An Open Letter to My Fellow Penn Staters

I bleed blue and white; I shed tears of blue and white. Never has that felt more true than during the past four days. I am sickened and heartbroken. I am furious, and so very deeply sad.

One man (allegedly) committed unforgivable, unconscionable crimes on the campus I love. Two faculty members and the president of our university (apparently) decided to "look the other way". The man we all held as an example of that which is good and right did not (perhaps) do enough to expose or stop the abuse of innocent children.

I pray for the children and their families. I pray for justice to be done. And if the complaints registered with the State of Pennsylvania prove to be true, I will support any and all actions that must take place to punish all those who allowed this nightmare to unfold, although I will forever grieve the shadow cast on something I cherish.

Penn State means so much to me. It is where I learned to walk into a crowded room and smile. It's where my professors helped me recognize my abilities. It's where I met wonderful, intelligent, strong women who became my sorority sisters, and where I had the time of my life laughing and living. It's where I grew up in so many ways. I will not let anyone take that from me.

To my fellow Penn Staters : please don't hang your head in shame. I know there are those in the media and on facebook who want to use this situation to demean all of us, or gloat over the tarnish of Penn State's football legend. Yes, those who did wrong need to be punished. But those of us who love Penn State and have upheld her ideals need now to be even stronger.  Because Penn State is so much more than those men.

We are ... EVERYWHERE

• Over 94,000 current students
• More than 340,000 living alumni
• The nation's largest dues paying alumni association
• One in every 720 Americans, and one in every 70 Pennsylvanians is a Penn State graduate
• One in 50 professionally licensed engineers in the U.S. is a Penn State graduate
• One in every four meteorologists in the United States is a Penn State graduate

We are ... ACADEMIC LEADERS

• The nation's #1 producer of Fulbright scholars
• Ranked 13th in the Top 50 Public National Universities
• Ranked as the top engineering school for aerospace and defense recruitment
• Rates among the top 100 higher education institutions in African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American undergraduate degree producers
• Ranked as the #1 online institution in Top 25 Online Colleges and Universities

We are ... MAKING A DIFFERENCE

• Ranked #2 in student applications for Teach for America
• Ranked 16th nationally in Peace Corps volunteers
• Home to the largest student run philanthropy in the world - the 2011 IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon raised $9,563,016.09 for children with cancer and their families.

We are ... PROUD OF WHAT WE'VE CONTRIBUTED TO THE WORLD

• Developers of the Penn State Heart, the only artificial heart approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Operating the Hobby-Eberly spectroscopic survey telescope, the largest instrument of its kind in the world, which measures individual wavelengths of light to reveal information about stars, galaxies, and other deep-space phenomena
• In 1955, physics Professor Erwin Mueller became the first person to "see" an atom, using a field ion electron microscope of his own invention. The device was a landmark advance in scientific instrumentation that allowed a magnification of more than 2 million times
• One of the world's first academic research programs in diesel engineering. Discoveries in such areas as supercharging and scavenging helped to bring about today's fuel-efficient and powerful engines
• Alexander Wolszczan, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, discovered the existence of three planets orbiting outside of our solar system -- the first scientist to do so
• Penn State physicist Ferdinand Brickwedde in 1931 produced the world's first measurable amount of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope needed to make "heavy water" -- an essential ingredient in basic atomic research
• The first university to be issued a federal license to operate a nuclear reactor, which it continues to use for studies in the peaceful uses of atomic energy and the training of nuclear industry personnel
• A surgeon and two engineers at Penn State perfected the world's first long-life, rechargeable heart pacemaker
• In 1931, psychologist Robert Bernreuter began refining his "Bernreuter Personality Inventory," a pioneer multiphastic test of traits that became the standard by which other personality tests were measured and is still used worldwide for counseling and personnel selection. 

We are ... forever PENN STATE