Before they became famous, these public figures spent time in Pennsylvania classrooms.
Pennsylvania is home to dozens of colleges and universities that help students define their paths and grow as people. Many of these schools have also shaped famous names whose influence extends far beyond the classroom. We’ve put together a list of eight public figures—whom you may recognize from the TV screen or the history books—who spent time in the commonwealth before stepping into the spotlight.
John Legend (University of Pennsylvania)
Singer-songwriter and pianist John Legend is one of only 28 people to have won each of the major performing arts awards—an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony—a status known by the acronym EGOT. He also went to college in Pennsylvania, enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia at the age of 16, when he was then known as John Stephens.
At Penn, he studied English with a focus on African American literature and was president of the a cappella group The Counterparts. He also met singer Lauryn Hill while at Penn and played piano on her acclaimed album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
In a commencement address to the Penn graduating class of 2014, Legend explained how following graduation, he and got a typical office job, but “couldn’t shake” his passion for music. He said he “followed the path that the Penn graduate was supposed to take,” but wasn’t happy until he committed entirely to music (and eventually adopted his stage name). In fact, it was his college roommate, a cousin of Kanye West, who helped Legend get his big break.
Fred Rogers (University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary)
Beloved Pittsburgh neighbor Fred Rogers—better known as Mister Rogers—built his groundbreaking career in children’s television after studying at both the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Child Development, earning degrees that shaped his gentle, psychologically informed approach to children’s media.
As a Presbyterian minister, Rogers practiced his ministry by reaching children through the television screen. And at Pitt, Rogers met professor and child psychologist Margaret McFarland, who helped shape his thinking about child development—and thus the overall philosophy of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” for which she served as a consultant for decades.
Quinta Brunson (Temple University)
Quinta Brunson, creator and star of the hit show “Abbott Elementary,” is a Philadelphia native who went to college locally at North Philly’s Temple University. In 2024, Brunson became the first Black woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in more than 40 years, and just the second overall.
The actress and comedian explored comedy at Temple by participating in the student-produced sketch comedy show “Temple SMASH,” which airs on Temple University Television. While she left school early to pursue a comedy career in Los Angeles, Temple awarded her an honorary degree in Fine Arts in 2024.
Andy Warhol (Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University)
One of the most famous artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol, graduated from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology—now Carnegie Mellon University—in 1949. He was reportedly the first in his family to attend college, and rather than fine art, he studied commercial art, a field that would influence much of the pop art—like his Campbell’s Soup cans series—for which Warhol became known.
During his college years, Warhol joined the Modern Dance Club as the only male member, served as art editor of the student magazine Cano, and developed his signature blotted line technique. Soon after graduating, Warhol moved to New York to begin his career.
Keegan-Michael Key (Pennsylvania State University)
Actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key, who gained widespread recognition for being half of the sketch comedy dup “Key and Peele,” honed his artistry in Pennsylvania. After earning a bachelor’s degree at the University of Detroit Mercy in Michigan, Key enrolled in Pennsylvania State University for the Master of Fine Arts in theater program.
Key returned to Penn State in 2014 to receive an Alumni Fellow Award and told the Alumni Association that being back on campus felt “like putting on a wonderful, comfortable pair of pants.” He also said his Penn State education allowed him to look at comedy “in a different way, in a historical context, that I didn’t previously.”
To this day, Key is a dedicated fan of Penn State football; he served as a guest picker for ESPN’s College GameDay in 2024 and regularly delighted the Nittany Lions community with his impression of former head coach James Franklin.
Pope Leo XIV (Villanova University)
Did you know that the new pope is not only an American from Chicago, but that he also went to college in Pennsylvania? Pope Leo XIV, the first pope born in the U.S., attended Villanova University, a private Catholic school in the Philadelphia suburbs. At Villanova, he majored in mathematics explored the priesthood, and discovered a love of driving (necessary for anyone regularly traveling between Chicago and Philadelphia by car). Unsurprisingly, according to The New York Times, some of the university church services that the future pope attended were “interrupted by shouts of ‘Hoagie Man!’ when a guy selling subs passed by.”
Amelia Earhart (Ogontz School, now Penn State Abington)
Amelia Earhart, the famed aviator who in 1932 became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean—and who tragically disappeared in her 1937 quest to become the first to circumnavigate the globe—was one of the country’s first celebrities. The famous pilot also briefly attended school in Pennsylvania at Montgomery County’s private Ogontz School for Young Ladies.
After enrolling at Ogontz in 1916, Earhart served as class vice president, joined the campus Red Cross chapter, butted heads with the headmistress in an effort to make sororities more inclusive, and was known to climb onto the dormitory roof to look at the stars. But before graduating in 1918, Earhart left Ogontz to join the war effort as U.S. participation in World War I ramped up.
The Ogontz School closed in 1950, and the site was donated to the Pennsylvania State University system. It’s now known as Penn State Abington.
Tory Burch (University of Pennsylvania)
Fashion designer Tory Burch, founder of the eponymous women’s fashion empire, is from Chester County’s Valley Forge and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history and joined the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. Even though she didn’t study fashion, it was a major interest during her college years.
“She was very bohemian,” a former college roommate recalled for a Vanity Fair profile of Burch. “But she also had this equestrian-Hermès thing going on [and] [s]he was always accessorized, like a French or Italian woman,” the roommate said. Burch herself said her peers called her college style “Torywear,” noting another friend described it as “Half preppy and half jock—or prock.”
