University Park students are invited to apply for the 2022 Presidential Leadership Academy, while faculty and staff members may also nominate students for consideration. The window for applications and nominations is open now.
University Park students are invited to apply for the 2022 Presidential Leadership Academy, while faculty and staff members may also nominate students for consideration. The window for applications and nominations is open now.
College of Education students among Presidential Leadership Academy participants
Valarie Hibbard, left, will start her three-year experience with the Presidential Leadership Academy this fall. Ashley Griffith, center, visited the Grand Old Opry as part of her PLA experience. She will enter her final year of the PLA this fall. Maude Tarbox, right, and other PLA members went to Baltimore in 2018. She graduated from the College of Education this spring.
Image: Photos provided
College of Education students among Presidential Leadership Academy participants
Annemarie Mountz
May 24, 2021
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Each spring, 30 first-year students on the University Park campus learn they have risen to the top in a highly competitive selection process to become part of the next class of sophomores in the Presidential Leadership Academy (PLA).
Applications for Presidential Leadership Academy now open
Administrators and members of the Presidential Leadership Academy, including Penn State President Eric Barron, right, visit Washington, D.C., during a field trip in 2019.Image: Courtesy of Presidential Leadership Academy
Applications for Presidential Leadership Academy now open
January 04, 2021
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Each year, 30 first-year students at Penn State s University Park campus will be selected for membership to the Presidential Leadership Academy (PLA).
Founded with a lead gift from Edward R. and Helen S. Hintz in 2009, the PLA was established to develop critical-thinking skills and educate students to understand issues broadly. A diverse pool of members promotes consideration for the complexity and variability of world matters and current events, as well as for varying decisions and life circumstances. PLA values the idea that critical thinking on issues is not black or white, but instead, somewhere in