Scholar’s outstanding thesis addresses public health

The Schreyer Honors College at 25

A retrospective of years of innovation, agility, community, and integration

By Jenna Spinelle Penn State and the world around it have changed a lot since 1997. But the values that led to the founding of the Schreyer Honors College 25 years ago remain very much in place today.

The principles of innovation, community, integration, and agility allowed the College’s administration, faculty, staff, and students to create transformative educational experiences that bring the mission of excellence in the classroom and around the globe to life across Penn State’s campuses and colleges.

Several of the people involved in the journey recently reflected on the College’s evolution and its impact on shaping a new generation of leaders and changemakers.

Innovation: Writing new rules for honors education

Cheryl Achterberg helped create the proposal for what would become the Schreyer Honors College and served as its inaugural dean from 19982005. She worked closely with William A. Schreyer to bring his vision for honors education to life and created the “ABCs” that remain part of the college’s mission today—academic excellence, building a global perspective, and creating opportunities for leadership and civic engagement.

To that end, Achterberg focused on creating opportunities for research and travel that would attract students who were interested in more than simply a rigorous academic experience.

“We were trying to recruit the best students we could and provide freedom in their studies and support them through travel grants, research grants, opening doors, and negotiating internships at new places for Penn State students,” Achterberg said.

The leadership was not necessarily focused on racking up accolades like Rhodes or Goldwater scholarships. Achterberg said that those distinctions came as a result of creating a more engaged student body.

“As a dean, I didn’t spend any time on prizes at all except to report the winners at the end,” Achterberg said. “We kept our focus on providing the very best education we could and enabling students to pursue their educational goals, whatever those might be. We knew that if we kept our focus on that, the prizes would follow.”

During her tenure as dean, Achterberg led students on study abroad trips to London and created a course in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a prominent foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C. Part of the course involved traveling to Washington over spring break to write position papers that were evaluated by CSIS experts.

This partnership marked the first time CSIS had accepted students from a public university. Penn State continues to place multiple students there each year.

Scholar alumnus Ryan Newman (‘01 Bus) was among the first students to graduate from the College. He recalls thinking that the College’s creation was going to be transformative for him and so many other Penn Staters.

“There’s this tipping point where everything changes, and the Schreyer Honors College was that tipping point for me and others,” Newman said. “It went from all of these pieces and things kind of working together to when I was accepted, a totally upward trajectory.”

He entered the College during his second year and lived in Atherton Hall—an experience he refers to as his “second freshman year” at Penn State.

“That living-learning environment allowed me to see the lens of the University dramatically differently, where I still felt like I had access to all these great global resources, but it was delivered through this intimate lens of the Honors College,” Newman said.

Newman also appreciated the fact that Achterberg and other College administrators were working in such close proximity to the students. While living in Atherton Hall, he suggested to her that the College should have tea for students—and she made it happen in the building’s courtyard. from her daily experience, to literally sit in the courtyard and have tea with me and my roommate,” Newman said. “It was just a sign of just how fast things were moving at that time, but also how much everyone was taking time to really embrace the moment as well.”

Community: Changing the definition of an honors student Sam Bonsall (’04 Lib, ’04g Bus) grew up in State College and graduated near the top of his class at State College Area High School in 2000. After living in the shadow of Penn State, he was eager to get away from Happy Valley and attend an Ivy League school.

“There’s a lot of pressure for people who did well to aim for Ivy League institutions,” Bonsall said. “The problem with those is that they’re very expensive, and even if I was able to get in, I was not eligible for a lot of aid.”

Bonsall was persuaded to reconsider Penn State by Matt Brezina, a fellow Scholar alumnus who graduated from high school a year before him and enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College. At that time, Bonsall said the College was known as the “best-kept secret at Penn State” and a place he ultimately felt excited to be part of.

“I didn’t feel like I was missing that Ivy League experience because I was getting that through the enrichment of the honors courses and having a terrific academic adviser,” Bonsall said. “I had the opportunity to really learn from topnotch faculty in your first year at Penn State, which is not, I think, the standard Penn State experience.”

Bonsall and Newman both credit David Shapiro, professor emeritus of economics and the department’s former honors coordinator, with creating an academic experience that reframed how they viewed finance.

“In those honors seminars, I gained so much more insight and learned a new way of thinking about the philosophy of economics,” Bonsall said. “Reading papers and thought pieces was a different style than my other ECON courses, and it was the start of planting the seed to becoming an academic down the line.”

Scholar alumna Laura Guay (‘21 HHD) said the College’s small size and its strong focus on community were leading factors in her decision to attend Penn State.

“That was the part that was holding me back from Penn State … I was so worried about how large it was going to be,” Guay said. “And knowing that I would have sort of a community to guide me to be able to go back to a smaller side of things, but also be pushed in ways that I knew I wouldn’t and otherwise be pushed.” Guay continued to expand the College’s community during her time as a Scholar. She studied abroad in Senegal in the spring of 2019 and returned with a desire to connect with other Scholars who had studied abroad.

Knowing that a global perspective is an integral part of the College’s mission, she began having conversations with Dr. Richard Stoller, assistant dean for academic affairs, about creating a one-credit class or other opportunities for students returning from study abroad experiences.

“When I first arrived back, I had this sense that I’ve changed and I wondered how to work myself back into campus life,” Guay said. “I wanted to be able to connect with others who had gone through this experience and found that they changed or their friends changed a bit.” It was really great having those conversations with Dr. Stoller and thinking about how to strengthen that part of the honors community.”

Integration: Honors across Penn State

Christian M.M. Brady succeeded Achterberg as dean in 2006. At the time, he was a young assistant professor in the College of the Liberal Arts and struggled in his own academic journey as an undergraduate at Cornell.

“I was asked to take a year off from school at Cornell and told to consider vocational school because maybe higher ed wasn’t for me,” Brady said. “I took that year, figured it out, and went back to Cornell and ended up getting my doctorate from the University of Oxford.”

Brady often shared his personal journey with students as a way of reminding them that there are many paths to becoming an honors student, particularly at a large university like Penn State.

“Not everybody likes the idea that the dean of the honors college nearly failed out of college, but I think it’s important to be open and honest and transparent about these things because it helps give people room to fail.”

Brady oversaw a $30 million fundraising campaign during his tenure as dean, an effort designed to build upon the original gift from the Schreyers and ensure that the College could provide even more opportunities and support for students.

Part of this support involved bringing the honors experience to Penn State’s 12 academic colleges and 19 campuses. This work involved innovation again as Brady and the College’s leadership navigated complex relationships with stakeholders across the University.

The goal was always to find ways that honors education could elevate the work of campuses and colleges, rather than adding barriers or burdens for students.

“Every honors student is a graduate of one of the other colleges or campuses, and this was the way that we brought everybody on board,” Brady said. “I was very intentional in bringing all the honors coordinators from the other campuses to University Park and visiting the honors programs at the campuses.”