Setting boundaries helps Smeal’s fall 2025 student marshal explore, excel

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lauren Clymer has combined her passions of business, sustainability and self-exploration to truly excel in accounting.  

Clymer, a student from Mertztown, a rural community southwest of Allentown, has been named the fall 2025 Penn State Smeal College of Business student marshal. The integrated master's of accounting/accounting major will graduate on Sunday with a 3.99 GPA and an expansive resume.

Her dedication to her professional career, extracurriculars and academics has been marked by three main themes.

No. 1: Sustainability

Throughout her college career, Clymer repeatedly participated in programs and opportunities that revolved around the theme of sustainability.

From volunteer roles such as her time volunteering at the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm and the Arboretum at Penn State, to going on international trips looking for climate solutions, her work and studies have combined sustainability and business.

As an initiative for the Smeal College of Business, she worked for a task force affiliated with Net Impact in fall 2024 to educate students about and encourage aluminum recycling.

“We did outreach to students, talking with them about what is and isn't actually recyclable,” she said.

In May of the same year, she took the course, ACCTG 397 and 399: Sustainability in Costa Rica: Balancing Profit and Planet in a Biodiverse Nation, supported by the Fred H. Schaefer Scholars in Accounting Program.

With the guidance and organization of Scott Collins, director of Smeal’s One-Year MAcc Program and a clinical professor of accounting, the group traveled to Costa Rica to explore how farmers and businesses in Monteverde and Tamarindo are altering their practices to respond to environmental and economic pressures.

“In Monteverde, we got to go visit a dairy farm and a coffee farm. The business owners shared their experiences, the challenges they're facing with climate change, and the solutions that they're trying to find to continue to be able to operate in their environment. It was eye-opening to  be standing on their farm and see the obstacles they’re facing first-hand,” Clymer said.

This experience influenced Clymer’s academic path, she said, and inspired her Schreyer thesis.

“The culminating piece of that course was the discussion of how accounting disclosures for companies relay information related to sustainability. So, one huge impact of going through that course was that I decided that I wanted to study sustainability disclosures for my thesis and look at that at a closer level,” she said.

She focused her thesis on information asymmetry between European companies and the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive under the guidance of Samuel Bonsall, Deloitte & Touche Excellence Professor and professor of accounting.

Clymer’s experiences formed how she thought about sustainability in business, she said.

“Picking the sustainable option is not only the best for their environment and the right thing to do, but also the right thing to do for financial sustainability,” she said.

No. 2: Mentorship

Sustainability has not been the only major component of Clymer’s academic and professional time at Penn State. She has also consistenly incorporated mentorship.

As vice president of development in the Blue and White Society, her position allowed her to constantly connect and network with alumni of Penn State as a whole as well as with Blue and White Society members.

 

In her role providing career development part-time administrative support with the Schreyer Honors College, she connected students with alumni to facilitate the mentorship program, creating activities and matching  students with alumni.

“I got to lead and help develop the 'Mentoring with Honors' program for students, so I'd pair alumni and students, and that was a fantastic experience because I got a lot of exposure to the alumni base of the college,” Clymer said.

More recently, she served as a Masters of Accounting Program Student Association peer mentor and teaching assistant for Schalyn Sohn, director of the Integrated Master of Accounting Program and assistant teaching professor in accounting, in her ACCTG 471: Intermediate Financial Accounting I course.

Mentorship has also been integral to her professional experience. She said she has utilized the advice of mentors and built relationships across her different experiences.

“Every place that I've worked for, I've connected with several Penn Staters, particularly at KPMG,” she said.  

Leading up to her internship with KPMG, she was a part of the Global Advantage Program. Before her internship started, she went to Prague, Czech Republic, to attend an international leadership conference led by top partners from the firm.

“That was an amazing opportunity as I hadn't worked a single day for them yet," she said. "So I was impressed that they placed so much emphasis on mentoring and development for people not even in their firm yet.”

From these opportunities, she shared how she learned the value of mentorship and the alumni network and shared what she learned with other students.

 “Take advantage of all of the resources that Smeal has related to career development,” she said. “I know I got my first internship with Withum directly through a connection I had made at the Smeal Networking Expo.”

No. 3: Exploration

Although she has been fully committed to her high-achieving academics, high-level sustainability work and professional development, Clymer said she has made sure to find herself along the way. 

Clymer did not enter Penn State as an accounting major or even as a business student. She was originally a Division of Undergraduate Studies student, and undecided. From there, her STEM interests from high school inspired her to take biochemistry classes.

“I took Chem 110 and Chem 111 freshman year. Starting spring my freshman year, I realized that maybe I could do the biochemistry. But, I really wasn't enjoying it,” she said.

From there, she pivoted to accounting.

“I'd gotten into ACCTG 211 at that point, and that was a class that I really enjoyed,” she said.

She applied to the master’s program and has succeeded from there, already passing three of the CPA exams.

With the academic success, she found ways to manage stress and stay organized. Clymer said she lives by her planner, following a strict block schedule.

She uses peaceful activities like knitting and crafting to relax. She also emphasized how using movement like intramural exercise classes helped clear her mind.

Along with her other interests, she said, she destresses with tennis, as a member of the tennis club.

“It was just fun to go to the practices in the winter. I think my favorite memory from that is we did glow-in-the-dark tennis once. They had black lights in the whole place. It's really hard to play tennis in the dark, but it was so fun,” she said.

She also shared the importance of setting boundaries.  

“One of the things that's been hardest to learn is figuring out the point where I need to say, ‘I actually can't come to this event today.’ I learned to set boundaries, so that I can still get my schoolwork done and be involved but not overwhelm myself,” she said.

With her intense schedule, she said, she does not prescribe balance but instead suggested listening to yourself.

“I feel like balance isn't always the right word because sometimes I need to spend most of my time on academics and other times I need to focus on myself, and then there are other times when I can do both. So, it is definitely important to set time aside for both work and self-care, practicing that skill set of being able to define boundaries,” she said.  

She said she feels that her stress management and organization skills will serve her well as graduation approaches and the corporate world welcomes her.

With graduation upcoming at 1 p.m. Dec. 21, Clymer will conclude her time at Penn State. But, she has big things ahead; she will continue her career at KPMG as an audit associate in Philadelphia.