This week's top stories from across Penn State:
Transforming Education: As Basim Razzo shared the story of how he lost his family when American-led forces mistakenly bombed his home, many students were moved to tears as he explained that, despite all that happened to him, he did not blame the American people for his tragedy and could not bring himself to hate anyone for what happened to him. Instead, he made a profound decision: he forgave.
Three Plus One: Penn State Greater Allegheny will offer the third year of the energy engineering major, beginning in Fall 2018. This will be the first 3+1 Energy Engineering program at any Penn State campus and will allow students to remain at Greater Allegheny through their junior year, then move to University Park to complete their final year of study.
Mumps: Penn State University Health Services (UHS) reports 12 cases of students with mumps on the University Park campus within the last several weeks. All have been isolated in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Pennsylvania Department of Health protocols and recommendations.
Lavender Graduation: More than 25 LGBTQA students walked the stage in recognition of their graduation and achievements while studying at Penn State. Each also had the opportunity to thank a significant supporter in their life – a person who had provided support throughout their journey both within and outside of the classroom.
Puerto Rico: When Hurricanes Irma and Maria pummeled Puerto Rico, dismantling power on about 80 percent of the island home to approximately 3.3 million people, Nikhil Bharadwaj had an idea. He began working on creating what he refers to as “Solar Saver” boxes for Puerto Rico, to assist the nearly 50,000 residents who were still without power.
Passenger Seat: A team of engineers worked diligently for months designing a new passenger car seat for the Ford Motor Company, harnessing years of education to create a finished prototype. But they weren’t professionals working in Detroit — the team members were all undergraduate seniors at Penn State.
New Beginnings: Penn Staters Sultan Aljohani, Erica Johnson and Ellis Stump are the three winners of Penn State University Libraries’ “New Beginnings” short story writing contest. Their stories, along with those by seven writers receiving honorable mentions, will be placed on the Libraries’ five Short Edition short story dispensers on the University Park campus and inside Schlow Centre Region Library in downtown State College.