Featured Higher Ed Member of the Week: Claire Gilbert « Higher Education Student Association

This week’s featured high ed member is first year PhD student Claire Gilbert.

Claire’s road to Penn State has been primarily determined by three factors: her background, work experience, and academic curiosity. Both of her parents work in higher education, so Claire grew up in a household that always placed a strong emphasis on the importance of higher education and the need to ensure its successful continuation. She grew up wandering the halls of Indiana University and later Ohio University, where she also became a student. Claire had the opportunity to take college courses at OU from seventh grade all the way through high school thanks to a couple of excellent Ohio programs. When she went to Northwestern for undergrad, she had the chance to translate her general love of universities and learning into the practical administrative environment of Northwestern’s Information Technology department. Claire spent four years working for them, three of which were in administration. She knew at that point that she loved academia and enjoyed working in higher education, but she wanted to further refine her leadership skills and spend some time in the “real world” before returning to graduate school.

Therefore, after graduation Claire went to work for Deloitte Consulting in Chicago as part of their human capital department. She realized pretty quickly that she preferred the higher education work and learning environment to the corporate consulting lifestyle, but her year at Deloitte was incredibly valuable from a personal and professional development perspective. Claire applied for higher education PhD programs while at Deloitte, having determined for herself that she was still primarily motivated from both an academic and professional standpoint by higher education. She decided to come to Penn State due to the quality of the faculty and the program, the welcoming and supportive environment, and of course, the beautiful location. And so, Claire is now here in State College working as Don Heller’s graduate assistant

Claire spent her first ten years in Bloomington, Indiana surrounded by chickens and ducks. When she was ten, her parents moved to Athens, Ohio so that they could have a real farm. From that point on, Claire was a shepherdess. Although her parents recently moved to Columbus and sold the farm, Claire will always consider herself an Appalachian farm girl.

Outside of higher ed, Claire enjoys all of the following:

Camping, especially in the Boundary Waters (chain of lakes between Minnesota and Canada – totally awesome)
Animal husbandry
Board games (especially the strategic variety)
Traveling, especially in Europe
Vegging out