Liberal Arts alumna finds post-graduation success through bioethics program

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As a Penn State student, Chloe Connor, a 2022 Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar alumna, took advantage of the many resources within the College of the Liberal Arts to build a successful career in public health and health law.

Connor graduated with a bachelor of science degree in psychology and triple minors in global health, biology, and bioethics and medical humanities. Her varied interests and exploration of different paths helped her discover what careers she wanted to pursue.

“There’s an illusion that everybody takes a direct path with their academics, but actually, you figure out what you like during the entire process,” Connor said. “I entered Penn State pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and originally wanted to be a neuropsychologist, but I found through my science classes that I was even more interested in empirical research work and the intersection of public health, law and bioethics. It looks like I had such a plan, but I really looked at so many different fields and broadened out. Within my interests, I could go into academia or industry thanks to my background and time at the University. The College of the Liberal Arts gave me flexibility.”

Connor, a Bucks County native, explained that her minors impacted her career, too. She wanted to pursue multiple fields of study, and she said her liberal arts education allowed her to branch out and explore those fields.

“My minors were very influential for the career I was going toward and tied in with the value of a liberal arts education, even when they were not liberal arts minors,” Connor said. “My major was incredibly helpful because it gave me the flexibility to do other minors and explore other fields. Also, the liberal arts courses really allowed me to explore and specialize in niche topics.”

Of her minors, Connor explained that the bioethics and medical humanities minor stood out due to its unique studies and specialty to her future career.

“Bioethics was at first an abstract, philosophical topic to me but really became the forefront of my career,” Connor said. “The niche of health law and bioethics is a discipline that many people come to later in life, but Penn State’s Bioethics program provided a valuable opportunity to explore my interests and future career options in this field even before I graduated undergrad. This gave me focus when seeking jobs after I graduated and made me more competitive in law school applications.”          

Connor said her passion for bioethics has led her to pursue a career in public health and health law. After graduating from Penn State, she studied in the United Kingdom as a Fulbright Fellow and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Southampton in southern England. In 2025, she will attend Harvard Law School.

Currently, Connor is a bioethics research fellow through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Washington, D.C. This opportunity has challenged Connor, she said, as the topics her department discusses and researches are often thorny ethical issues with many competing considerations.

“I found out about the position when I was in the bioethics program at Penn State as the NIH offers many postbaccalaureate or predoctoral fellowships,” Connor said. “I submitted a lengthy application then was selected to interview. It was very intimidating but very worth it. I could not have done it without the bioethics program and my mentors.”

As part of the two-year predoctoral fellowship, Connor works within the NIH Department of Bioethics to conduct research and works on the bioethics consult service for the NIH Clinical Center. She explained several of the unique research projects she gets to work on that center around bioethics.

“Currently, I’m working on a paper advocating for the inclusion of long COVID-19 measurements in clinical trials on acute COVID therapeutics,” Connor said. “Another project I am a part of is a law review on artificial womb technology and how this may change reproductive law. I’m really working on niche interests that build upon skills developed at Penn State.”

Connor explained that she would not be in her current position without her experiences at Penn State and in the College of the Liberal Arts. She said the resources and courses allowed her to explore her interests and gain countless opportunities to build her career.

“I wouldn't have the background to be competitive for these positions if I wasn’t in the College of the Liberal Arts,” Connor said. “Having the experience of writing a thesis through the Paterno Fellows Program and Schreyer Honors College was incredible practice for my career. The wide breadth of classes taught me to be open-minded and to see an issue from so many angles. Specifically, conversation-based classes challenged me to push myself intellectually and really prepared me for this job.”