UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College welcomes John O’Neill, Jen Agans and Michelle Sikes for its second cohort of Faculty Fellows.
“We rolled out the Faculty Fellows program in March and it has already been incredibly successful. Our fellows have started to roll out initiatives related to their work over the last several months,” said Patrick Mather, dean of Schreyer Honors College. “I am excited by the new collaborations that will emerge with our second cohort and the impact it will have for our Scholars.
These fellows work closely with the Honors College staff to study, innovate and enhance the honors education experience at Penn State. Schreyer has five new and returning faculty members to participate in the program for the 2024-25 academic year.
John O’Neill: A professor of hospitality management, O’Neill specializes in teaching real estate, strategic management and asset management in the hotel industry. He currently serves as the director of the Penn State Hospitality Real Estate Strategy Group, where he leads outreach initiatives related to entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector. He is a new faculty fellow and will focus on methods for improving the thesis process for Scholars and the faculty who work alongside them.
Jennifer Agans: An associate professor for the recreation, park, and tourism management department, Agans’ expertise lies in extracurricular recreation and its effect on youth development. In her research, Agans focuses on the connection between out-of-school activities and healthy lifestyles, assessing recreational sports and summer programs. As a new faculty fellow, she will focus on ways to provide more community-engaged learning opportunities for Scholars, including work connected to the honors thesis.
Michelle Sikes: An associate professor of kinesiology, Sikes’ academic work concentrates on examining sports through a historical, political, and economic lens. In her book “Women’s Sport in Africa,” Sikes analyzes the intersections of race and gender in athletics throughout postcolonial Africa. As a new faculty fellow, her project seeks to develop a succinct process to match Scholars with community organizations related to their interests.
Derek Aggleton, associate teaching professor of philosophy, and Marcy Milhomme, associate professor of communication arts and sciences, will return as Faculty Fellows for the 2024-25 academic year and will continuing working on their previous initiatives.
To learn more about the Faculty Fellows program and those involved, visit the Schreyer Honors College website.