Every graduating class includes people who seem to be building momentum early, but that momentum can take very different forms.
For one graduate, it may mean landing a role at a major technology company. For another, it may mean turning a student project into a real business, building a public media portfolio, pursuing international public service, or using a technical degree as a path into consulting.
The five Penn State graduates below stand out for exactly that reason. Each has already done meaningful work beyond the classroom, and each is entering a field where there is still plenty of room to grow.
This is not a ranking or a prediction of who will become the most successful. It is a look at five members of Penn State’s Class of 2026 whose early work gives people a reason to pay attention to what they do next.
1. Joseph Draper — Sports Broadcasting and Multimedia Journalism
For someone entering sports media, graduating with a degree is only part of the equation. Employers also want to see the work.
That is one reason Joseph Draper is worth watching.
Draper graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism after gaining experience through the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. His public website showcases his experience in broadcast journalism, athletic communications, and live-event coverage, while his portfolio gives visitors a chance to see that work for themselves.
His background goes beyond traditional play-by-play. Draper has experience with color commentary and sideline reporting, and he also writes, shoots, and edits video packages. His website showcases all the different roles Draper has experience with. Those combinations are useful in a sports media environment where the live broadcast is often only one part of the coverage. A single game can also produce interviews, digital clips, social content, postgame reporting, and longer video packages. Broadcasters who understand how those pieces fit together can bring more to an early-career role than a strong voice alone.
Draper’s path also shows how smaller assignments can build practical experience. Before graduating, he worked across high school and college athletics, where he gained experience filming games, tracking statistics, interviewing athletes and coaches, calling games, and supporting game-day communications.
The value of that background is not simply the number of different jobs he has done. It is that the work is visible. Someone evaluating Draper can look at the portfolio, watch the reel, and compare the finished work with the skills he lists.
For a young broadcaster, that is an important step. His next challenge will be turning that college and regional experience into a professional sports media career.
2. Maya Anderson — Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship
Maya Anderson finished Penn State with a decision that many new graduates never have to make: take a more traditional path into her field or commit full time to the company she started while still in school.
She chose the company.
Anderson graduated from Penn State in May 2026 with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. Instead of immediately entering the biotech industry, she decided to spend the summer building Vayla, a hair-accessory company that grew out of a student project.
The idea had already moved well beyond the classroom by graduation. Invent Penn State reported that Vayla had working prototypes, manufacturing plans, and a path toward launch. Anderson was also selected for the 2026 Summer Founders Program, where she received $15,000 to work on the company full time.
Vayla focuses on durable, biodegradable hair accessories designed to address problems such as slipping, breakage, and discomfort. The company also received additional recognition through Invent Penn State’s Inc.U Competition.
What makes Anderson interesting to watch is that she is now moving into the stage where a student startup has to prove itself in the real market.
Building a prototype is one challenge. Finding customers, controlling manufacturing costs, refining a product, and creating a company that can survive beyond startup programs are very different challenges.
Her biotechnology background also makes the story more interesting. She did not graduate with a traditional business degree and then start a consumer brand. Instead, she is applying a science-focused education to product development and entrepreneurship.
The next year should reveal whether Vayla can make the jump from a promising Penn State startup to a sustainable company.
3. Aniyah Bunn — Software Engineering
Aniyah Bunn is entering software engineering with the kind of experience many computer science students hope to gain before graduation.
Penn State’s Clark Scholars program identifies Bunn as part of its 2026 graduating class. She studied computer science while also completing a minor in engineering entrepreneurship and innovation. During college, she completed software engineering internships at Meta in 2024 and Microsoft in 2025.
Her public professional profile now describes her as a recent Penn State graduate and software engineer, while Penn State said she planned to return to Microsoft full time as a software engineer II.
Those internships alone give her a strong start, but her Penn State experience also included work outside traditional software development.
Bunn contributed to programs designed to support students entering engineering and computer science. She worked with the Engineering Summer Bridge Program, the Multicultural Engineering Program Orientation, and the Multicultural Innovators in Computer Science program.
That mix of technical experience, entrepreneurship, and mentorship makes her path worth following.
