David Rusenko, co-founder and CEO of Weebly and class of 2007 graduate of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State will deliver the keynote address at the 2015 IST commencement ceremony this May.
Rusenko, who was twice named to Forbes’ “30 under 30” list and is the youngest recipient of the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award (2010), has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Newsweek, NBC and the BBC. His start-up company, Weebly.com, which garners more than 100 million visits per month, enables anyone to create a high-quality website with no HTML experience.
Mary Beth Rosson, interim dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, sees Rusenko’s visit as a coming of age for IST, since this will be the first time an alumni of the college will serve as commencement speaker.
“This year’s commencement speech will be a very special occasion for the students. Sitting in their seats, they can imagine themselves up there addressing a future graduating class,” said Rosson. “What a thought!”
Indeed, Rusenko is poised to offer encouragement for achieving success to graduates as well as a blueprint for entrepreneurial vision. In addition to owning a successful start-up, Rusenko is also the youngest member of IST’s advisory board and has established the largest scholarship fund in the college’s 12-year history, the David Rusenko Emerging Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Scholarships. Applications for both scholarships are now being accepted for the 2015-16 academic year; the deadline to apply is Feb. 28. (For more information: http://bit.ly/1Dhvofk.)
And though he is resides in San Francisco where Weebly is based, Rusenko remains accessible to the college and to the students of IST by serving on the advisory board and playing a major role in the concept and growth of IST’s signature annual event, Start-Up Week.
“Many students have met him personally during his previous Start-Up visits and presentations; many others will meet him at this year’s event in April 2015,” said Rosson.
The College of IST will hold its commencement ceremony at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus.
As keynote speaker at this spring’s ceremony, Rusenko’s compelling story of entrepreneurial drive and accomplishment should prove to be a message graduates won’t soon forget.