With faculty and staff as diverse as those in the Penn State College of Education, it should come as no surprise that the hobbies of those individuals would be every bit as diverse.
College of Education staff have unique ways of enjoying their free time. Included below are just some of the interesting hobbies of those who make the college run.
Staci Lynch
Arachnids typically use a web to capture, but it was a different type of web that piqued the interest of Staci Lynch, an administrative support assistant in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems.
“Last year toward the end of the pandemic, I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, as a lot of us did,” Lynch said. “One day I came across a photo of a small super white fluffy creature with hot pink sparkly teeth on Pinterest of all places and down the rabbit hole I went.
“As my understanding of the world of arachnids grew, I realized that not all species are as scary as media has portrayed them. Jumping spiders specifically are very curious in nature and very docile. Their venom if bitten is also not significant to humans. They are initially much more scared of us than we are of them.”
It’s this message — that spiders are often misunderstood and unfairly characterized — that Lynch wants the world to hear on social media. She even keeps some spiders as pets.
“When I discovered this new little world I had stumbled upon, I felt compelled to share it with the world and my Instagram followers,” she said.” My account started to grow tremendously as there were many others that did not know, either. I feel I have fulfilled a small life purpose of helping break the stigma against these tiny, magnificent creatures and helped change perspective to encourage those that may come across one to not smush it.
“We all have a purpose on this beautiful earth, or we wouldn’t be here. I am certainly not asking everyone to keep them as pets but just respect their existence and relocate them if they are in a place you claim as yours.”