Early-career software engineers often have to decide how quickly they want to specialize. Some move deeply into one technical area. Others gravitate toward leadership, product development, security, artificial intelligence, or eventually entrepreneurship.
Bunn has already expressed an interest in continuing her education through certifications in areas including cybersecurity and machine learning.
With experience at two of the world’s largest technology companies before finishing college, she has a strong base from which to make those decisions.
4. Payton Smith — International Affairs and Public Service
Payton Smith is taking a very different route out of Penn State.
Smith graduated in May 2026 as a Schreyer Scholar with bachelor’s degrees in political science and global and international studies. She also completed minors in French and Francophone studies, psychology, and sociology.
Her next step takes her to Senegal through a Boren Fellowship, where she plans to deepen her French language skills and study the culture of Francophone West Africa. The Boren program supports intensive language and cultural study tied to areas important to U.S. national interests, and recipients commit to a period of public service afterward.
Smith’s interest in international work did not begin with the fellowship. Penn State reports that she studied abroad in Greece, South Africa, and France, completed an internship in Paris researching gender bias in artificial intelligence and cultural datasets, and conducted undergraduate research focused on issues involving identity, culture, gender, and power.
She has also made her long-term direction fairly clear. Smith told Penn State that she plans to pursue a career in diplomacy and hopes to join the U.S. Foreign Service. After her time in Senegal, she plans to continue her education at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
That makes her especially interesting to follow because the next stage of her career will be built around experience that is difficult to gain in a classroom.
International affairs depends on more than understanding policy. Language ability, cultural awareness, research, and the ability to operate across different environments all matter.
Smith is now moving from studying those subjects to living them.
5. Kason Patterson — Technology Consulting and Entrepreneurship
Kason Patterson studied computer science, but his time at Penn State gradually moved him toward the intersection of technology, business, and management.
Patterson was part of Penn State’s 2026 graduating Clark Scholars cohort and earned a computer science degree. While at the university, he completed research and internships involving artificial intelligence and machine learning and pursued entrepreneurship alongside his technical studies.
At the same time, he gained significant management experience outside the classroom. Penn State says Patterson managed more than 100 student staff members at the White Building Gym and worked for several years as a math learning assistant, grader, and teaching assistant.
Those experiences helped shift his interests toward business and people management.
Patterson later completed a technology consulting internship with PwC in New York City, and Penn State reported that he would return after graduation as an associate technology consultant.
His senior-year work also included a practical engineering project through Penn State’s Learning Factory. Patterson was part of a multidisciplinary team that developed an automated loading system for a custom puzzle manufacturer. The project received a Best Corporate Sponsor award at the university’s spring 2026 capstone showcase.
That combination of coding, consulting, management, and hands-on project work gives him several possible directions.
Technology consultants need enough technical knowledge to understand what can be built, but they also need to explain that technology to clients, understand business needs, work across teams, and help organizations make decisions.
Patterson’s background already sits between those worlds.
Penn State also says he has an interest in starting a business of his own, which could eventually give him another way to combine those skills.
Five Graduates, Five Very Different Starts
The most interesting thing about this group is how little their careers resemble one another.
Joseph Draper is building a career in sports broadcasting and multimedia journalism, with a public portfolio that shows experience both on air and behind the camera.
Maya Anderson is taking a biotechnology education into entrepreneurship and trying to turn a college startup into a real consumer company.
Aniyah Bunn enters software engineering after internships at Meta and Microsoft, with additional experience in entrepreneurship and mentorship.
Payton Smith is using her Penn State education as a starting point for language study, international experience, graduate education, and a planned career in diplomacy.
Kason Patterson is moving from computer science into technology consulting, where technical knowledge and business judgment increasingly overlap.
Their fields may be different, but their paths share something important.
None of these graduates waited until commencement to begin figuring out what their careers might look like. They used internships, student media, startup programs, research, international study, campus leadership, and real projects to build experience while they were still at Penn State.
That is probably the most useful takeaway for current students.
A degree matters, but the opportunities surrounding that degree can shape what happens next. The first job, fellowship, company, or assignment after graduation rarely defines an entire career, but it can create momentum.
These five Penn State graduates already have some of that momentum.
What they do with it from here is what makes them worth watching.