This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
Four State College Area High School students were awarded the Penn State Community Hero Ambassador Master Participant Award on June 4 at a ceremony at the Penn State Outreach Building on the University Park campus.
State High students Leila Crandall, Lea Wassom, Amber Yang and Yidi Zhang were each presented with a Penn State CHAMP Plaque by Lori Gravish Hurtack, associate teaching professor in the Department of Kinesiology.
Last summer, students from Bald Eagle Area, State College and Philipsburg-Osceola high schools participated in the inaugural Penn State College of Health and Human Development summer camp titled “CHIP — Community Hero Initiative Program.” Gravish Hurtack started the camp as a way to bridge youth development and outreach.
Gravish Hurtack received two grants from DiamondBack Covers and Nardozzo to keep the registration fee for the camp affordable for the most amount of students possible.
Students at the camp spend four days learning about the pillars of personal health — social, physical, nutritional and emotional — by utilizing team building activities, group discussions and opportunities to explore.
“Upon completion of the camp, our local youth had the knowledge, skills and confidence to become leaders for positive change, a ‘community hero,’” the CHIP Program explained in a news release. “This is a way for high school students to learn, create, reflect and instill an understanding of how to better serve our small towns and rural communities in Central Pennsylvania with impactful purpose and solidarity.”
The students got to tour a local Centre County food insecurity farm, participated in physical fitness testing and built a sensory garden among other activities.
The students were then able to put what they learned at the camp into practice by completing 45 hours or more of community leadership over the next six months, requiring commitment, determination and impact. To be eligible for the CHAMP Award, students had to write an essay, document a journal account of learning outcomes and provide photo proof of the service projects.
Crandall and Wassom completed their community leadership involvement through the YMCA Anti-Hunger Program and Rustic Farm in West Decatur, both under the guidance of Mel Curtic, the director of the Centre County Anti-Hunger Program.
“Mel Curtis taught me many life lessons about what it means to serve my community, but also about myself,” one of the students wrote. “I have discovered a newfound appreciation for philanthropy and doing things out of the kindness of my heart without the desire for anything in return.”
After touring Housing Transitions in downtown State College during the camp last summer, Yang and Zhang found an eagerness to work with the facility once they learned of the facility’s needs. The two students worked under the guidance of Morgan Wasikonis, the executive director of Housing Transitions, and under the guidance of State College Area High School administrators to plan a personal hygiene drive at the high school.
“I was compelled to construct and arrange the project logistics, which allowed me to learn about the work that goes into devising a community outreach program,” another one of the students wrote. “This has further ignited my appreciation and admiration of those that devote their careers to bettering the lives of others.”
CHIP camp staff, friends, family and Conference and Institutes staff were at the ceremony on Wednesday, June 4, to congratulate the four State High awardees. The CHIP Program gave special thanks at the event to Becky Briggs of DiamondBack Covers, Associate Dean Dennis Seah of the College of Health and Human Development, Curtis of Centre County YMCA and Wasikonis of Housing Transitions.
Those interested in the 2025 Penn State CHIP camp can learn more at hhd.psu.edu/outreach/youth-and-family-programs/chip-camp.
