UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Earlier this semester, Penn State students were invited to write about ethical values and intercultural issues as part of the ninth annual Collegiate Laws of Life Essay Contest, sponsored by the Paterno Fellows Program and the College of the Liberal Arts.
Students were asked to respond to a prompt on the value of a university education, not just for the student, but for society as a whole.
The winners — Michael Mitole, Amina Abdullah, Oliver Rose and Lorin Harris — will be recognized and Mitole will read his essay at the Paterno Fellows recognition ceremony on Monday, April 18.
Mitole and Harris also were featured on a recent episode of the Paterno Fellows Podcast. The Paterno Fellows Podcast addresses matters of interest to the Penn State community. Listeners can learn about the Paterno Fellows Program, hear about the research and creative work of Penn State students and faculty, get in-depth information about activities going on in and around campus, and tap into discussions about contemporary issues that affect the campus community.
Ladin Suliman, a third-year student majoring in philosophy and political science and host of the Paterno Fellows Podcast, sat down with Mitole and Harris for an exploration of university education. Suliman, a Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar, talked to the pair about the meaning of university education and reflected on transformative experiences gained through education.
Listen to the podcast episode to learn even more about the essay contest winners below.
First place: Michael Mitole
Mitole is a third-year Schreyer Scholar majoring in finance. In his essay, “The Burden of the Scholar: The Intersection Between University Education and Human Potential,” Mitole talked about his grandfather, the late Chakufwa Chihana, who was the vice president of Malawi and considered the “father of Malawian democracy,” and how his college education changed him.
“I really felt strongly about the topic because when I arrived at the University, I thought long and hard about the person that I could become as a result of doing four years of college at Penn State, and when I looked at my own family structure and my family’s history, education has been a tremendous mobilizing force to all of us,” Mitole said. “Most immediately, mine and my parents who came from Malawi, Africa, to obtain their MBAs and also my grandfather. Education was what enabled him to do what he ended up doing as vice president.”
Mitole’s mother helped him fact check the historical details and his grandfather's journey. Mitole’s goal was to describe what his grandfather really cared about and the things that drove his decisions in each point of his life.
“I never really knew the full story of my grandfather. I knew that he was vice president, I knew he faced a lot of adversity to get to that point, but I had no idea about some of the really difficult things he faced,” Mitole said. “The opposition, when he was first released from exile, the fact that he was offered asylum by the United States, and all these other countries that wanted to protect him from the prosecution he was going to face if he went back to Malawi, and I had this realization that I think is important for every person, which is there are heroes in my lineage.”
To Mitole, it’s important to look at your own family tree and see the heroes from whom you come.
“The same spirit that animated what they did in the world is the same spirit that’s passed down to you through that same family tree,” Mitole said. “There are heroes in your lineage if you look for it.”
Second place: Amina Abdullah
Abdullah is a second-year Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar studying English with a minor in women’s studies. In her essay, “Achieving What My Ancestors Could Not,” she talked about accomplishing the things that her ancestors were prohibited from doing.
In her essay, Abdullah said that during antebellum in the pre-Civil War United States, enslaved Africans were prohibited from getting an education, and even after slavery was abolished, segregation and Jim Crow laws still made it difficult for Black people to get an education. Abdullah talked about her experience as a first-generation student and her struggles compared to other students whose parents had attended college. Through her post-graduation plans, Abdullah hopes to merge her passions with the needs of society.
“This degree is not only mine, but it is theirs as well because they deserve it just as much as I do,” Abdullah wrote in her essay.
Third place: Oliver Rose
Rose is a fourth-year Schreyer Scholar majoring in philosophy. In his essay, “The Importance of What We Learn About,” Rose talked about why a university education is important.
In his essay, he discussed why someone should care about a college education. When it comes to a university education, Rose said that it is not about the things that everyone should care about, but it is more about what people appreciate while learning.
“The argument for the university must be grounded in an appreciation for the act of learning,” Rose wrote in his essay.
Honorable mention: Lorin Harris
Harris is a second-year psychology major. In her essay, “Uniquely Yours,” Harris talked about how a college education is unique to each student. Harris said she wanted to write about something that encapsulated the specialness of a college education.
“I decided to call it ‘Uniquely Yours’ because college is something that is uniquely yours,” she said. “When I write, I like to pick a title by picking a phrase out of whatever I wrote, so that’s what I did.”
Harris took inspiration for her essay from her daily life. To her, when it boils down to it, you’re just going day by day in college, so Harris took on her feelings and emotions about going into her third year, college flying by, and the uniqueness of Penn State as a whole. She wanted to make a narrative relatable to anybody.
“I almost didn’t do it [the essay contest] because I thought I wouldn’t get picked,” Harris said, “Then I decided, why not? That’s what college is about, to put yourself out there, doing things you wouldn’t normally do, and I’m glad I did it.”
Harries believes college is a unique time in everyone’s life, and it can be uniquely molded into individual experiences. She likes the openness and the ability to choose how to spend your days before adulthood.
“You can’t quantify university education,” Harris said. “You might be able to turn it into numbers and data, but you can’t quantify individual experience. I think that it is important to just remember how special this time of your life is.”
The Paterno Fellows Program is an innovative program offered jointly by the College of the Liberal Arts and Schreyer Honors College that encourages students to challenge themselves academically and distinguish themselves in areas traditionally associated with the liberal arts: ethics, service and leadership; excellence in communication; and intercultural awareness. Fellows receive financial support to participate in enriching out-of-class experiences like internships, education abroad and research.