A former Penn State student realized she needed help with mental health issues. Who could she talk to?
Although five years had passed since she took Heather Holleman’s course in English writing, the woman drove back to the campus and found the faculty member in her office. The two engaged in an encouraging conversation and Heather also connected the former student to some mental health resources.
Meanwhile, an English department administrator was stunned when Holleman reported the encounter. “This is amazing,” said the administrator. “A hurting woman needed to talk to someone, and the only person she could imagine going to was her college writing professor after all these years. Not her parents, a doctor, or a therapist, but her professor!”
“She felt like I really knew her,” explained Holleman. “And that meant a lot to me.”
MULTI-FACETED INDIVIDUAL
If the stereotypical university faculty member is a dispassionate dispenser of data, Heather Holleman is a breath—maybe a gale—of fresh air. I’ve known about her unique career for many years because of my long-time friendship with her husband, Ashley. Curious to know more, I recently interviewed her and Ashley at length, read portions of her books and reviewed her C.V.
I’m now more amazed than ever by this multi-faceted woman known as “Dr. H.” In fact, I think she is one of Happy Valley’s most compelling personalities because of her teaching style and because of:
- Her Productivity. Holleman has authored or co-authored 11 books since 2011 in such diverse genres as young adult fiction, Christian missions, writing effectiveness and Bible study. Among the most notable are “The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility” and “This Seat’s Saved,” Christianity Today’s Young Adult Book of the Year for 2024. She also maintained a daily blog called Live with Flair for more than 10 years.
- Her Life Balance. Despite the demands of her career, Holleman is all-in on her family life (married to Ashley since 2000, she is the mother of University of Pittsburgh graduate Sarah and current Penn State student Kate). She once was the key organizer of a neighborhood “walk to school” group and a Monday night fitness group. She listens to music from every imaginable style, country to classic. Despite earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, she is a passionate Penn State sports fan and attends all the men’s basketball home games with Ashley. (If you go to a game at Bryce Jordan Center, keep your eye on the “Dance Cam” and you may see Heather’s moves, especially when ‘80s tunes are sounding forth.)
- Her Spiritual Devotion. A dedicated follower of Jesus for several decades, Holleman is often asked by students to share the secret of her happiness. “I love God,” she says. “I pray and read my Bible every day. My problems are all God’s problems, so that makes it easy to be happy. God takes care of me.” As for her personal devotions, Holleman reads five Psalms each day and explains that “the Psalms give me the language for how to emotionally connect with God.” (Her favorite is Psalm 16.)
EARLY ARRIVALS
Holleman’s passion for writing and concern for her students have allowed her to create a special classroom culture while teaching advanced writing for the Schreyer Honors College. And that’s what I wanted to see for myself. But in order to observe Heather Holleman in her element I had to arrive early. That’s because coming early to class is one of Dr. H’s trademarks. So, Heather, why do you show up early? Don’t you realize it’s a professor’s prerogative to arrive late?
Holleman’s answer, shared in “A Grander Story,” a 2017 book that she co-wrote with Rick Hove, reflects a certain shyness in admitting her deep love for students: “How can I tell them the truth—that I come early because I’ve missed them, that I can’t wait to hear about their day, that I’ve been thinking about them all morning, and that I love them? How can I reveal that I’ve spent all week praying about their addictions, their losses, their fears, and their dreams?”
But Holleman’s early arrivals are not only a function of her eagerness to connect with students. She also wants to be available to individuals who need academic help, want to unload a burden or want to create a friendship. (As I watched her laughing with sophomore Will Draper and referring to details in his background, I guessed that he was one of her favorites. But by the time class had ended I realized that all of her students are favorites.)
UNIQUE CLASSROOM CULTURE
Holleman typically starts class with a connection question that everyone can answer and, in the process, learn each other’s names. Her questions might involve favorite foods, favorite movies or sentimental objects that adorn dormitory rooms. On this particular day, she asks students to name their favorite music soloist or group, and she also asks if anyone has something to celebrate. Of all her topics, the perennial favorite is pets, and when that subject is discussed students are invited to show photos of their beloved critters.
