First-generation college student Sara Maholland is not afraid to take a leap into the unknown.
“I used to be afraid, but now I ask, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’, and usually it’s that someone says ‘no,’” she explains.
The native of Morgantown, Pennsylvania, with a population of fewer than 1,500, has made several leaps into the unknown to arrive where she is today, as a junior geography major in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences on the path toward a career in natural disaster management. The Penn State Office for Summer Session’s Student Transitional Experience Program, or STEP, has played an instrumental role in Maholland’s journey.
“STEP was amazing,” she says. “The program provided terrific opportunities to network with other students, get ahead in my coursework and just become comfortable on campus.”