Plans are under way for a new Career Services Center at Penn State Wilkes-Barre that will provide students with comprehensive career planning and job seeking services. A major matching gift from Wilkes-Barre alumnus Richard K. "Ric" Struthers and his wife, Sharon, has jump-started the campus' fundraising effort to support the project.
The Struthers have pledged $1 million to Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Their gift will match 50 percent of the cost to build and furnish the new Career Services Center, up to a total commitment of $500,000. The remainder of their commitment will be split with $250,000 going to create the Struthers Family Trustee Scholarship supporting students at Penn State Wilkes-Barre with need. The additional $250,000 will go into an endowment by the Struthers Family, annually supporting the operational expenses of the new Career Services Center. (more)
On Thursday, Oct. 13, Penn State Wilkes-Barre honored 106 students who were awarded scholarships for the 2011-12 school year at the annual Scholarship Dinner held at Appletree Terrace. This year, Penn State Wilkes-Barre awarded 265 students approximately $730,000 in scholarships. (more)
Penn State Wilkes-Barre has received one of the largest scholarship gifts in its history from two of the University's most generous supporters, Rick and Sue Barry. The $1 million commitment from the San Rafael, Calif., couple to establish the Rick and Sue Barry Trustee Scholarship will leverage matching funds from Penn State and help more than 30 students with financial need each year. (more)
At the midway point of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, gifts from alumni and friends totaled almost $1.17 billion--more than half of the University-wide fundraising initiative's $2 billion goal. The announcement came today during a report to Penn State's Board of Trustees by Rodney P. Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni and relations. (more)
The Smeal College of Business has officially launched its faculty and staff initiative of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students with the creation of a new scholarship, announced at the initiative's official kick-off on Oct. 7. Smeal faculty and staff campaign co-chairs Ginger Breon, chief information officer, and Randy Woolridge, Goldman Sachs and Co. and Frank P. Smeal Endowed University Fellow, announced the establishment of the Smeal Faculty and Staff Trustee Scholarship at the kick-off luncheon. The scholarship, which is part of the University's Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, will support business students with financial need. (more)
Andree Ward and Mike Keebaugh fell in love with Penn State in 1963, soon after they enrolled as undergraduates, and with each other two years later at a Spring Week event on campus. They even got married, in 1967, in Eisenhower Chapel at University Park. Now, because Penn State provided them with opportunities for their careers and their life together, they have decided to do the same for others by presenting a million-dollar gift to the University's fundraising effort, For the Future, the Campaign for Penn State Students. (more)
For the first time in its history, Penn State has received more than $200 million in cash gifts from alumni and friends in a single fiscal year, and a record number of donors committed their support to the University during the same period. The announcement came Friday (July 9) in an annual report to the Board of Trustees by Peter Tombros, volunteer chair of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students. (more)
A $100,000 gift paid over five years from AT&T has created the first Trustee Scholarship in the College of Communications designated specifically for telecommunications students. Along with being the first for students focusing in that field, the scholarship also represents a proactive collaboration between different units at the University. The funding was derived from a business agreement between AT&T and Information Technology Services (ITS) at Penn State. (more)
Following up on its seven-year pledge of $2.1 million to support student scholarships across the University, the Penn State Alumni Association allocated the third installment of $300,000 to four campuses, one virtual campus and one college. (more)
Penn State undergraduate Mandie Schofield is completing her first year as a Schreyer Honors College student and is one of 11 Schreyer Scholars this year who received a Trustee Scholarship established by the University's Society of Distinguished Alumni. "Honestly, without the scholarship, I wouldn't be able to be here," she said. The society wants to make sure that financial support is available to help many more students like Mandie. To that end, its executive committee has decided to boost the society's scholarship endowment for Schreyer Honors College students to $1 million. (more)
