School Pride

As a member of the Smeal Student Society, I occasionally take on the responsibility of giving tours of the Business Building to prospective students. This is always such a pleasure for me, because I really love being a member of Smeal and Penn State and I want to be able to express that to others with the hopes that they can find such a community-feel in their college experience.

Anyway, I was giving a tour the other day to a high school junior and his father. After about 20 minutes into the tour, the dad turns to me and jokingly expresses that Penn State students must be required to follow a dress code in which they wear PSU branded clothing so many days out of the week. What a comment. All that I could say was that “it’s school pride”. Everyone has heard of Penn State; everyone knows somebody who has gone to Penn State; our alum are often desperate to maintain communication with their alma mater; and of course…who can forget about Penn State football.

Never before had I taken the time to watch people pass by on this campus, noting whether or not they had any sort of Penn State apparel on. However, I suggest you do it just just to gain perspective. We’re addicted to this school. We bleed blue and white, as they say. Why did you come to Penn State? Smeal? For many Penn Staters, school pride and branding is a huge factor, because it is a label that can stick with you forever if you allow it.