skyrocketed, however, when she attended Achievers’ Weekend–three days of programming intended to recruit already-accepted minority students to the university. Here, she spoke with the Liberal Arts multicultural equity programs coordinator Earl Merritt, and learned about the various academic opportunities available to her through the College of the Liberal Arts. As she accepted her offer to attend the university so late, she did not have the time to apply to the Schreyer Honors College. Luckily, the Paterno Fellows Program is giving her a second path to a Penn State honors education.
An English and African and African American Studies (AAAS) major, Autumn loved to read and write from a young age. Her mother’s interests in black history and art, as well as her Paterno Fellows adviser’s encouragement that a double major was within her reach, inspired her to add AAAS as a second major. Some of Autumn’s favorite courses her freshman year were the honors courses she took to fulfill PFP requirements, including an African American poetry course. “I just had the mindset that professors expected more out of me in honors classes, so I worked harder in them,” Autumn said. “As a result, I ended up doing really well.”
During spring semester of her freshman year, Autumn volunteered with a group of Fellows aspirants as part of Penn State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. In addition to introducing her to other Paterno Fellows aspirants in her cohort, the project inspired her to increase her commitment to community service. Next year, she will serve as the co-chair of a Day of Service committee, reaching out to local nonprofits that need volunteers and assigning student groups to these projects. Autumn’s involvement in the Penn State community doesn’t end here, meanwhile; she serves as the Features Editor for a multicultural campus newspaper called The Drum and gives tours to prospective students and families as part of the Student Minority Advisory Recruitment Team.
Autumn’s goals for this year include gaining entrance to the McNair Scholars Program, a program that gives talented Penn State students the opportunity to research with professors in their fields at other Big Ten schools. This opportunity would give her a head start on another Fellows Program requirement–her capstone research paper. Autumn is also looking forward to studying abroad in South Africa her junior year, and to receiving the education abroad grant she is guaranteed when she officially becomes a Paterno Fellow. “It will be one less thing my parents and I will need to stress over,” she says.
Eventually, Autumn plans to pursue a master’s degree in education; one of her long-term goals is working to increase the number of economically disadvantaged students who attend college. For now, she looks forward to taking more humanities courses and, through the Paterno Fellows program, cultivating her Liberal Arts identity more generally. “I was inspired by a high school teacher with a Liberal Arts background who had such a broad knowledge base,” Autumn says. “I knew that she was the kind of person I wanted to become.”