In two weeks, many graduating seniors will enter the workforce or continue on to higher education. Upon graduating, they'll join the thousands of Penn State alumni across the country, some of whom are working to make a difference in the world around them.

Meet Stephanie Larson, who received her undergraduate and masters degrees in 2003 and 2005, respectively. Come June, she'll travel to Kenya on a medical mission.

Tom Wriggins' days are filled with helping family members say goodbye to loved ones and giving others a chance for life.

And then there's Katelyn Clapham, a recent graduate who's involved in a nonprofit organization that uses the Internet to put opportunities for charity at people's fingertips.

How have their experiences at Penn State shaped their current careers? And what drives them to make a difference? These alumni share their stories.

 

"I was one of those kids that came into Penn State knowing what I wanted to do, and I never switched." -- Stephanie Larson, Class of 2003-Biology, 2005-Pathobiology

A native from Bucks County, Larson is in her first year at Lake Erie Consortium for Osteopathic for Medical Training.

On June 9, Larson, along with 14 other students from the school, will leave for a month-long medical mission to Kenya.

Because Kenya has very poor rural areas, the group has been raising money to build a well in a village with no running water. The group will also continue building a clinic, which was started five years ago by one of the members in the group.

They will mostly treat people and teach, as well learn from doctors there. For example, they will be able to learn about common diseases in the area.

"We wouldn't know malaria if it hit us in the face," she said.

Larson, who was a paramedic for six years at Penn State and hopes to teach those emergency skills in Kenya, said she always knew that she wanted to go into the medical field.

"I definitely see myself giving back to the community either abroad or home," she said.

With just a month left before she boards the plane to Kenya, Larson has been busy getting medical shots -- about six.

Each person in the group traveling to Kenya will carry a bag of medicine, of which hundreds have been donated, along with shoes.

She said the group has been collecting medications from clinics and physicians.

The trip will cost about $4,000 per person. The group is funding the trip through T-shirt sales, parties hosted at local restaurants and donations.

Larson is in charge of the fundraising, which she said she did a lot of while at Penn State because was involved in university ambulance, CPR classes and Thon.

"All of my Penn State experience came in handy," she said.

"I used to meet the most special people in the world at the ... worst time."

-Tom Wriggins, '90, health policy administration

When it comes to organ donations and transplants, there are hundreds of people working behind the scenes, and Wriggins is one of them.

Wriggins has worked in the organ donation and transplant field for 17 years, which is atypical because the burnout rate for people in the field in 1990s was one and half years, he said.

Wriggins received his paramedic license at Penn State, worked for university ambulance service and worked as a paramedic in Pittsburgh during the summers.

After graduation he moved back to Pittsburgh and continued working as a paramedic. But then he found out about Lifepoint Inc., which provides organ and tissue services in South Carolina.

"Basically, I just fell into it," he said.

Wriggins described himself as a "middle man."

When a person dies, a call is placed to an agency such as Lifepoint, and a representative comes to see if the person has the potential to be a donor.

From there Wriggins would talk to families of the deceased about organ donation and also served as a grief counselor.

"It was probably the most rewarding [part] of the job," he said. "I used to meet the most special people in the world at the ... worst time."

If the family chose to donate, Wriggins would access the national list to find a person who was in need of a particular organ and contact the appropriate agency to locate the person who matched the donor.

Wriggins stopped working for Lifepoint in August but still does consulting for organ donation companies and serves on the peer grant review panel for the division of transportation for the federal government.

Working with families and helping them realize that though it's a tragic event, their loved ones did something good, kept him going, Wriggins said.

"You are making a big difference in people's lives," he said.

"I thought people on the other side of the world are being raped, slaughtered ... I didn't want to ignore the rest of the world." -Katelyn Clapham, '06, English

After graduation last year, Clapham moved to New York, where she fell into the music scene performing at various venues.

While she was in New York, she heard about an up and coming nonprofit organization that uses the Internet to raise money for hundreds of other nonprofits.

She joined the team in October, which launched its Web site, ChangingThePresent.org, in December. The organization raises money through drives and sends the money received, except credit card transaction fees, to designated charities.

She said the Web site is a worldwide "marketplace for charity giving."

"That's where we're going. We're going to Tanzania, Argentina, India," she said, along with charities in the U.S. "And that's really exciting to be a part of that."

The Web site educates people about various charities and allows donations to be given in people's names. People can set up drives on the Web for wedding, birthday and baby registries designated toward a charity.

Recently, Clapham created a drive on the Web site to build a schoolroom in Darfur.

She was inspired by the conflicts in Sudan after learning about them in Sam Richard's Sociology 119 (Race and Ethnic Relations) at Penn State.

"I thought people on the other side of the world are being raped, slaughtered," she said. "I didn't want to ignore the rest of the world."

To build one schoolroom in Darfur and fill the place with safe water and food, a teacher, desks and supplies will cost $5,500.

Because survivors of the conflicts in Sudan will suffer the rest of their lives, a schoolroom provides hope for future generations, she said.

Clapham said she can work for a number of causes through her job, including the environment, peace, children and literacy, aging and culture research, at once.

"Everyday when I go home, I know more hungry bellies are filled with food, more medicine is given to people who suffer and more cancer is researched and more wildlife is restored," she said.