Dr. H freely admits there’s an academic cost in using 10 minutes of a 50-minute class for informal interaction. But as she explained in one of her books, “I’m convinced that when students feel connected, secure, loved, and seen, their brains move from reactive to responsive states; they receive instruction easily and take risks in their writing. They move away from the crippling emotions of shame-based teaching and the fear of failure….”
Of course, the English prof does eventually get down to the brass tacks of effective writing. At one point she’ll discuss the proper use of the semicolon, that misunderstood punctuation mark that she happens to love. At another time she’ll focus on “vivid verbs” and share her list of approximately 800 action words that range from “abolishes” to “zaps.”
Holleman’s students appreciate her tutelage in writing, and they certainly should since she was honored with the 2023 Nancy Lowe Excellence in Teaching Writing Award. But most are even more grateful for her compassion and care. Said Damini Nair, a member of the class that I visited, “Dr. H is amazing. She shares parts of her personal life with us, and she’s also invested in ours. You can go up to her with anything—any aspect of your personal life.”
Because Heather cares about the individual, she often notices when someone encounters difficulty. “She was working with a student who had been doing really well but had started struggling,” recalls Ashley. “Then she found out that the student’s mother had recently died from cancer. So Heather said, ‘I’m sure there are times when you need to tell someone how your day went or what you’re celebrating. Here’s my phone number for whenever you want to text me or call me.’ For the rest of that semester, Heather would get a word when the student got an “A,” and she would say, ‘I’m super-proud of you, and I know your Mom would be, too.’”
BRIMMING WITH ENERGY
The Hollemans met at the University of Michigan when Heather was pursuing her doctoral degree, Ashley was earning his master’s and both were active in Cru, an interdenominational Christian ministry. Asked to mention the characteristic he first noticed about her in the late 1990s, Ashley said, “She really believes in God. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this girl really takes her walk with Jesus seriously. She really expects God to show up, and she’s really willing to sacrifice everything to follow him.”
Such faith when coupled with high levels of energy made the former Heather Brown an unforgettable presence at Michigan. In fact, one fellow graduate student nicknamed her “The Walking Exclamation Point.”
Drawn together by mutual interests, Ashley and Heather began a dating relationship in 1999, and they were married at Ann Arbor’s Knox Presbyterian Church on July 29, 2000. “It was like we were walking down the same path,” said Ashley, “and we just kind of held out our hands and started walking together.”
The couple moved in 2007 to State College, where Heather worked as a part-time instructor at Penn State while caring for their two daughters and assisting Ashley with his national leadership of Cru’s “Grad Ministries.” Today, they serve as the co-leaders of “Seated and Sent,” an organization that comes alongside churches and other ministries to offer training for an individual’s spiritual growth and outreach.
The Hollemans typically travel and speak two weekends a month—a regimen that is workable partly because of Dr. H’s ability to juggle responsibilities. “Heather’s got incredible capacity,” says Ashley. “She can do this and then that; she can pick up something new and be fully engaged within a few minutes.”
And then there’s the energy thing. “I do tend to have a lot of energy,” says Heather, “but as I’m getting older—this is the year I turn 50—I am slowing down a bit. My students will send me emails at 2 in the morning, asking about a paper and wondering why I didn’t respond right away. Later, I’ll say, ‘I’m in my jammies and asleep by 9:30 or 10.’”
SENSE OF BELONGING
Both Hollemans speak strongly about their devotion to State College’s town and gown. They can’t name one favorite walking route since they have two: Colyer Lake and Spring Creek. They can’t name a favorite restaurant, either, since they “love all the little spots” like Otto’s and The Field.
