For the 2018-2019 school year, the formerly known Student Activities migrated to a new title of the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement. This change came along with the new focus of better reflecting their mission and goals. But this isn’t the only change that students will notice in this office.

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This past June, Clark Tieman took over the role of Coordinator for Student Leadership and Involvement. While this position had previously existed, Tieman is the first to hold it in its new form with more modern goals.

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While he graduated from Penn State University Park in May of this year, he brings a plethora of experience to the table. He attended Otterbein University in Ohio where he gained experience from newspaper staff, the Greek system, campus ministry, orientation leadership, work-studies and multimedia publications for the theater department. However, prior to graduation, he was stuck in a senior year mindset of figuring out what path to chase when he found inspiration from a college mentor.

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“One of my mentors happened to be a student affairs professional and so she told me that all of my experiences could definitely lead to a career,” Tieman states.

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However, at this point in time he had not considered graduate school and was too late to considering beginning an application for that coming year. Following his graduation with a dual major in public relations and music, he chased his aspiration of moving to New York City and landing several jobs in the two years that he spent there. In this new-found life, he landed jobs essentially doing audience and public relations for the Dramatists Guild Fund (now Foundation), the Roundabout Theatre Company, and the New York International Fringe Festival all while polishing up his graduate school application.

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Following his time in New York, Tieman obtained his master’s degree from Penn State University Park while also holding a graduate assistantship at the HUB-Robeson Center with student organizations & campus programming and an internship with fraternity & sorority life. He believes that all of these experiences have been helpful in gaining experience for this new position at Behrend.

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“I can try to help Lindsey (Schaffer) as much as possible here because most of what my position with clubs and organizations broadly is specifically with a lot of their events,” he explains.

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His job is to make sure they are all prepared and familiar with policies, risk management, and especially to have fun in what they do. He is also eager to help them with catering, publicity, and whatever else they may need. Tieman also states that some of these larger events include Greek Week, Welcome Week, and Club Showcase.

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“It will be exciting,” he shares. “It’s like event planning for students.”

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As for his first week of officially working with students in his new position, Tieman has noticed that these students have done work overall before his entrance to campus and he hopes to continue helping them to achieve their organizational goals. He also intends to continue to make students aware of all that there is to offer at Behrend including leadership development, work-study positions, advisement, one-on-one time, and the many clubs and organizations.

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“I want to make sure that students know what we’re here for,” he admits. “We’re here for them.”

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As for transitioning from University Park to Behrend, he confesses that the learning curve has been steeper than he expected. He anticipated to already understand more about Behrend than he actually did. While policies are by and large the same, students and the way that everybody works together are very different, according to Tieman. He notes the smaller face-to-face interactions and the benefits of a smaller campus.

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“One of the things that stuck out to me at my interview last semester was one of the senior staff members said, ‘Of course we’re Nittany Lions like we belong to the wider system and we’re very proud to be Penn State but also we’re equally if not more proud to be Behrend Lions,’” he admits.

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According to Tieman, this was a complete switch of his thoughts as he now sees that Behrend has truly created for itself a separation while also including the happenings at University Park.

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“I’ve always been a big lover of community and I am excited to be a part of this community and help continue this community through whatever way that our office can,” he confesses.

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As for now, Tieman is enjoying getting the opportunity to actually do the work and interact with students now that the semester is back in full swing.