CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — English professor Hester Blum of Penn State University appeared on Jeopardy! at 7 p.m. on Dec. 6.

“I’ve always watched the show, I love the show, but for whatever reason I had never formally tried out before,” said Blum.

That changed, after a childhood friend told her about the popular game show’s call for its first ever Professors Tournament.

While Blum says other teachers have been trying out for years to get on the show, she just so happened to get lucky as this was her first time ever applying.

“I was more nervous than I expected to be. I normally don’t get any stage fright. I like performing and giving talks, but the experience of being on set both with the intensity and speed of the show but then the stop and start of the taping, was not a pacing I was familiar with but it was an amazing experience,” said Blum.

When asked what her favorite part was about being on the show, Blum said getting to meet her other colleagues that have now turned into friends.

“The other professes were all terrific, hilarious and generous, and smart and we ended up bonding and having an outstanding time over those few days,” said Blum.

As for what really impressed her about the show? Blum says how the producers chose faculty that represented every kind of higher education institute that you can have in the U.S.

“There were community colleges, HBCU’s, liberal arts colleges, technical colleges, religious schools military schools, large research universities like Penn State, regional state schools… It was really a tremendous range of school’s that I think is important for the public to see that education takes place in many different places throughout the country, and is in all cases performed and dedicated to by really smart people at all levels of the profession of higher education,” said Blum.

Blum says this week, will be the quarter final matches. Then, the five winners plus top 4 four money earners of this week’s game will advance to the semi-finals next week.

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