Each year, second-year students in the Academy are asked to write and present policy papers as part of the Dean's Seminar course in the fall semester. These policy papers are completed as small group projects and are organized around a central theme provided by the Dean of the Schreyer Honors College and the Director of the Presidential Leadership Academy.
Groups present their final policy proposals during the last few classes of the semester to their classmates, the Dean of the Schreyer Honors College, the Director of the Academy, and various members of Penn State leadership who have been invited to sit in. With the leadership present in the room for those final presentations, it's no wonder that several of these proposals have been implemented!
2016: College Student Mental Health
Students examined the topic of mental health at Penn State. Groups looked at the multi-layer topic of this, from training student leaders in new student orientation and residence life, increasing technology resources for faculty and staff, to examining budget resources, and increasing outreach efforts to de-stigmatize this topic.
-
Destigmatizing Mental Illness at Penn State
Kennedy Bell, Taylor Campbell, Hayley Lengenfelder, Cecilia Mabilais-Estevez, Colleen McBride, Kandice Pettaway, Erika Veiszlemlein
-
Establishing Viable Standards for Mental Health Services at the Pennsylvania State University
Katy Gerace, Krista Grennan, Nick Labecki, Juan Gomez Lorente, Natalia Nigay
-
Expand for Demand: Better Adressing Penn State Students' Mental Health Needs
Oluwasanmi Ariyo, Rachel Ebner, Daniel Lee, Andy Luo, Dean Pandelaras, Olivia Richards
-
Student Leaders & Mental Health
Christina Boutselis, Nakul Grover, Jane Hatzell, Joash Lake, Symone McCollum, William Swart
-
Technological Solutions to Foster Student Mental Well-Being
Paul Birch, Matt Driban, Reilly Ebbs, Jack Iffert, Ryan Jaeger, Mi Ni Tzou