Jonathan Merritt
I have served as the director of academic advising and senior programs coordinator for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) since 1995. I am part of a team of faculty and staff dedicated to serving EMS undergraduate students in the college's Ryan Family Student Center. I am a critical advising resource, particularly for pre-major EMS students, exploratory students in DUS and other Penn State colleges, and prospective Penn State applicants (including high school students, transferring college students, and returning adult students).
I graduated from Brown University in 1971 with a bachelor of arts degree in history. As a conscientious objector to war, my two years of service (in lieu of military service) included a year of environmental projects with the California Division of Forestry and a year in a street-alcoholic recovery program at the Monroe Community Hospital in my hometown of Rochester, New York. From 1973 to 1978, I was a substance abuse counselor in a Rochester-area school district. From 1978 to 1980, I was an adolescent and family counselor for Family Services of Rochester.
Inspired by a continuing education introductory course in meteorology, I came to Penn State in 1980 with the goal of earning a "quick" second bachelor's degree in meteorology. A combination of academic advising issues, increased awareness, and economics brought me into the graduate program a year later. Even before completing a master's degree in meteorology (1985), I began my Penn State employment in 1984 as an instructor in meteorology. During the next eleven years, I taught an array of 100-and 400-level courses, coordinated the department's weather observatory, and advised hundreds of students. In 1994, I was presented the college's Wilson Award for Outstanding Teaching.
The demands of my current position precluded, sadly, my continued teaching. The opportunity to build on twenty-two years of seemingly disparate experience has, in retrospect, been the right choice. It makes a skeptic like me almost believe in destiny.
My student years at Penn State were sustained by Ruth Mitchell, to whom I have been gratefully married since 1984. We reside in State College.
Education
- B.A. in History, Brown University
- M.S. in Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University
Current Position
Senior Undergraduate Studies Programs Coordinator and Director of the EMS Academic Advising Center, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS)
Contact Information
E-mail: jhm3@psu.edu
Office: 14 Deike Building
Phone: 814-863-2751
Fax: 814-863-3349
