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Current Students
Student Janiyah Davis meets with Stacey Hoffman in the Career Enrichment Network
Student Janiyah Davis meets with Stacey Hoffman in the Career Enrichment Network.

Supporting You

Every step of the way

The College of the Liberal Arts is a community of people with a genuine interest in developing long-standing interpersonal relationships that help you succeed before and after you graduate. 

Funding

Helping you find ways to afford your Penn State Liberal Arts education is one of Dean Lang’s highest priorities. The college offers a variety of scholarships and funding sources to help you afford tuition and out-of-classroom experiences like internships, education abroad, and research. 

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Student Services

The College of the Liberal Arts is a community of people with a genuine interest in developing long-standing interpersonal relationships that help students succeed before and after they graduate. With this goal in mind, Liberal Arts Student Services support and connect students with the resources and opportunities they need to be successful. Our Student Services offices are all centrally located on the first floor of Sparks Building.

  • Academic Advising 
  • Academic Scholarships 
  • Career Enrichment Network 
  • Chaiken Center for Student Success 
  • Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity 
  • Paterno Fellows Program 

Academics

The College of the Liberal Arts is home to nearly 150 undergraduate majors, minors, integrated undergraduate-graduate degrees (IUGs), associate degrees, and certificates.   

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Majors

Minors

IUGs

The college is also home to faculty and staff who are readily available to help you on your academic journey. Learn about academic integrity and recovery, honors education, commencement, and more!  

Mathias Hanses, associate professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, gives a tour of the Capitoline Museums in Rome.
Mathias Hanses, associate professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, gives a tour of the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

Beyond the Classroom

Learning outside the classroom is an important part of a Penn State Liberal Arts education. Participating in out-of-classroom experiences like internships, education abroad, and research can play an integral role in personal, academic, and career development, offering students the opportunity to set themselves apart.  

Our Career Enrichment Network offers a variety of professional development opportunities for students, including our Alumni Mentor Program, a Living Learning Community, and Liberal Arts Career Week.  

Enrichment FundingInternational ResearchUndergrad Research

Sarah Paterno

’22
Anthropology
|
Psychology
Anthropology
Psychology
Sarah received enrichment funding to spend two months on an archaeological excavation in Bolivia. “This project has taught me how archaeological research is carried out, and I believe it has prepared me for continuing research at a graduate level,” she said.
Sarah Paterno
Career Enrichment NetworkCommunication Arts and SciencesEducation AbroadEnglishEnrichment FundingPaterno FellowsPhilosophyResearch

Daniel Zahn

’20
English
|
Philosophy
|
Communication Arts and Sciences
English
Philosophy
Communication Arts and Sciences
As a student, Daniel, a Paterno Fellow alumnus, participated in a linguistics research project in Bassila, Benin made possible by the Career Enrichment Network, where his research focused on everyday language use.
SpanishUndergrad Research

Caden Vitti

’23
Spanish
|
Energy Engineering
Spanish
Energy Engineering
Caden spent his summer completing sociolinguistic research in Puerto Rico. He was selected by the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program, which is housed in the College of the Liberal Arts. The program provides students who have an interest in linguistics research with funding to travel to a country for six to eight weeks to conduct research.
Campus LeaderCareer Enrichment NetworkChineseGlobal and International StudiesInternshipsPaterno FellowsPhilosophySustainability

Nora Van Horn

’22
Philosophy
|
Chinese
|
Global and International Studies
Philosophy
Chinese
Global and International Studies
Nora created a lasting change for sustainability at Penn State. She helped establish the University Park Undergraduate Association’s Department of Sustainability and the University’s Environmental Sustainability Fund to support on-campus sustainability efforts.
AnthropologyCourse SpotlightEducation AbroadEmbedded Course

Lyndsay Rathbun

’22
Anthropology
|
Italian
Anthropology
Italian
After spending time in Bologna and Florence, Italy as part of the Liberal Arts embedded course IT 175/SC 475N Anatomy in Italy, Lyndsay said one of her favorite experiences of the trip was meeting medical students from the University of Bologna.
Course SpotlightCriminologyEducation AbroadEmbedded Course

Taylor Needleman

’24
Criminology
Criminology
Taylor spent a week in Curaçao as part of CRIM 425, and in addition to experiencing different cultures within a criminology context, she said she appreciated how the shorter trip allowed her to determine if she might enjoy a longer, future education abroad experience.
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Penn State researchers seeking to understand the reasons behind people’s attitudes towards wildlife and their decisions to support saving endangered species were recently awarded a Commonwealth Campuses Research Collaboration Development Program Award to address lack of research in this area, by developing an interactive game.

Penn State’s Jason Laine, associate teaching professor, College of Liberal Arts, has been recognized for his excellence in education abroad curriculum design by the Forum on Education Abroad. Laine received this award for his undergraduate course, “Italian Language and Culture for Embedded Experiences Abroad,” which uses a co-requisite model with an upper-level Biology course, giving opportunities for STEM students to engage with language and humanities students to engage with the sciences.

During his time at Penn State, fourth-year Schreyer Scholar Juntae Rocker has dedicated himself to serving underrepresented students and strengthening their communities across the University. In recognition of those efforts, along with his academic achievements, Rocker has been awarded the 2023 Neil C. Patel Memorial Changemaker Honors Scholarship.

Over spring break, more than 100 students had the opportunity to travel to Prato, Italy, for seven days as part of the Multilingual and Intercultural Communication embedded program in the College of the Liberal Arts.

In her time at Penn State, Jordynn Cheatle has sought out experiences that have shown her the value of having difficult conversations and how to have them well.

Student startup Bindr, a dating app that provides a safe space online for bisexual individuals, won $15,000, the largest prize amount, in the 2023 Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition. The competition, part of Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC, saw six Penn State student teams pitch their startups to a panel of judges and compete for up to $30,000 in funding.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Penn State University Libraries will host a virtual, month-long, Wikipedia editathon focusing on Native American women activists and environmentalists, from March 27 through April 18.

U.S. college students’ knowledge of bees focuses primarily on honey bees and pollination services, according to Penn State researchers, who said findings from their recent study could help in designing campaigns to generate support for protecting threatened pollinators.

Celeste Good, who graduated with a degree in women’s studies in the College of the Liberal Arts, is the recipient of the 2023 Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award. The award recognizes a junior, senior or graduate student for outstanding efforts to enhance the understanding of diverse cultures and create a community where all individuals are accepted and valued equally. 

Max Dean, a senior majoring in economics in the College of the Liberal Arts, and Ally Schlegel, who graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship from the Smeal College of Business, have been selected as the 2023 recipients of the Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award. The Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award annually recognizes a senior man and woman who have successful athletic participation with academic excellence.