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Penn State's 14th annual Road Scholars Tour kicked off Monday (May 11) at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel with a brief history of Pennsylvania and the University by Jackie Esposito, University archivist, followed by an overview of Penn State Outreach by Wayne Smutz, associate vice president for academic outreach and executive director of Continuing and Distance Education.
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Once the new and newly tenured faculty tour participants boarded a charter bus bound for points westward, President Graham Spanier offered his perspectives on University-related questions from the audience.
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Lori Bechtel-Wherry, chancellor of Penn State Altoona, hosted lunch for the group and offered a brief history of the campus, which has been educating Penn State students for 70 years.
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Penn State Altoona's 150-acre campus, on the grounds of a former amusement park, is centered around a picturesque pond that features the red brick Edith Davis Eve Chapel.
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Students such as Lion Ambassador Jason Bankert, a junior studying immunology and infectious disease, gave walking tours of Penn State Altoona following lunch in the Port Sky Cafe.
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About 20 minutes south of Altoona, the Johnstown National Flood Museum -- a National Park site -- recalls the May 31, 1889, disaster caused when the earthen South Fork Dam failed, killing 2,209 people. Remnants of the dam can be seen at the end of a wooden fence; on the hill above is the museum and restored Unger House.
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Penn State Altoona's Jared Frederick, a senior history major who has self-published three books about Pennsylvania or Civil War history, and, behind him, Marc Harris, professor of history and head of the campus's Division of Arts and Humanities, offered insight into the causes of the Great Johnstown Flood.
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Approximately 50 faculty representing 13 Penn State campuses are traveling on this year's Road Scholars Tour. They awaiting the viewing of an award-winning film, "Black Friday," that depicted the magnitudue of the Johnstown Flood's devastation.
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The last stop of the first day of the 2009 Road Scholars Tour took the travelers further west to Penn State Greater Allegheny, which has been designated an international campus with a diverse student population. The faculty group dined in the Student Community Center (pictured) and overnighted in the campus's residence hall.
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About 800 students attend Penn State Greater Allegheny. Lion Ambassador Elizabeth Davis, a junior majoring in health policy and administration (standing in front of the wooden podium), showed her small tour group the largest classroom on campus, which is in Main Building.
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At dinner in the Student Community Center, Chancellor Curtis Porter welcomed the Road Scholars to Penn State Greater Allegheny, over which he has presided for 10 years.
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Staff of Penn State Housing and Food Services prepared entrees at three stations, which offered entrees such as grilled salmon with mango chutney, orzo, asparagus and cherry tomatoes.
