UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Annie Tamalavage and Marla Korpar, both 2013 EMS graduates, were among a handful of judges who returned to Penn State’s University Park campus to serve as judges for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ (EMS) Undergraduate Poster Exhibition.

Tamalavage said it was important for her to return to her alma mater to pay it forward after so many members of the college supported her and jump-started her career.

“They set you up for success, and if you put the effort in and you try, you can’t fail,” said Tamalavage. “They believe in you, and I think that is something unique about Penn State and why I want to continue to want to give back and come back to support the University.”

Korpar said she wanted to serve as a judge because she wanted to be a part of the network of advocates who fostered her success when she was an undergraduate.

“I don’t think I could have been as successful an engineer if I didn’t have such a great network, which was because of the environment that EMS creates,” Korpar said.

Tamalavage said her time at Penn State set her on the path to pursue her doctorate. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geobiology and earned her master’s degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University, where she is pursuing a doctorate in the same field.

“Within the geosciences department, the undergraduates and the graduates were very close, and I learned so much from the graduate students,” said Tamalavage. “Working in a lab for my undergraduate thesis was an incredible experience for me to learn proper lab protocols and to learn what it is like to be a graduate student and to independently think about the data-driven process. These lessons are absolutely invaluable as you move into a professional world.”

“EMS offered a chance to try anything. It has the feel of a small college within a large university brimming with opportunities,” said Korpar, who graduated with a degree in environmental systems engineering. “The more that you can explore what you want to be while you’re still a student, the greater opportunity you’re going to have to jump into a job that you’re excited about and start to grow your career,” adding that students should “take advantage of everything that’s around you because you’re never going to have so many people willing to invest in you at one time in your life.”