Updates from around Schreyer Honors College, including new staff, staff promotions, recent gifts and new programming.
Lynette Yarger receives promotion
On July 1 the Honors College promoted Lynette Yarger to full-time associate dean for equity and inclusion. Previously she had filled the role on a part-time basis.
A professor of information sciences and technology with the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), Yarger joined Schreyer in 2019 as the assistant dean for equity and inclusion.
“Lynette and her work are critical facets of the Honors College’s living-learning community,” said Dean Mather. “It’s an honor to work alongside her in our efforts to enhance belonging and support the success of Scholars from a multitude of backgrounds.”
In four years with Schreyer Honors College, Yarger has taken on several initiatives that have benefitted minoritized and underrepresented Scholars. She guided the founders of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schreyer, and the International and Multicultural Association of Schreyer Scholars. She leads Schreyer’s Summer Excelerator, which provides programming to underrepresented Scholars to help them acclimate to the Honors College and Penn State. She is also available for one-on-one conversations to advise Scholars on issues that they are facing.
In this new role, Yarger will lead the College’s efforts around Scholar success and career development with oversight of the director of student programs and director of career development.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue my work at Schreyer Honors College on a full-time basis,” said Yarger. “I’m eager to take on more projects that put all of our Scholars in the best possible position to reach their potential.”
Meet Schreyer’s new Director of Career Development
Matt Ishler earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State. He has also spent 22 years on the University’s staff in roles focused on helping students achieve their professional goals. This May, Ishler brought his expertise and experience to the Honors College as its new director of career development.
Schreyer Scholars can turn to Ishler for help with all aspects of career development, from career exploration and decision-making to building a plan to search for and secure internships, full-time employment, and further educational goals. He will also be the point person for employers who want to connect with current Scholars and will play a key role in planning and hosting Schreyer’s Connect Networking and Career Day.
Those who want to connect with Matt regarding career-related opportunities can email him at mwi100@psu.edu.
Glenn Family Gift helps create Dilemmas of Democracy Program
A year-long conversation focused on the challenges facing modern democracy has been made possible by a generous contribution from Penn State alumni Art and Betty Glenn.
Hosted by Schreyer Honors College, the program titled Dilemmas of Democracy featured a lecture by author and history professor Timothy Snyder and a three-part faculty symposium.
“When Art approached the college with the model for a year-long conversation, including expert voices from outside and inside of Penn State, I found it to be a natural fit with the work already happening in Schreyer and at the University,” said Patrick Mather, dean of Schreyer Honors College. “Art’s contribution gives our scholars the opportunity to meaningfully explore this critical topic through a series of engagements.”
The Glenns are loyal Penn State alumni who have remained engaged with the University for decades. Art graduated in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering while Betty graduated with a bachelor of science degree in home economics in 1957. A former vice president of multiple units at GE, Art Glenn was honored as an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus in 1990, an Alumni Fellow in 1996, and a Distinguished Alumni in 2005. He also served for many years on the Honors College’s External Advisory Board.
Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, addressed democracy’s current dilemmas in his free lecture at State Theatre. Snyder has authored eight books including On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom, has received noteworthy awards such as the Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships, and studied as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford.
The faculty symposium series, Dialogues of Democracy, builds on the ideas from Snyder’s lecture and keeps the conversation going throughout the year. The symposium sessions will be led by Christopher Beem, managing director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and associate research professor of political science at Penn State; Ambassador Dennis Jett, a founding faculty member of the Penn State School of International Affairs; and Boaz Dvir, associate professor of journalism in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and director of the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative and the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State.
Schreyer Family gift helps launch New Scholar Experience program
by Tom Joudrey
A new $2.3 million gift from the William A. and Joan Schreyer Foundation helped launch an innovative program that’s designed to foster a meaningful sense of community, identity and belonging among Scholars entering the Honors College.
For the past 18 years, Schreyer Scholars have attended a two-day orientation experience, known as SHO TIME. More than 300 incoming first-year Scholars and nearly 300 students entering the College in their second and third year participate in exercises designed to build camaraderie, promote wellness and become familiar with campus support services.
To build upon this annual orientation, the Schreyer Foundation designated $2.3 million to establish the Schreyer Family New Scholar Experience Endowment. The New Scholar Experience pairs SHO TIME with a dynamic new program, called the Foundations of Scholar Success, that provides a one-credit, semester-long curriculum to build awareness of the tools, resources and strategies of learning and self-care and put students on the path to flourishing across their Penn State experience.
