Susan E. Knell has been named director of the new Career Enrichment Network in the College of the Liberal Arts. Working in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office, she will build on the existing foundation of mentor and internship programs to provide liberal arts majors with increased opportunities for career exploration and experience to assist them as they define their post-graduate career paths.
“Susan’s leadership as director of the Career Enrichment Network will allow us to build a dynamic and responsive network of resources that will help our liberal arts students navigate the important transition from college to the world of work," said Associate Dean Christopher Long.
Previously, Knell served as the director of Science Career and International Education for Penn State’s Eberly College of Science, beginning in 1997. There, she developed programs and coordinated with alumni and employers to provide science students with a range of career and international experiences to complement their undergraduate education. In 2007, Knell received the Distinguished Service Award from the Eberly College of Science for her leadership and service to the College of the Liberal Arts and its students. She has also served in leadership roles for external cooperative-education organizations such as the Cooperative Education and Internship Association, which awarded her and her colleagues a research grant for investigating differences in learning environments between traditional classroom settings and hands-on cooperative-education environments.
Knell earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with a business/liberal arts minor and a master of education degree in counselor education with a college student personnel emphasis, both from Penn State.