Beyond the classroom: Outreach gives students hands-on learning experiences

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Brooke Phillips spoke about the hands-on learning opportunities she has experienced as a Penn State student during the first Penn State Outreach Experiential Learning Symposium, her voice rose with excitement.

“I knew Penn State would be full of opportunities, but I did not realize the number of opportunities outside of the classroom that are bursting out of the seams for me to learn and grow and prepare for my future,” said Phillips, a senior majoring in wildlife and fishery science.

During the mid-November symposium, Phillips presented a poster about her experience in the Wildlife Career Development Program at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. From working directly with raptors to assisting in research projects, Phillips said the program provided her with an opportunity to put what she learned in the classroom into action. She said at Shaver’s Creek she gained the tools needed to advance her career while helping the center in its conservation education mission.

“I got pretty much everything you need to get kickstarted in the field of wildlife biology, conservation and other natural resource types of fields,” said Phillips, who has already used the skills she developed to land outside internships, volunteer and research opportunities and two jobs in the field. “Working with Shaver’s Creek was one of the best opportunities that I have ever had at Penn State.”

“A true win-win scenario”

Phillips’s project was just one of more than 30 experiential learning opportunities available through Penn State Outreach and its partners that were on display during the symposium. Others included students traveling across the country to get a real-world lesson in street medicine with the support of Penn State Conferences and Institutes, the opportunity to work with experts in high-performance buildings over the summer break at the Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center and more.

Addressing the crowd of more than 300 Penn State students, faculty and staff, Larry Terry, vice president for Outreach, said it was inspiring to hear and see the impact students were making after being empowered to take learning outside of the classroom and into the community with the support of Outreach programs and partners.

“The reach and impact of experiential learning is undeniably impressive and a true win-win scenario,” Terry said. “Our students are able to put into real-world practice the theories and knowledge that they have acquired in their classes and work with individuals who are passionate about programs that make their communities a better place.”

Making the community a better place is exactly what Rachel Layvey has been working toward in the nearby town of Philipsburg as a Keystone Community Scholar.

Layvey, a graduate student working toward a master’s degree in education, development and community engagement from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, said she has been identifying and developing ways the rural town can support youth development opportunities by making partnerships in the community and conducting research with high school students in the Philipsburg-Osceola School District.

“I have been able to build my professional toolkit and leadership skills by guiding these students along the research process. The community then gets to have this output of findings and research where they can have a better sense of what their young constituents need in the community to thrive,” Layvey told the audience during the symposium. “It has been insightful for me to see the passion of these students and the community.”

Terry said experiences like Layvey’s showcase how Outreach helps provide students with experiential learning opportunities that aid Penn State’s land-grant mission and Outreach’s Commonwealth Commitments of inspiring discovery, preparing students and serving Pennsylvanians.

“As you can see, Penn State Outreach’s Experiential Learning program is truly representative of our Commonwealth Commitments, and that’s why we intend to expand and emulate the program in the coming years,” Terry said.

Michael Zeman, director of experiential learning for Outreach, organized the symposium. He said opportunities like this highlight how Outreach, with its many units and programs that connect with colleges and campuses across Penn State and the commonwealth, can facilitate experiential learning at Penn State. 

“Experiential learning has multiple facets to it. It enables authentic learning for students, but in partnership with faculty across the institution, and at different campuses as well as the community. Learning occurs in its most organic form and it hits a higher education sweet spot,” Zeman said. “This genuine, skills-based student transformation fits right in with Outreach and its commitments of inspiring discovery, serving Pennsylvania, and preparing students.”

Steve Chichester, senior strategy and innovation officer for Outreach, said because Outreach units already work to support community engagement, they are primed to help students take learning at Penn State beyond the four walls of a classroom.

“So much of what we do at Outreach already takes place outside of the classroom. It happens in communities across Pennsylvania and beyond. We’re able to provide students with opportunities to supplement their in-classroom learning with real world experience that is happening out in the community,” Chichester said. “We feel this will help prepare them for whatever comes after graduation.”

“Defining feature of a 21st century university”

Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos said he was inspired by what he heard from students during the symposium, telling the audience it served as an example of what he sees as a big part of the future of higher education.

“I would like to share a vision for how transdisciplinary experiential education can become the defining feature of a 21st century university,” Sotiropoulos said before asking the audience to think about the great Renaissance thinker Leonardo da Vinci. 

“He [da Vinci] would thrive in an environment where learning was hands on, transdisciplinary and guided by purpose, exactly the kind of environment we are building here at Penn State. That is why we are so excited by what is happening here tonight and what is going to be happening in the years ahead,” Sotiropoulos said. Later he added, “Our vision is to make every student’s Penn State journey a personalized, hand-drawn exploration, connecting course work to grand challenges, to industry, to the arts, to civic life and to purpose.”

In a world of rapid change brought on by technology, Sotiropoulos said it was important that experiential learning works best when it is conducted across majors, colleges and educational disciplines.

“Artificial intelligence (AI), automation and data are shaping everything from agriculture and health care to art and law. The question before us is no longer what our students need to learn, but how they must learn to adapt, connect and create meaning in a world that is changing exponentially fast,” Sotiropoulos said. “Traditional classroom instruction will always matter. But it is no longer sufficient. To thrive in the AI era, our students must be equipped with not only knowledge, but imagination, empathy, resilience, and an ability to translate meaning into real-world impact. Experiential learning, when done right, is the bridge between knowing and doing, between the classroom and the community, between the university and the real world.”

“Carry with me for the rest of my life”

On the stage during the symposium, student Allyson Eicher shared how that bridge to the real world made an impact on her and the community.

Eicher is majoring in biobehavioral health with the goal becoming a physician’s assistant. She returned to Los Angeles this semester as part of an independent study in street medicine after participating in the course during the spring of 2025.

While there, again embedded with street medicine teams, she said she was surprised by a man who she helped last spring.

“He remembered me. He said, ‘You go to Penn State,’” Eicher said emotionally. “He remembered the impact we had. It may be small, but enough. This is growth and knowledge that I will take and carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Outreach plans to continue the Experiential Learning Symposium on an annual basis to highlight the opportunities provided to students in partnership with colleges and campuses and its commitment to experiential learning.