UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State community members are invited to register for the second annual First-Gen Student Support Summit, scheduled for Wednesday, March 29. Registration will remain open leading up to the virtual event.
This one-day summit, sponsored by the Student Success Center, is an opportunity for advocates of first-generation students to share best practices, network with one another and cultivate a community of practice across the University. This year’s summit focuses on the theme of mentorship, and is open to all faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Participants can start the day online or in-person. An in-person kick-off event will take place at the University Park campus featuring a light breakfast, virtual keynote address and facilitated community discussion. This session, which is co-sponsored by the Student Success Center and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, will take place in Heritage Hall at the HUB-Robeson Center with doors opening at 8 a.m.
Capacity for this session is limited, and participants must RSVP by March 21. Participants can register for the summit on Whova.
Online attendees can view the keynote address through the conference platform, Whova, at about 8:30 a.m. Virtual sessions and networking opportunities will continue throughout the day until 4 p.m., with additional in-person events and gatherings happening across the commonwealth. Sessions will be recorded and available for three months to registrants.
Anyone who is planning to host an in-person event surrounding the summit is asked to share their plans with the Student Success Center. An in-person event guide and media kit are available to assist with planning and local promotion of the summit. These tools can be found on the Student Success Center’s event webpage.
The summit will be headlined by keynote speaker Adriana Lacy, a leader in the media industry and 2018 first-generation graduate from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and the College of the Liberal Arts. Lacy is now a freelance product management and audience strategist, digital and audience engagement editor at Harvard, and journalism professor at Brandeis University. She is co-founder of Journalism Mentors, an organization dedicated to opening doors in the journalism industry for historically marginalized populations.
The summit will include a second keynote in the afternoon from Jerod Stapleton, an internationally recognized leader in the field of skin cancer and melanoma prevention research. Stapleton is a first-generation college graduate and associate professor of health, behavior and society in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky. He obtained his doctorate in biobehavioral health from Penn State in 2010 and has over 80 peer-reviewed publications. Stapleton is a strong advocate for mentorship as a critical component of first-generation student success.
All conference details are available on the Student Success Center website. Questions about the summit can be directed to Denise Poole at dmp6115@psu.edu.
The Student Success Center is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education.