The Penn Stater Magazine

What’s New: We’ve Got Two Interns

September 23, 2013 at 3:16 pm maggiemcglinchy 1 comment

We’ve expanded this semester, and we’ve got two fall semester interns. Here’s an introductory post from Maggie McGlinchy.

Until I walked into my shoebox of a dorm in East Halls, I had no connection to Penn State. I’m not from Pennsylvania, I don’t watch football, and there is no Penn State legacy in the family. Just me.

Graduated from a tiny public school on the Jersey Shore, I thought Penn State seemed like the exact change of pace I needed. Big campus, big school, lots of people, and no hand-holding. I could finally escape the small-town stigma, meeting new people everyday and walking to class unrecognized. Plus, I heard those tailgates were a lot of fun.

Then I got here and realized how tiny a fish I was in this big pond.

I was fine, of course. I joined some organizations, met some people, and went to some parties. So it goes. But the more time I spent at Penn State, the more I realized I hadn’t left my small hometown bubble at all, but instead moved to a bigger, more exciting bubble.

There is no better place to do your undergrad than in State College. It’s like four whole years of summer camp, but at the end you get a degree (and some debt). The feeling that comes along with pulling onto College Avenue is part of being a Penn Stater. There is something about State College that never changes, something about the safety of our home away from home that makes it feel like we never left.

I can always count on Old Main to chime in on my walk to and from class, I can always count on McLanahan’s having literally anything that I may need in stock, and I can always count on the Starbucks line in the HUB to be offensively long.

This semester, I hope to capture the undergraduate exuberance and give it to you wherever you may be reading: from work, from the couch, or even from New Jersey, so you can feel like a doe-eyed freshman all over again.

Maggie McGlinchy, intern

Entry filed under: The Penn Stater Magazine. Tags: Jersey Shore, McClanahans, New Jersey, Penn State, Penn State University, PSU, Starbucks, State College, undergrad, University Park.