UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — College is a pivotal time in one’s life, a journey of exploration, growth and self-discovery. Sometimes, however, that journey includes certain challenges — such as navigating a vast array of resources, developing a sense of belonging or addressing academic or mental health issues.
The Penn State College of Education’s Journey Success Center, launched in August 2024, helps students traverse this critical period of life and accomplish their personal and professional goals by empowering them to flourish academically, emotionally and socially.
Known affectionately as “Journey,” the center came to fruition largely through the generosity of Bethesda, Maryland residents Allen and Judith Weltmann, whose daughter Amy struggled in college due to an undiagnosed information processing disorder that affected her ability to take tests, especially those in multiple choice format. Allen is a 1965 Penn State Smeal College of Business graduate.
While a student at the University of Arizona, the Weltmanns said, Amy discovered the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques (SALT) Center, a program that serves students with learning and attention challenges. While she ultimately finished her degree at DePaul University, the support she received at the SALT Center made an impression on her parents.
The Weltmanns are longtime donors to Penn State, and Allen and Judith’s many gifts to the University include an endowed scholarship in the Smeal College of Business, an Open Doors Scholarship at University Park and numerous commitments to the University Libraries, where their names adorn the lobby of the Pattee Library Knowledge Commons. When the time for a new commitment to Penn State came in 2023, however, their philanthropy took a different direction.
“We had been in conversations with Penn State for over a decade about creating a program for students with learning differences,” Allen said. During a 2022 meeting with College of Education leadership and faculty, however, the idea finally found a home.
Recalling that fateful meeting, Dean Kimberly Lawless explained how limited resources often constrain her ability to support students with learning differences and related challenges. A center like Journey, however, would allow the college to expand its human and financial resources, conduct more intentional outreach and research and increase awareness across campus of the services it provides. In addition, the college would recruit and retain the students currently choosing not to attend Penn State in favor of other institutions that provide necessary support services.
"Penn State could lead the nation in this space," Lawless said.
Encouraged by the dean’s support, Allen and Judith committed funds to begin the center’s initial activity and to hire its inaugural director, Kevin Hulburt, who selected the name "Journey" as a reference to the transformative pathway that makes up the student experience. While Journey is broader in scope than SALT, Allen explained, it will focus particularly on supporting students with learning challenges and on the “inextricable links between learning differences and anxiety.”
According to Hulburt, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Penn State, Journey provides holistic support through a tiered approach centered on coaching. The first tier, available to all students, offers workshops with topics like academic skills or contemplative practices as well as sessions with peer coaches.
Second- and third-tier services, designed for students with more specific needs like learning differences and related challenges, include small group sessions supported by academic and mental health professionals, as well as one-on-one meetings with a certified academic success coach.
Hulburt added that Journey also sponsors the Mindfulness and the Science of Happiness (MASH) student organization, which hosts weekly student discussions of topics and research related to well-being and contemplative practices.
“Mindfulness and the cultivation of metacognition supports the ability to navigate with clarity and focus the challenges of student life. By cultivating these skills, students can better manage academic pressures, ultimately enhancing their overall educational experience,” Hulburt said. “Peer coaches help students identify barriers to success and either work with them directly or connect with the resources they need to succeed.”
To complement its direct student services, Hulburt said, Journey plans to conduct and support research designed to identify and implement best practices surrounding all aspects of the student experience. By developing and measuring the impact of support service — offered by both Journey and other student success units across the University —Journey will define what works for students generally and within specific student populations and guide the creation of inclusive support systems that enhance both academic and personal growth for all students.
"Enhancing student success is one of the six priority areas of the University's strategic plan,” Hulburt said. “The College of Education intends to contribute toward this important priority by leveraging the educational and research expertise of our distinguished faculty toward serving the needs of our Penn State students.”
With Journey off to such a fast start, the Weltmanns said they are eager to see the center grow. As additional philanthropic partners emerge, future goals include the creation of a physical center and the expansion of services to more students across the Penn State system.
“Even though Penn State is a huge school, everyone can find a place,” said Judith. “But if you don’t have a place and you’re nervous to begin with, Journey is a good place to find people in a similar situation. The whole point of these programs is to find alternative ways to address your differences.”
Gifts to the Journey Success Center advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.