UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For international student Esha Pathak, coming from Mumbai, India, to study in the United States was a dream come true. Not long after arriving at Penn State, Pathak, a senior majoring in economics and political science and minoring in sociology, was hit with the realities of being an international student — navigating post-graduation plans and visas. Over the last year, Pathak has worked tirelessly to make a significant change for Penn State international students studying economics, one that gives them a greater chance of finding work and living in the United States after graduation.
Thanks to the Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar, Penn State students who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in economics in the College of the Liberal Arts now get two extra years to find work in the United States before their visas expire.
Pathak’s journey down this path started during her third year at Penn State when she was looking for internships and full-time positions. That’s when she realized how different the process was going to be for her from her friends from the United States.
“I wasn’t able to apply for more than half of the companies that my friends applied for because they don’t sponsor visas,” Pathak said. “That put a lot of things into perspective for me. I recognized this gap that existed within Penn State’s student community.”
Pathak decided to reach out to her cousin who also studied economics at a university in the United States to seek assistance in post-graduation planning.
“I’m very grateful because I was talking to him one day about a STEM extension,” Pathak said. “He said he got three years in the states after graduation and then he had to apply for the work visa. And so, my junior year, I started looking into this, too.”
After investigating visa options, Pathak discovered there was a degree code disparity at Penn State.
“For economics at Penn State, the code used to be 45.0601,” Pathak explained. “The code that I needed for the STEM extension was 45.0603.”
“For me, the awareness of that was frustrating because I knew that I was doing everything in my power to make sure that my degree was technical enough. Before the end of my junior year, I changed my degree to a bachelor of science instead of a bachelor of arts in economics. Both of my semesters during senior year, I’ve taken seven to eight classes, which has been nuts.”
The second leg of the process started last summer. Pathak started having conversations with other people at Penn State.
“I asked them questions such as ‘Why don’t we have the STEM extension at Penn State?’ and ‘Why is the economics code at Penn State different?’ because I noticed other universities weren’t like that.”
With lots of perseverance, Pathak was able to get some answers and make headway on something she was so passionate about.
“I was not willing to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Pathak said. “I knew starting out in the process that there were going to be a lot of people that were going to tell me it was not going to be possible. Initially, it was true, as I was met with lots of ‘noes.’
Pathak then reached out to UPUA for help.
“UPUA has been monumental in helping me, not even in terms of supporting me throughout the process, but also helping me navigate such a large system,” Pathak said. “I had a chat with Erin Boas, the president, and Patricia Birungi, the chair of academic affairs, and they helped me navigate the whole landscape. Having my voice heard and being validated and viewed as necessary, was something so encouraging to me.”
Last month, Pathak received the email she’d been working towards for more than a year. The email notified her that all international Penn State students pursuing an undergraduate degree in economics could graduate with the STEM extension.
“When I got that email, I went, ‘Wait, what? That’s crazy!’ because I had been working on this for a year, and it was surreal that it happened,” Pathak said. “I absolutely credit all of the administrative side of things to Associate Dean Page (in the College of the Liberal Arts) and Dean Mather (in the Schreyer Honors College). I don’t think there would be any way in which I could have achieved this without them.”
Richard Page, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of the Liberal Arts, worked with Pathak and the Office of the University Registrar to make the change happen.
“I greatly appreciate Esha’s ability to articulate the importance of changing the code from a student’s perspective and her willingness to reach out to administration and faculty to work toward a solution rather than just accepting the status quo,” Page said. “Her effective communication and problem-solving skills represent two important goals of a liberal arts education.”
Page said that despite the University’s size and complexity, students have the power to make impactful change, and Pathak is excited to have brought that change to fruition for her classmates.
“Not only does it help my cohort and the people that come after me, but it also helps an entire class of alumni who graduated last year,” Pathak said. “There are people now who were so close to having their OPT (optional practical training) expired that can now stay and have two more years to get their H-1B visa.”
In addition to using her entrepreneurial skills to help international students at Penn State, Pathak has enjoyed working with startups through her internships. In the summer before her third year, Pathak worked with Source LIT, a nonprofit startup, where she built a COVID-19 relief fund for low-income college students that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Last summer, Pathak worked as a business development and strategy intern for RxNXT, a startup in the pharmaceutical space.
Pathak has also been involved with research on campus. Last summer, she was a research assistant in the Department of Political Science. Her research explored the trajectories of democracies in Asian countries. Currently, Pathak is completing research in the Deloitte Leadership Development Center, a partnership between the Schreyer Honors College and the industrial/organizational psychology program in the College of the Liberal Arts. As a research assistant, Pathak helps create business simulations for Schreyer Scholars and provides them with information on their competencies.
Following graduation this May, Pathak will move to New York City to work for EY as a business consultant in the company's financial services sector.
“I am so excited,” Pathak said. “New York has been the dream since I was in eighth grade. All of the buildup is culminating to this point, so it’s super exciting.”
When reflecting on her time at Penn State, Pathak explained how instrumental the Paterno Fellows Program, the Schreyer Honors College, and faculty have been in making her the person and professional she is today.
"The Paterno Fellows Program, and by extension Schreyer, gave me access to great faculty and classes that really challenged the way I was thinking," Pathak said. "Through this, I was able to build my network within Schreyer and build relationships with great mentors. Having a supportive network of individuals who constantly believed in me and guided me has been pivotal to my journey."
Pathak said some of her professors have changed her life and have helped her approach knowledge consumption in a very different way.
“I consume knowledge in a more sophisticated manner, and I know how to articulate myself better," Pathak said. “I also think my sociology minor opened my eyes and perspective so much. I took my minor in sociology just for fun because I liked it. Taking classes in sociology gave me so much insight into how I want to approach things in my day-to-day life and the way I see the world.”
To learn more about Liberal Arts Change Makers, visit la.psu.edu/changemakers.