Emma Hance
Program Manager and Strategic Planning Specialist,
Readiness Institute at Penn State 

Emma Hance is no stranger to working with students. A former teacher, she now spends her days working with high school students at the three-year-old Readiness Institute.

Its biggest effort is the community and future readiness summer intensive, but it also offers educational boot camps, space internships, business workshops and more to students across southwestern Pennsylvania.

When she’s not with her students, she’s working to create more opportunities for them. “I hope that when we’re working with students [they leave] with a sense of purpose and the understanding that their pathway does not have to be linear,” she says.

Hance is passionate about STEAM education and equity in education and is constantly finding ways to offer her students opportunities to help them access their full potential.

“If I can have students and educators who go forth feeling more confident, prepared and able to take on challenges, knowing they have a support system that stems from the environment I helped to create, honestly that’s all I can ask,” she says.