Editor's note: This story is from the Penn State College of Education's fall 2024 magazine.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Education offers degree programs that focus on flexibility, career alignment and accessibility. These approaches are intended to appeal to both non-traditional students and students who may be interested in studying education but not necessarily in pursuing a traditional teaching career.
Global model for non-traditional students
With the new College of Education doctor of education (D.Ed.) program offered through Penn State World Campus, non-traditional students who live across the globe now have an opportunity to earn an education degree from Penn State.
“People that come to the program, they’re already advanced in their careers,” said Joe Polizzi, director of the World Campus D.Ed. program. “They’re looking to us so they can level up their professional skills — and help make the world a better place.”
The online D.Ed. program draws from several disciplines and affords students the opportunity to customize their curriculum by picking from a range of emphasis areas, including adult education; organization development and change; higher education; learning, design and technology; educational leadership; and special education.
During a summer summit the week of July 29 through Aug. 2, Penn State World Campus and College of Education D.Ed. program students visited Penn State University Park to meet and interact with their D.Ed. peers and attend academic workshops, social activities and cultural events, including a tour of the College of Education and the University Park campus.
One online D.Ed. student who made the trip for the summer summit was Manal Issa of Amman, Jordan, who is currently working as a consultant in higher education advancement, fundraising and alumni engagement. Through her firm, Naqleh, she is committed to “reshaping the philanthropic landscape in the Middle East through strategic guidance and tailored solutions.”
Issa, who has a master’s degree in philanthropic studies from Indiana University and an MBA from Birzeit University in Palestine, was previously vice president and director of advancement for The American University of Kurdistan.
“Working in higher education is very rewarding,” she said. “You can change lives, give opportunities to youth either through philanthropy or education.
“I want a practical degree, to do research where I can solve a problem or look into a problem of practice,” she continued. “This is how I came into the College of Education’s online D.Ed. program.”
Issa said she appreciates the flexibility of the program — she can tailor her studies to her work schedule and both the faculty and content are highly accessible.
“I can keep my life going without interruption professionally while I pursue a degree,” she said. “I’m a senior in my profession and it’s difficult to just stop working.”
According to Polizzi, the diversity in the online D.Ed. — both geographically and professionally — is a hallmark of the program.
“One important factor about the online doctorate program is we are seeing applicants that come from across age groups, across the United States and around the world,” he said. “We have instructional designers, assistant provosts, elementary teachers, principals — they know the value and depth of Penn State’s resources. They know Penn State in Shanghai, in Singapore, in the Middle East.”
Preparing policy leaders to tackle complex issues
Some prospective education students may want to take a different path than a traditional teaching career. The College of Education’s bachelor of science program in education and public policy (EPP) helps prepare tomorrow’s advocates, policy makers, school leaders, researchers and administrators by taking a deep dive into the meaning of education and change. The program focuses on the integral relationships between education and history, sociology, political science and philosophy.
“We’re drawing folks interested in conceptual ideas of how we translate learning into digital spaces,” said Dana Mitra, professor of education and professor-in-charge of the EPP program.
According to Mitra, the EPP program appeals to students “who love Penn State so much they never want to leave.” Those students may be interested in taking positions in higher education administration in areas such as student affairs, development, admissions and advising.
“I think it helped us capture a niche that few other universities offer and helps students stay in higher education without necessarily becoming a professor,” Mitra said. “We think it’s a really great pipeline for going into law. It’s also good preparation for a traditional business consulting route. The way we focus on systems and structures helps students in those careers.”
One EPP alumnus who has leveraged his degree into a trailblazing career is Julien Nagarajan, a public policy manager at TikTok — a short-form video hosting service that has become one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.
“My job is to monitor proposed state legislation that would have some effect on TikTok and engage with policymakers to share the impacts of those proposals and find areas of common ground,” he said.
Nagarajan, who graduated from Penn State in 2011 and is based in the Washington, D.C. area, represents TikTok before the executive and legislative branches of government across nine states in the northeast U.S. His first job post-graduation was with the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity — the department’s public schooling division. He previously worked in government relations at VMware, a cloud computing and virtualization technology company, for three years dealing with similar policy issues before taking the position with TikTok.
As a member of one of the first cohorts of the EPP program, Nagarajan said he entered the program without a specific career goal but “knew I wanted to work in public policy in some capacity.” During his studies, he interned with research institutes affiliated with Northeastern University and Brandeis University focused on health policy and children with special health care needs. He said that he appreciated the flexibility and interdisciplinary nature of the EPP program, which allowed him to explore areas such as sociology, political science and economics, among others.
“I think that from an educational standpoint, EPP was good training for how to learn to read and synthesize information and write well,” Nagarajan said.
The skills that he gained in the program are applicable to a broad range of professions, he added.
“Having some understanding or background of educational policy is still useful now in the context of public policy issues that are relevant to TikTok,” Nagarajan said. “I think the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the practical skills with reading and writing were the most useful from a career perspective.”