Liberal Arts Experiences

David has used some of his time at Penn State to become a budding entrepreneur. After completing his first year, he founded David’s Dough, a baking company specializing in made-from-scratch cookies. “I ran through my savings my first year and really wanted to find a job I loved and was good at. With a traditional job I felt as though I was simply trading time for money, so I tried figuring out what I loved and was good at. I began by just selling cookies to my friends at home and eventually took it here.”

In summer 2023, Xiomara interned with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for the U.S. House of Representatives. During her time in Washington, Xiomara focused on college-level outreach to provide students the opportunity to work on the Hill. Her goal was to bring in diverse political perspectives to help bridge the gap in representation through students. Throughout her internship, she also worked closely with the Foreign Affairs Committee, which sparked her interest in foreign affairs and international relations.

During her time at Penn State York, Xiomara served as a senator and liaison for the Student Government Association. She also served on the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments. Her dedication to the Student Government Association led to her election as president, where she aimed to create a space for students to provide feedback as well as empower members to present their ideas to the University.

This past summer, Elisabeth traveled to the Netherlands as part of the “Dutch Criminal and Social Justice” faculty-led program offered through the College of the Liberal Arts. Over the span of five weeks, Egeli examined the Dutch and American approaches to social problems and criminal justice alongside her classmates and Tim Robicheaux, full teaching professor of sociology and criminology, who has been leading the program for several years.

From a young age, Elisabeth has been driven by one of her biggest passions: understanding the psychology of crime. “I’ve always been fascinated by human behavior, particularly about criminals. I want to understand why people commit crimes and how psychology and societal factors intersect in shaping those decisions.”

Maddie works on the student engagement side of PSU Votes developing resources to support students registering to vote and making a plan to vote. Additionally, she creates resources to support faculty who want to help their students get ready to vote. She explained that there are many barriers college students face when voting, so PSU Votes exists to help students overcome such barriers. “Unrealistically, I would love to have 100% youth voter turnout, but knowing that’s not possible, my goal is to get as many people to vote as we can. I would love to see more people excited to vote, be informed and know their rights as a voter.”