Liberal Arts Career Enrichment director to retire after 27 years at Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two-time Penn State alumna Susan Knell, founding director of the Career Enrichment Network (CEN) in the College of the Liberal Arts, is retiring after a 27-year career at Penn State.

A first-generation college student when she entered Penn State, Knell earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in business and the liberal arts as well as a master’s degree in counselor education.

As a student, Knell said she regretted not taking advantage of experiences and opportunities beyond the classroom — a realization that would influence the counsel she gave to students later in her career. After graduation and a job with a local environmental consulting firm, Knell returned to Penn State part time to earn her teacher’s certification, because she believed “that’s what English majors are supposed to do.” Despite her degree and a semester of student teaching, Knell said she found she was not interested in being in the classroom.

In 1995, however, Knell would find herself interacting with students again, but in a much different capacity. She was hired as a staff assistant and then promoted to coordinator, then assistant director in the cooperative education office of Eberly College of Science.

“That’s where I found out that I really enjoyed working with college students and was inspired to earn my master’s degree in counselor education,” she said.

After 11 years at Eberly, where she eventually became its director of science and international education, Knell heard about a new career center being established in the College of the Liberal Arts. She jumped at the chance to shape a new center and help students in her home college and was named the inaugural director of the Career Enrichment Network in September 2011.

“I was excited to help students realize the value of their liberal arts degrees and articulate the value they can bring to a range of professions,” Knell said. “I wanted to help students see that for most of the working world, it is less about your academic major and more about the skills and enthusiasm you can bring to an organization. Employers tell us they love recruiting liberal arts students because they bring a different perspective, they have great communication skills, and they have the research and critical thinking skills that are really needed in the workplace.”

A new beginning

Knell began her new role with one metal desk and permission to hire two full-time staff members. Eventually, she was able to hire additional professionals, each of whom focused on different aspects of the office from promoting global experiences to matching students with liberal arts alumni mentors. Today, CEN has five and a half staff members as well as student assistants.

“Susan has done a marvelous job of leading CEN from day one with an eye for helping students engage in career-related, international and professional development activities,” said B. Richard Page, associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate professor of German and linguistics. “She and her team provide liberal arts students with excellent career coaching as well as support for internships, education abroad, mentoring, and undergraduate research opportunities that enrich their education and help prepare them for life after graduation. We will miss her.”

At the College of the Liberal Arts’ 2022 Alumni Awards Ceremony held in April, Knell and her staff were honored with the Welch Alumni Relations Award, which goes to a “faculty or staff member who has contributed significantly to strengthening the connection between the college and its alumni.”

In presenting the award, Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, said the CEN staff members have been “outstanding partners, resources and guides in all things liberal arts… these staff members have been key players in helping our students enrich their Penn State experience and prepare for meaningful careers and lives.”

When asked to reflect on her time with CEN and her hopes for its future, Knell described it as a “deeply committed team of very professional people who love working with students in the college and helping them to achieve their greatest potential. My hope is that someday all students will take the opportunity to work with a career coach multiple times throughout their undergraduate experience. I would like to see career readiness built into the curriculum or normalized so much so that students think of it as something as important as seeing their academic adviser.”

Looking back, Knell said she never dreamed she would spend the vast majority of her career at Penn State.

“It was really unexpected,” she said. “It took me a while to find my place at Penn State as a student, so I never imagined working at my alma mater — much less being here for 27 years — especially since the Career Enrichment Network didn’t exist, and I didn’t have the same opportunities to explore career options that are available today. Over the course of my career, though, I’ve been really proud to support Penn State students and have them go out into the world and represent us in a way [Penn State] should be represented. They’re smart. They’re articulate. They have lots of great ideas and a lot to offer the world. I am proud to have been part of Penn State and to have worked for two exceptional colleges.

“What I am most proud of, though, is having had the chance to work with such talented and committed faculty and staff and to have had some positive impact on so many smart and talented students.”

Knell said she measures success according to a favorite poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the last few lines of which read: “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded.”

Knell’s last day at Penn State is May 20, after which she plans to spend more time with family, travel, read good books, and perhaps find other ways to work with students.