With job layoffs mounting by the thousands almost daily, many families worry that it will happen to them. So a family-finance specialist with Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences points out that proactive strategies can buffer a family against looming layoffs. Marilyn Furry, who develops financial-education extension programs as an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, explains that facing a potential layoff together can reduce expenses even as it gives a family an active way to confront the fear that the threat generates.

Penn State Cooperative Extension was recognized with the state's "Keeping Pennsylvania Growing" award at the recent 2009 Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. Extension was one of five award recipients. Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff said the awards emphasize how the agriculture industry is incorporating cutting-edge technologies and the many ways agribusinesses are infusing the state's economy with jobs and capital investments while contributing to a safe food supply.

A mandatory state-wide food safety course designed to meet the food certification requirements for food service managers, chefs, caterers, cooks, health officials, and inspectors will be offered by Penn State DuBois in partnership with the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

More than 100 students from the College of Communications will collaborate to produce live streaming coverage online of the annual Penn State Dance Marathon. Telecommunications students in two courses -- COMM 498F Webcast Production and COMM 383 Production Administration, both of which are taught by senior lecturer Maria Cabrera-Baukus -- comprise the core of the production crew for the THON webcast. In addition, several other students from different majors will assist with the effort, including broadcast journalism students who are members of the Radio Television News Directors Association.

Four students from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, have the honor of dancing at THON 2009 -- Penn State's 46-hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon to fight pediatric cancer. This year's dancers are sophomores Alyssa Beck from Wattsburg, Pa., who is studying marketing and management, Allison Shearer from New Castle, Pa., who is studying public relations, and Pittsburgh natives Julie Colvin, a communication major, and Jamie Mayer, a nutrition major. Beck and Shearer comprise dancer team no. 230 while Colvin and Mayer are dancer team no. 231. THON, Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20.

Penn State Abington's Next Top Lion contest was a huge success not only in entertainment value but by raising more than $500 for THON -- the largest student run philanthropy in the world, which raises money and awareness for the fight against pediatric cancer. Community Outreach Workers (COW), the student organization that sponsored the Next Top Lion contest was thrilled with the success of the show.