All-University Day Recap from World Campus Student Debra Mynar

Get in the All-University Day spirit by reading highlights of the event from Debra Mynar, a World Campus student who attended in 2009!

Debra brought her daughter, Amanda, to the tailgate and game. She wrote about her All-University Day experience in the World Campus Psychology Club’s newsletter, Mind over Matters.

The Pre-game Tailgate

Delicious paw print cupcakes from the pre-game tailgate

“World Campus staff invited all ticket winners and their guests to attend a tailgate at the Outreach Building the night before the game. What a great idea!….We feasted on a hearty meal of ribs and chicken with baked beans and all the accoutrements, surrounded by shiny blue and white [Penn State] balloons and other decorations. The piece de resistance, however, were the blue and white paw print cupcakes. Amanda and I later learned that these make a great 3 a.m. snack, too, after we packed our car with balloons and leftover food! In fact, I’m pretty sure that my kid heisted a cowbell from the festivities which may end up somewhere on my final tuition bill!”

Rally in the Valley (a pep rally the night before the game)

“The pep rally is good practice for learning all of the important game day cheers. Well, let me tell you, the pep rally is what I imagine it feels like to sit in the middle of the student section at a home game! It’s E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C! The Blue Band played and the cheerleaders got the party started. Then the football players made their way to the reserved seating, the only empty bleachers in the field house. Enter stage left, the fearless leader of our Penn State football program, Coach Joe Paterno, and the crowd went W-I-L-D! I only heard little bits and pieces of his message between deafening bursts from the crowd, though I imagine whatever he said was sincere and motivating.”

Rally in the Valley. Image by Annemarie Mountz; courtesy: Penn State Live.

At the Football Game

The crowd roars at the 2009 Iowa/Penn State game. Photo by Curtis Chan; courtesy: Penn State Live.

“For Nittany Lion fans like us, the experience was just unbelievable. We screamed until we had no voices left. We cheered until the stadium floor was littered with strips of white plastic from our pom poms and the sleeves under our rain ponchos were soaked all the way down our sides. Unfortunately, Penn State did not walk away with a victory that day. Amanda and I watched as the players exited the field and turned around to see that we were among the few remaining Penn State fans left in the stands. I stopped to look around and take it all in. After all, I would probably never see the stadium from that perspective again. Then I gathered up my muddy tail and we said good night to Beaver Stadium.”

Read Debra’s full article in the Psychology Club’s Mind over Matters newsletter.