UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State is home to many first-generation students who bring invaluable contributions to the University and campus community alike. One of these talented, trailblazing students is Rose Fisher, a doctoral candidate in German linguistics and language science in the College of the Liberal Arts.
Fisher is currently working as a part-time graduate student, part-time researcher and part-time instructor in German in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures. While she is certainly making impressive strides at Penn State, Fisher’s background and journey to pursuing higher education are especially unique.
A native of Bird-In-Hand in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Fisher is a former member of the Amish community.
“I was born into an Amish family, which means that hard physical labor was valued in my community while education beyond basic reading, writing and math skills was not considered necessary,” she said. “Nevertheless, after my family left the Amish when I was 11 years old, I knew I wanted to go to high school and college.”
In addition to her own passion for learning and being a student, Fisher described how her father played a key role in encouraging her to obtain a formal education.
“My dad always wished he had the opportunity to attend high school and college, but that is not allowed in the Amish community, so he was never able to pursue his education beyond the eighth grade,” she said. “When we left the Amish, he encouraged my younger sister and me not only to go to high school, but also to go to college; this put the option on the table for me.”
After receiving her high school diploma from the Commonwealth Connections Academy, a public cyber school, Fisher went on to attend Millersville University. However, her initial transition to college as a first-generation student came with many challenges.
“Up until that point in my life, I had experienced very little outside of the Amish and former Amish culture that I grew up in. Having attended cyber school, I had very little exposure to the world outside my tight-knit community,” she said. “No one I knew had ever gone to college, so I had no one to guide me. Every decision felt like a new unknown, often leaving me feeling lost and alone.”
The combined process of applying to colleges, scheduling classes and navigating financial logistics all proved to be overwhelming. Fisher also experienced many new and unfamiliar culture shocks, especially within the realms of academia.
“Attending a public college meant sudden exposure to the culture of mainstream society, which was both exhilarating and overwhelming,” she said. “I often felt misunderstood as I grappled with norms and expectations that were foreign to me.”
Fisher graduated from Millersville University in 2018 with degrees in psychology and German. Despite facing an array of challenges and adversities during her undergraduate years, she emerged with many valuable lessons from her experiences as a first-generation college student.
“I learned to be proud of my modest background, even if it makes me different from everyone else,” she said. “I have learned that I can embrace who I am and what makes me unique, while still remaining open to new ideas and places that I have not experienced before. Disadvantages or setbacks need not stop me from pressing toward my goals and make their achievement all the more satisfying.”
Fisher said one of the most important lessons she took away from her transition to college was the importance of asking for help.
“There is always someone to be found who is willing and able to help. Don't be afraid to reach out to them,” she said.
While Fisher was challenged with navigating and adjusting to certain cultural differences in college, her Amish background still holds a strong effect on her life and values today.
“Even though I have not been Amish for more than half of my life now, I do still notice the small ways in which I feel out of place in academia because of my cultural background,” she said. “On the other hand, I am fiercely independent, a freethinker, an individualist, and I believe that some of that is in response to the fairly restrictive, collectivist culture I grew up in. Societal expectations that could have limited my physical and intellectual explorations of the world have only inspired me to seek them out more.”
Even Fisher's research and academic pursuits at Penn State, which focus on the Pennsylvania Dutch language, are greatly influenced by her Amish roots.
“My research focuses on linguistic properties of Pennsylvania Dutch, the language spoken by the Amish,” she said. “This language is not written and not taught in schools, so there is much about it that is not known. Being a native speaker of this language and having always been captivated by languages more broadly, I am interested in all aspects of Pennsylvania Dutch, but especially socio-cultural functions of the language as well as certain grammatical structures.”
As a first-generation graduate student, researcher and part-time instructor in the College of the Liberal Arts, Fisher is thankful for the opportunities she has been given thus far.
“Grad school is not for the faint of heart,” she said. “But teaching, being a student, being a member of my department, conducting original research and presenting that research at conferences are all things that I find to be extremely gratifying, which makes all the hard work well worth it.”
Looking back on her challenging, yet formative experiences throughout college, Fisher leaves fellow first-generation students with the following advice: “Be proud of your unique identity. You bring something to the table that only you can provide. Wherever you're from, whatever you have experienced, and whoever you are, own it.”