>> I started in meteorology at Penn State.
I graduated in 1991.
But I wanted to be in television.
I wanted to be the TV weatherman since I was like five or six years old.
Got into it.
Came here to Penn State thinking that that's exactly what I wanted to do,
and then Penn State opened me up to all these other possibilities
of how weather goes into decision making.
And so I changed paths a little bit.
Ended up in the National Weather Service for 21 years and made a great career there.
But over time, you know, I realized that some of the things I learned here
at Penn State were just building blocks for other learning down the road.
So I ended up branching out into hydrology and then getting
into climate change science and climate.
And now I'm doing all three in the job I'm in now.
So basically, Penn State was the stepping stone to build the career.
I interned for the National Weather Service, but it was in Sterling, Virginia.
So I had to commute back and forth between Penn State
and Washington D.C. on a couple of summers.
But it was a valuable experience, and it gave me an idea, okay, yeah,
this is the path I want to be on.
I don't really want to do television.
Although, there's a part of me that wishes I did it, but for the most part, I like what I do now.
So it ended up being a really important thing for me to do.
And I always tell students here, if at all possible, get an internship.
Because if nothing else, it can sometimes help either confirm or help deny, maybe,
something that you thought you would like, and then you change gears into something
that you're more comfortable with.