Administration

Scholarship donors and beneficiaries break bread together at Penn State Fayette

The Office of Campus Development at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, hosted its seventh annual Scholarship Donor Dinner Oct. 23, providing an opportunity for scholarship recipients to interact with their benefactors.

This event was spearheaded by Penn State Fayette’s Director of Campus Development Lori Omatick, who said, “The idea was to have the students benefitting from the scholarships to sit down and actually meet the donors who provide the scholarships.” Omatick said that this is important because it not only gives the recipients an opportunity to express their gratitude but they also are able to tell donors exactly how scholarships help with their education.

At Penn State Fayette, a significant percentage of students receive some type of financial assistance. According to Financial Aid Officer Rick Van Buren, more than 90 percent of students enrolled at The Eberly Campus qualify for aid. Van Buren said that 277 students received more than $630,000 in private scholarships for the 2014-15 academic year.

One such student is Keith Medley, who received a Trustee Scholarship from the Advisory Board of Penn State Fayette. This award is based on academic merit.  Medley, who is a Navy veteran and a junior majoring in human development and family studies, said that the scholarship has relieved the burden of paying for college. He said, “The Trustee Scholarship allowed me not to have to get a part-time job to pay for college expenses.”

Penn State Fayette students are fortunate to attend a college where generous individuals from the community fund more than a dozen private scholarships, and they got to interact with a number of them at this year’s Scholarship Donor Dinner. Some of the donors who shared a meal with their beneficiaries this year were Joseph Hardy III, Jeff and Jennifer Erdely, and the Uniontown Hospital Auxiliary, represented by Sally Spegar and Lois Detweiler.

Attorney Wayne Port, who has established the Port Family Public Service Award at Penn State Fayette, addressed the group on behalf of the donors present. Port spoke of the impact that scholarships have on those who otherwise might not afford college, and stressed the importance of giving back. He said, “I hope that the students who benefit from today’s scholarships will learn from the example of others and take the initiative to make educational assistance available to students of the future.”

No list of Penn State Fayette’s benefactors would be complete without mentioning the Eberly family, who have been responsible for establishing the campus’s two largest scholarship endowment funds: the Eberly Family Scholarship and the Eberly Family Scholarship in Business. For the 2014-15 academic year, these two endowments are helping 97 Penn State Fayette students.

Several Eberly family members attended the Scholarship Donor Dinner. They sat with winners of Eberly Family scholarships, including Kaytlyne Povlik, who received roughly $3,000, based on financial need. Povlik said that this scholarship helps her to pay for books and commuting expenses.

Povlik talked at length with Robert Eberly Jr., who was interested in knowing more about her studies and what she hopes to do after graduating. She said, “I also learned a little bit about him and his life experiences and how he got to where he is today. He said it was through hard work.”

Povlik said that although she previously had sent Eberly a thank-you letter, it was nice to have had the opportunity to meet him in person and express her gratitude for his family’s generosity. She said, “It is just a great overall experience to have everything that Penn State can offer me -- and it is all based on that scholarship.”

Last Updated November 5, 2014