What's in a name? The age-old question makes an attempt to understand what someone's name means and how it defines them.
Schreyer Honors College student Maya Evanitsky is taking a unique approach to answering that question. Evanitsky, Dr. George Perry and a team of undergraduate students will research and compare the "original" Nittany Lion's DNA sequence in comparison to other ancient and current lion populations in the United States.
The "original" Nittany Lion that inspired the beloved Penn State icon is a brush lion that was killed in 1856 by farmer Samuel E. Brush. Now extinct, the brush [Nittany] represents more than just Penn State's mascot, it is a small piece of Central Pennsylvania's history.