UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Amanda Mohamed will represent the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts as its college marshal at the spring commencement ceremony on May 4 in the Bryce Jordan Center at University Park.
“I am extremely honored to be the College of the Liberal Arts student marshal,” said the Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar. “Without the Liberal Arts and all their support, I don’t know where I would be right now. It feels great getting the recognition and seeing all my hard work and dedication pay off, especially since my college journey hasn’t always been easy.”
The State College, Pennsylvania, native will graduate with three bachelor of arts degrees in labor and human resources, global and international studies, and Spanish, and a minor in civic and community engagement. These areas of study covered all her interests and passions and provided her with a unique experience at Penn State.
As a first-generation college student, Mohamed always knew she wanted to pursue higher education, but she did not know the feasibility of this dream. However, financial support through the College of the Liberal Arts made her dream a reality.
“I love education and learning,” Mohamed said. “However, I came into college not knowing what I was signing myself up for, to be honest. Academic scholarships, enrichment funding and grants helped me through every part of my undergraduate career as they allowed me to continue my education, study abroad and pursue other opportunities outside the classroom. Eventually it all just came together.”
For the fall 2023 semester, Mohamed studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, through the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES Abroad). In the emerging economies program, she was able to experience firsthand an economy that was quite different from that of the United States. This experience provided her the opportunity to stand out as a candidate when she landed a talent acquisition coordinator position with First National Bank Corp. in Pittsburgh, where she will start this summer.
“I was living in Argentina during an economic crisis. Living in a country where the economy was so fluid was very new to me,” Mohamed said. “Seeing how the Argentinean people would start their day by checking how much their money was worth compared to the dollar was interesting.”