For years, Thane Fake (1998, Public Service) has taken off every Thursday and Friday of a Penn State home football weekend to travel back to Happy Valley. Familiar story, right? Well, not quite.

When back on campus, Thane orders pizza and sets up shop in his own conference room — usually in Pond Lab — to talk to students majoring in political science about working in federal government and helping them apply for internships and jobs through https://www.usajobs.gov/. Thane continued his longstanding tradition Sept. 1-2, despite his ongoing battle with cancer.

The Penn State Department of Political Science recently awarded Thane its 2016 Public Service Award for his dedicated service as a mentor to students in the department and the College of the Liberal Arts. “He is so effective at helping students see the value of a liberal arts education by using his own path as an example of what you can do when you are willing to work hard and know how to learn,” said Amy Linch, Penn State lecturer in political science.

Thane received a presidential appointment as staff assistant to then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in 1999 and then served as a budget analyst in the Justice Management Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from 2001 to 2011. He is currently an emergency management specialist in the Security and Emergency Planning, Continuity Assurance Section of DOJ’s Justice Management Division. Thane also wrote the DOJ’s emergency management plan when it became apparent the department needed one in the wake of 9/11.