They both enjoy the small town feel of State College, and Heather says, “It’s not as materialistic as other communities.” And as for the university, Heather says, “I’ve loved working at Penn State all these years. I love the (Schreyer) Honors College. I just love working there.”
Knowing her heart for all things blue and white, I asked Holleman to talk about how she has contributed to Penn State. Immediately, she mentioned her effort to provide a sense of belonging to students in her classes. “Honestly,” she said, “it was my commitment to asking questions to make sure everybody knew each other’s name and working so hard for student belonging. That began to become important during the COVID years; it became important as the research on student loneliness came out. And so my most important contribution has been creating a classroom community where the students feel really accepted and they’re excited to come to class.”
The asking of get-to-know-you questions has spread since various departments began sending out Holleman’s list of 50 questions to professors at the beginning of a semester. Hopefully, the result will be that fewer students will have a collegiate experience like one man in Heather’s class. “This student,” she told me, “was a senior leader at Penn State. He said to me, ‘I’ve been here four years, and you are the only professor who knows my name and asks about my life.”
HER STRUGGLES; HER ADVICE
Holleman’s sensitivity to her students is at least partially rooted in her own struggles. She notes that her personality is depression-prone, and she mentions that she was diagnosed with clinical depression after giving birth to one of her daughters.
“I tell my students that caring for your mental health is a full-time job. You have to do that if you’re someone who struggles with depression or anxiety. You don’t have to live in despair, but you have to treat it and manage it.”
It was then that I asked Heather for her suggestions on maintaining mental health, and with an occasional memory nudge from Ashley, she delivered. “My relationship with God is key to my happiness, and I feel he speaks to me through the Psalms.”
“Gratitude is important, so I journal on gratitude. You need to savor your life; reflect on the good things.”
“Walk, move your body 20 minutes a day. I’m sensitive to sugar, so I have to get rid of sugar. And good sleep is super important.”
“The Harvard Study of Adult Development says the number one determining factor of an unhappy life is use of alcohol. I tell my students that because a lot of Penn State students drink a lot, and I like to tell them, ‘You do not have to do this. And if you’re someone prone to depression, you’re actually harming your brain.’”
‘SHE DOESN’T GET DRUNK’
For Heather, the topic of alcohol at Penn State brings a student named “Jack” to mind. His story is one she should recall if ever she wonders whether she’s doing any good.
“One spring I got a Facebook message from a parent—and as a professor, you never want to hear from parents. But in this case, a woman wrote and said, ‘My husband and I are coming into town and we’d really love to take you out to lunch. We have our son’s permission.’
“This son was in my class. He would come to class early, but he seemed like a partier. I kept praying the words of Psalm 119:37 for him (‘Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.’) and when we both got there early we would talk. One day he said, “Did you and your husband have a great time at the Ohio State game? Did you have a great tailgate?”
“So we got in this conversation, and when I told him we really don’t enjoy getting drunk, he was like, ‘Well, what do you guys do for fun?’ I’m like, ‘I can give you a list of alternative choices.’ He would show me pictures of his dog and I kept praying for him. The semester ends, and I have no idea what’s happening. So then his parents take me out to lunch.
“The mother starts talking by saying, ‘We’re just so thankful. You don’t know this, but we almost lost our son. We tried to raise him right, but he gets to Penn State and he’s partying, he’s drinking. I just kept praying that God would send someone to turn his eyes back.
“All of a sudden, a couple months ago he starts talking about this Christian professor who doesn’t get drunk. And he starts wanting to drive home to go to church with us. He starts wanting to volunteer with the youth group. His life is turning around. He keeps talking about this Christian professor and I just kept praying, ‘God, turn him, turn his eyes.’
“So when I shared with her that I prayed Psalm 119 for her son, she’s bursting into tears. Her husband is there, and he’s a mountain of a man. And he says something to me that I will never forget: ‘If ever you think that what you’re doing is not worth it, I want you to remember my son. We were so worried about him and God sent you.’”
