UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Education has named Olivia Kulp, an early childhood and elementary education major from Canton, Pennsylvania, as its student marshal for the fall 2026 commencement ceremony.
Kulp, the daughter of Andrea and Shawn Kulp, graduates with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, having spent six semesters on the dean’s list.
“I was overjoyed and overcome with an immense sense of honor to have been selected to represent the College of Education as their student marshal,” Kulp said.
She was the recipient of the President Walker Award in 2024, the President Sparks Award in 2025, and earned two scholarships — the Ready to Succeed Scholarship for four semesters (fall 2024 through spring 2026) and the Baynard and Ethel Kunkle Scholarship for both fall 2025 and spring 2026.
During the fall 2026 semester, Kulp has been a student teacher in a first-grade classroom at Indian Valley Elementary Center in the Mifflin County School District.
While at Penn State, Kulp was a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, and the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association as both a community outreach chair and THON fundraising chair. She currently works with Big Brothers Big Sisters and is a social volunteer with WorkLink.
But Kulp said it was her involvement with THON that will stay with her the most.
“In my time at Penn State, THON became the most influential and important experience I would have,” Kulp said. “The feeling of fundraising and standing in support of finding a cure for childhood cancer and of every child having the chance to grow up, is something that has filled me with a sense of indescribable pride. It has been incredible to see thousands of college students pour into such an amazing cause, and I am honored to have been a part of it.”
After graduation, Kulp said she plans to become a substitute teacher in the State College Area School District for the remainder of the 2026-27 school year before obtaining a full-time teaching position in an elementary classroom for the 2027-28 school year.
The commencement ceremony for College of Education undergraduates is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 at Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. That ceremony also will include graduates from the College of Arts and Architecture, the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, the College of Health and Human Development, the College of the Liberal Arts, the Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, and the Eberly College of Science.