From playing softball to her time on campus studying supply chain management, Maddie Seitz knows what it takes to succeed in the business industry. 

Seitz made her way to Penn State’s campus in the fall of 2015 after she was recruited to pitch for Penn State softball. She knew Penn State was home the minute she stepped onto campus during her junior year of high school.

“Just like all current students, when the first time you step on Penn State campus, it’s an easy yes to say you want to go to school there,” Seitz said. “The athletics, the academics, everything… It’s the whole package.”

After arriving on campus and getting settled in with the softball team, the next big step was to figure out what Seitz wanted to major in. While she didn’t know it initially, once she took “Intro to Supply Management 301” with Chris Solo, she was sold on the industry.

Seitz spent the next three years serving as both a student-athlete and a Smeal College of Business student until graduating with a degree in supply chain logistics and a minor in MIS systems in the summer of 2018.

“There are big moments and big memories and things that I’m very proud of, like what my softball team accomplished or what I got to do at the business school. But a lot of the in-between stuff is what I think about,” Seitz said. “So walking in between classes and meeting at the HUB, as well as eating at different restaurants downtown. Those were the moments I got to build those relationships with the people that I stayed connected with.”

Seitz now works for Kohler in Wisconsin as a supply chain manager for North America Network Design, deployment, and cross-border operations. In 2023, she won the Women MAKE Award for Emerging Leader.

Discipline and responsibility are the two words Seitz reiterated over and over as she described her journey. These two factors are what helped shape her success.

“You need to have a balance with school and sports… You’ve got goals in academics, but you also have goals in athletics,” Seitz said. “Having that discipline and responsibility from softball, especially in a leadership role as a starting pitcher, helped me transition into the professional world.”

Seitz emphasized the importance of not only being an elite player on the field, as she had been named Big Ten Player of the Week several times throughout her career, but also the need to be an elite player in the classroom. Seitz accomplished this by making the dean’s list each semester at Penn State. 

Furthermore, Seitz’s athletic career taught her how to work with different types of people and different personalities while working for a collective purpose.

“In an industry like supply chain or manufacturing, everything you do is teamwork, so I am grateful for my foundation from Penn State softball,” Seitz said. 

The supply chain industry is a team sport in itself as you work with a group of people to solve problems and achieve big ideas. Learning about the industry in school taught Seitz the importance of putting yourself out there, staying in touch with professors who make a big impact on your education, and taking full advantage of the resources Penn State provides to students. 

“I went to the Smeal supply chain career fair in 2017, met my current boss Mike Nasif, a fellow Penn State alumni, joined Kohler’s leadership development program summer of 2018, and this July, I celebrate seven years with the company,” Seitz said. “I am very grateful for the opportunities Penn State has provided for me both athletically and professionally.”

Seitz makes her return every year to the Penn State Career Fair, hoping to recruit other Nittany Lions to Kohler. She often guest lectures in Solo’s honors class anytime the opportunity presents itself. 

“I fell in love with supply chain because of that class and getting to come back and teach those students — give them a case study, get them to ask them questions about what they’re learning and how it ties to Kohler — it’s been fun,” said Seitz. 

Seitz also found love during her time here at Penn State. Seitz’s husband, Jason, was a golf management major in the school of hospitality management.  He now also works at Kohler as an assistant golf professional.

“We lead the Penn State crowd out here in little Sheboygan, Wisconsin,” she said. 

All in all, Seitz loves everything about Penn State. Between her time here as both a collegiate athlete and business student, falling in love, and now returning each year to guest lecture, she owes a lot of her success and happiness to Happy Valley.