Spot 9

With a strong belief in public media and making connections with the community, Carolyn Donaldson has begun a new phase of her life after serving as a news anchor for WTAJ-TV for more than 20 years. She has recently taken on the role as community engagement manager at WPSU Penn State, a new position…

Four Penn State presidents have been laid to rest here in Centre County. President Atherton is famously interred right along Pollock Road adjacent to Schwab Auditorium, while Milton Eisenhower finds his final repose in Centre County Memorial Park along the Benner Pike. Evan Pugh, Penn State’s founding president and one of the most consequential…

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…

Laura Merritt knows the importance of blood donation all too well. “I had a family member who passed away. He needed blood, but there wasn’t enough at that time,” says Merritt, who lives and works in State College as the donor-recruitment representative for the Greater Alleghenies Region of the American Red Cross. “That was…

Erik Clayton looks around the high school and laughs. “I almost forgot, this week is our homecoming,” he says in early October. It has been about a year since Clayton was appointed as director of choirs at State College Area High School. He graduated from Penn State in 2006, double majoring in music education…

John Gardner looks around his new office and laughs. “Sorry, I didn’t get the time to put up anything on the walls yet, been busy,” he says.   When Gardner sits down to talk during one September afternoon, it has been only about a month since he became State College’s new police chief…

For John Simpkins, there is a three-column existence to his life as a musical theater educator and director — Penn State; the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon, Connecticut; and freelance professional directing. The three allow him the opportunity to focus on his passion — new musicals. Simpkins, Nagle Family Endowed Chair in Musical Theatre and…

Many times, the best players in a sport don’t make the best coaches. Char Morett-Curtiss has been the exception to that for more than three decades now. Penn State’s field hockey head coach is in her 30th season of leading the Lions. With 483 career wins heading into this season, which…

When Dr. Michelle Saylor was asked to step in as the interim superintendent for Bellefonte Area School District in April, she was hesitant at first to take the position. “I loved working with curriculum, instruction, and innovation and working side-by-side with the teachers,” she says, referring to her previous position as assistant superintendent, which…

As a student at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Rebecca Strzelec started as a painting major. In her classes, however, she soon realized she might need to change her major. “I realized I wasn’t as good as I thought I was at painting,” she says. “Everyone around me was so good,…