Summer in State College

Hi everyone!

My name is Elise Denning and I am interning at Penn State this summer. I am from Lawrence, Kansas and attend Kansas State University, majoring in Hotel Restaurant Management.

Some fun facts about me:
-I have webbed toes
-Elise is not my first, and legal, name
-I will put Nutella on just about anything
-If I am not napping, watching Netflix, or playing with my dog outside, I will be reading

My love for food started around age 14 when I began to watch the food network religiously. My parents were all too happy to start buying ingredients for me to make new recipes. For Christmas dinner that year I made my first "fancy" dinner for the family - stuffed beef tenderloin with herb butter by Cooks Illustrated.

Doesn't look too bad huh?

Okay back to the internship. I am now in State College, PA and it is beautiful here. Surprisingly cold weather, it was 39 degrees when we went to work at the dining center this morning! Granted, it was 4:45 a.m. I have really enjoyed being here in a completely new place. I have never been to this part of the country, excluding one trip to NYC at age 13.

Our first orientation day for NACUFS had our group of interns do a scavenger hunt around campus and downtown. We had a nice time walking around and even interacted with a few locals on some harder-to-find items. My favorite stop was a mural called "Inspiration" by a local artist named Michael Pilato. We were lucky enough to catch him working on the mural and he offered to give us a "tour" of the huge painting. It was hard to wrap my brain around all of the detail involved in each person depicted in the mural. There are so many faces who have positively impacted the community and Penn State. The artist painted for 48 hours straight on 9/11 and has continued the tradition each year. He also features many servicemen in the painting.



There is an incredible amount of detail, including hand prints all over



The artist in action



Just for some perspective - this thing is HUGE!



I think Penn State is going to be a great fit for me. And if I had any doubts, they have campus-made ice cream... that is incredible. More to come!