Penn State alumni William and Jeri Simon have established the Simon Family Trustee Scholarship in the Penn State Smeal College of Business. With gift-matching funds from the H.J. Heinz foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports charitable giving by all H.J. Heinz Co. employees, the endowment will be valued at $50,000, and its impact will be doubled with support from the University's Trustee Matching Scholarship Program. William Simon is vice president, R&D operations, at H.J. Heinz Co. in Pittsburgh. He has been with Heinz since earning his M.B.A. from Smeal in 1994. He also holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from Smeal, where he graduated in 1989. Jeri Simon is a 1990 graduate of Smeal with a bachelor's degree in management. She is a history teacher at the Ellis School, an independent girls' school in Pittsburgh. (more)
Penn State Beaver held its spring commencement Friday, May 4 in the Student Union Building auditorium. Fifty-eight students received master's, baccalaureate, and associate degrees. The academic processional and recessional and convention of proceedings were led by Daniel W. Smith, instructor in business. Donna J. Kuga, director of academic affairs, presented the degrees, which were conferred by Chancellor Gary B. Keefer in conjunction with John Feraco, president of the Penn State Beaver Advisory Board and manufacturing leader for NOVA Chemicals, Inc. Keefer also introduced the commencement speaker, Julian Gray, certified elder law attorney. (more)
Penn State has received a significant grant from Chevron Technology Corporation to support student programs, research infrastructure, and scholarships/fellowships in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the Smeal College of Business, as well as program support for the Palmer Museum of Art and THON. (more)
Karen Barr is one of six Penn State faculty members who received the 2012 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching. Barr is a senior instructor in business at Penn State Beaver. The award, named after Penn State's seventh president, honors excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level. A member of the Penn State Beaver faculty since 2000, Barr receives consistently high Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness, particularly with respect to the clarity of her presentations, her interest in teaching the course and her willingness to help students make progress. 'I try to make students see it is not only important to get good grades, but it is also important to think of the class as a place to learn about life,' she said. Although her advising load is officially around 65 to 70 students per year, more than 90 students seek her assistance on a routine basis, according to one nominator. Barr can be contacted at kcb10@psu.edu or 724-773-3869. (more)
Penn State Lehigh Valley Continuing Education is offering a new one-day conference aimed at business leaders. "Best Practices in the Workplace: Coaching and Mentoring for Leaders" will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 19, at the campus in Center Valley. Registration begins at 8 a.m. (more)
The Penn State Smeal College of Business is hosting a research symposium on April 30 featuring some of the nation's leading risk management scholars. The symposium will focus on research on risk management and catastrophic events, which are events of low probability but of substantial economic impact (e.g., natural disasters). The symposium starts at 8 a.m. on April 30 in Smeal's Business Building on Penn State's University Park campus. (more)
Holly Moncavage, a junior in Penn State Law, will use her labor law fellowship for a summer position at The Workplace Project in New York, helping migrant workers pursue lost wages and unite for better living and working conditions. More than 500 people from 125 law schools applied for the nearly 70 fellowships that were issued by the Peggy Browning Fund. (more)
A team of MBA students from the Penn State Smeal College of Business bested teams from seven leading business schools to take home first place in the Supply Chain Management Case Competition at Rutgers Business School, held March 30 in Piscataway, N.J. Smeal's team of Mehul Pathak, Raghavan Parthasarathy, Rashmi Sharma, and Yujia Wang beat out teams from Lehigh University, the University of Maryland, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rider University, Rutgers University, and Syracuse University. (more)
Penn State alumnus Louis Gatto and his wife, Katherine Gatto, have committed $100,000 to establish the Gatto Trustee Scholarship in the Smeal College of Business. With support from the University's Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, the gift's impact will be doubled, effectively resulting in the equivalent of a $200,000 scholarship fund for undergraduates with financial need who are studying abroad. (more)
Angel investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will convene at Penn State on April 20 for the fourth annual Nittany Lion Early Stage Venture Capital Conference. The agenda will include three panel discussions focused on what to expect when starting a business, the importance of intellectual property in valuation, and the role of corporate venture capital in innovation. The conference begins with a breakfast reception at 8 a.m. at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus. A complete list of panelists, the conference agenda, and registration information are available online at www.smeal.psu.edu/ventureconference. (more)
