The Jesse Arnelle Initiative provides a fly-fishing introduction to students who likely never had the chance to tie a fly or step into a pair of waders before they arrived in Happy Valley. “Most people, if they’re engaged in fly-fishing, it’s because they had a parent or some other family member who exposed them, and that’s a relatively narrow group,” kinesiology department head John Bartholomew says. “University Park attracts students from all over the world, and most of them do not have either a personal connection to fly-fishing, or to an environment where they can pursue that.”

The Initiative is named for the late Jesse Arnelle ’55 Lib, ’62 JD Law, the two-sport standout and eventual Board of Trustees chair who developed a passion for fly-fishing later in life. Bartholomew says the goal of the course—a five-week introductory program led by students from the Advanced Fly-Fishing class—is to “help expose students in a way that builds skills and knowledge that will serve them for a lifetime.”