January 2017

Doing works for charities has always been one of Austin Sommerer’s biggest passions. Part of that comes from his parents, who have been involved in an organization called Oceans of Love, a nonprofit group in Ocean County, New Jersey, dedicated to helping children with cancer and their families. Part of his passion also comes…

To pursue her dream of being a professional opera singer, Jennifer Trost sold everything she owned — twice. Taking those chances paid off for Trost, who besides being an opera singer is an associate professor of music at Penn State, where she teaches voice lessons and song- and opera-literature courses. She earned her bachelor’s degree…

For some young people, life can seem like an endless ordeal. A new multimedia play by En Garde Arts, the company that brought Basetrack Live to Penn State in 2014, juxtaposes projected interviews with real people and actors on stage to tell the stories of teenagers and young adults grappling with addiction, depression, anxiety,…

As everyone knows, football is seasonal, history isn’t. But the decision on the Nittany Avenue school building wasn’t that simple.  The fate of the State College Area School District’s oldest recognized elementary school building (built in 1924 as its fifth- through eighth-grade “grammar school”) came to a vote early last month (January 9). There…