How do you want to drive your education — in the slow lane doing 20 mph or in a sports car cruising in the passing lane? This is essentially what Penn State President Barron said when he addressed the Board of Trustees for the first time last year, and one of his key points was…
Student Voices
The other day I was walking through Target when I came across a display that stopped me in my tracks. Stomach fluttering, heart racing, I saw the inevitable: the back-to-school section. Notebooks and binders and colored pencils and erasers and calculators (really, the list could fill a whole page) were bearing down on me, reminding…
Annah Jensen is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Penn State World Campus. Annah takes one class per semester to help keep her workload more manageable. She lives in Bradenton, Florida, and works full-time as a receiving office supervisor for a privately owned environmental laboratory. Here’s Annah’s story of how she strengthened her Penn…
Ah, the freedom of learning from the comforts of your home. How wonderful does that sound? There would be no need to get up at a certain time or find yourself stuck in traffic jams. Better yet, you can stay in your comfy clothes and drink coffee at your leisure while still completing course work.…
I tend to stick to myself. I participate in discussion boards. I state my opinions and I will even disagree when I need to. I hand in my assignments on time, get good grades and positive feedback. I don’t email the professor frequently to ask questions about assignments or to just pick his/her brain about…
Have you lost your voice? There may be times when one is fearful about speaking up due to a work or team climate. Many of us have been in difficult team or work situations where our voice may not be valued. However, you worked hard to obtain your degree and want to help the company…
My last assignment in the Navy was as an officer recruiter. We were required to maintain a weekly planner, which I hated! On Fridays, I would break out a bunch of markers and have to color-code different things that I was doing for the next week. A yellow block of time meant that I was…
I have often wondered what it is about a leader that stands out for me personally, regardless of the role. Leaders are found everywhere — community leaders, project team leaders, PTA leaders, volunteer leaders, organization leaders, and family leaders. Leadership seems to require a varied mix of attributes, depending on the organization, community, and even…
It’s the season of graduations. Sitting through ceremonies, attending celebrations, and trying to get the never-ending refrain of Pomp and Circumstance out of your head seem to be the new normal. Through all of this, the excitement is palpable. So how can one possibly give a graduation gift to show your grad all that the…
I arrived on the field carrying my heavy burden of necessities. For me, this included not only chairs and a water bottle, but also my DSLR camera and 300mm lens for sports photography. Believe me when I tell you that the camera and lens are, in fact, fairly heavy. The weather is excellent, not too…