Matt Mathias 

Sports Editor 

mcm5909@psu.edu

My name is Matt Mathias and I’m one of the sports editor this year. I’m a Senior Communications student and am planning on graduating in the spring. However, my college journey hasn’t been so straight forward. COVID-19 impacted me in ways that I’m sure it had impacted all of you. 

Before COVID even happened I had decided that I was not happy with where I was and what I was going to do in college, so after the fall semester of 2019 I took a leave of absence. I worked while I was away from Behrend in an attempt to figure out what direction I wanted to take myself career wise. I settled on Communications but not before COVID took the world by storm. 

In fact, I spent the entire 2020-2021 academic year (fall and spring) studying and taking classes from home. It was hard but I did well entering the major and put myself in a good position for this semester. It was so strange for me to come back to Behrend after practically two whole years of being removed from the campus atmosphere. A lot of my old friends have graduated and/or moved on from Behrend so this truly felt like a fresh start. Since coming back I’m happy to say that I’ve found a home with the Beacon and they have helped me find some fun in campus life as well as teach me new things about news. If you see me around campus be sure to say hello!