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 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)
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. has become the first National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) fraternity or sorority to endow fully a scholarship at Penn State. The Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Delta Theta Alumni Association Scholarship, endowed with a $50,000 gift, will be awarded to students who are members in good standing of the Delta Theta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. (more)
Penn State President Rodney Erickson announced that 280 alumni, friends, administrators, faculty, and staff have made commitments totaling over $3 million to honor Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, for her 20 years of leadership in the college. More than 80 percent of the commitments are targeted to graduate education, one of the dean's top fundraising priorities in the current University-wide fundraising effort, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students.
Terrence M. and Kim Pegula, who committed $88 million in 2010 to launch Penn State's entry into NCAA Division I hockey and construction on a state-of-the-art arena, have raised their total support for the initiative to $102 million. The additional $14 million gift was announced by Terry Pegula at the April 20 groundbreaking for the Pegula Ice Arena. The Pegulas' total commitment includes $13 million for endowed scholarships supporting Penn State men's hockey players in addition to $89 million for the facility. (more)
Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has received a $400,000 gift -- the largest from a graduate in its 13-year history -- from San Francisco CEO and IST alumnus David Rusenko. The gift will create the David Rusenko Scholarship for Entrepreneurship, which will help IST students to launch their own companies while they are still in school.
"IST has done a tremendous job creating well-rounded technical graduates," said Rusenko, a 2007 graduate and co-founder of San Francisco firm Weebly. "I'm excited to help encourage students to think seriously about creating and joining startups." (more)
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has surpassed the $200 million mark in its current $300 million fundraising initiative, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Hershey Medical Center. (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)
A recent survey of fundraising results places Penn State 21st among all colleges and universities nationwide. Released by the Council for Aid to Education, the list ranks more than 1,000 institutions based on their receipts in fiscal year 2011, which ended on June 30. The University's total of more than $270 million placed it ahead of nine Big Ten peers, including the Michigan and Ohio State, as well as several Ivy League institutions. (more)
Laura L. Rothkopf, widow of Michael H. Rothkopf, Smeal Chaired Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, has committed $334,000 to establish the Michael H. and Laura L. Rothkopf Early Career Professorship in Supply Chain Management in the Penn State Smeal College of Business. With matching funds from the Penn State Faculty Endowment Challenge, the total endowment is worth $500,000. The first recipient of the Rothkopf Early Career Professorship is Christopher Craighead. (more)
