History alumna creates fund to support undergraduate research in the humanities

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With a $25,000 personal commitment, Penn State history alumna Liz Covart and her husband, Tim Wilde, have created the Liz Covart and Tim Wilde Humanities Institute Undergraduate Research Fund in the College of the Liberal Arts. The gift has secured matching support from Wilde’s employer, Google.

Formed in 2017, the Humanities Institute at Penn State is dedicated to promoting the social value of the humanities through scholarship, research, lectures, conferences and public events. Covart and Wilde were particularly interested in the institute’s newest student research initiative, Re-envisioning Undergraduate Research in the Humanities, which focuses on increasing humanities research engagement among undergraduate students. The Covart/Wilde research fund will make it easier for students to participate in humanities-based research projects by supplying research materials and supplies, underwriting travel expenses, and providing other forms of support.

“It is inspiring to know that Liz and Tim understand the innumerable ways that humanities education and research contributes to the personal and professional development of our students,” said John Christman, director of the Penn State Humanities Institute. “By supporting students’ research projects in the humanities, their gift will substantially contribute to our efforts to bring work in humanities disciplines out into the world, so to speak. We know that students’ engagement with their own research projects multiplies their interest and enthusiasm in these disciplines, which are so important to confronting the challenging issues of our time.”

Covart was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but spent most of her childhood in New Hampshire. Her parents instilled in her a love of history early on by taking her and her brother on weekend trips to historic sites and national parks. When it came to choosing a college, however, Covart said her parents wanted her to get a degree in something other than history — “something that would immediately lead to a job.” Though Covart believed, and still believes, that a degree in history can lead to any number of professions, she honored her parents’ wishes by selecting labor and industrial relations as her college major. Penn State was one of only three schools in the country to offer the degree at the time.

Preferring to focus on her passion for history rather than labor and industrial relations, however, Covart did some research at Penn State’s career services office. “I found out that I could get an internship with the National Park Service, which I knew my parents would love.”

She landed a history department-sponsored summer internship with Boston National Historical Park, which led to a change in major — with her parents’ blessing — and five summers as an interpreter for the National Park Service.

In addition to enjoying her internships, Covart made the most of her Penn State experience. She played the trumpet for four years in the Penn State Blue Band and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society as well as Phi Alpha Theta, the honors society for history majors. She also led the “history roundtable,” a group of students who would invite visiting professors to speak with student groups.

After graduating from Penn State in 2003, Covart earned master’s and doctoral degrees in history at the University of California, Davis. Today, she is host and producer of “Ben Franklin’s World,” a podcast for people who are passionate about history. She also is the digital projects editor of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at William & Mary as well as the author of several articles, book chapters and blogs. She is currently working on a book about the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. For her many accomplishments, she received the Penn State Department of History’s outstanding alumni award in April 2022.

The gift

When asked about their decision to establish a research fund, Covart said she and Wilde were “looking for opportunities to make a difference. Tim and I have always valued education, so we first talked about establishing some sort of scholarship.”

The idea of supporting undergraduate research through the Humanities Institute, however, won the couple over.

“The Humanities Institute is growing and wants to promote more undergraduate research, which helps students become more entrepreneurial and can lead to more opportunities,” Covart said. “Your time as an undergraduate is an opportunity to experiment and figure out what you want to do in life. I don’t think everybody who loves their degree wants to go off to grad school and be a professor, but if you get a taste for research, you can see if it’s for you. Even if it isn’t, at least you have a chance to experiment and get something meaningful out of the experience.”

“I’ve seen how much Liz gets out of doing research. It’s an area we both can see the benefits from,” said Wilde, senior site reliability engineer at Google. “I work in technology and see people struggling when they don’t know how to communicate and investigate and be inquisitive, so I really see the value of a liberal arts education.”

“For me, history is about context,” Covart concluded. “It often tells us what happened and why people acted as they did. It helps us understand how we got to our own present world. We hope this new fund will help students deepen their knowledge of the good that the humanities can do — the way the humanities help you think, communicate and empathize with people. We need more empathy in our world.”

The Liz Covart and Tim Wilde Humanities Institute Undergraduate Research Fund in the College of the Liberal Arts helps to advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With support from devoted benefactors who believe in Penn State and its mission, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hardworking students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by serving communities and fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.