Class of 2014
When Marcy Herr, who has an intense passion for children’s rights and education, was presented with the opportunity to spend three weeks in an orphanage in Jaipur, India, she jumped at the chance. She spent the summer caring for a group of 30 rural village children who only spoke Hindi, and was invited to return the following summer as a teaching assistant for the next class of students going on the trip.
She and the supervising professor developed an enhanced curriculum together for an annual, recurring program in India, taking on a large role in helping to plan the university students’ itinerary and eventually accompanying them to India to prepare for the program, overcome culture shock, and serve as a liaison between them, Penn State, and their hosts in India. Herr’s program was so successful that Penn State expanded the same model to use as the basis for a similar program in Brazil.
Well-recognized on campus for her service and leadership, Herr received the 2013 Penn State Undergraduate Student Leadership and Service Award, given to only one undergrad student a year.
Herr was accepted into the Teach for America program in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for the fall of 2014, and plans to focus in the long-term on international development with an emphasis on children’s rights and education.