The Smeal College of Business has officially launched its faculty and staff initiative of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students with the creation of a new scholarship, announced at the initiative's official kick-off on Oct. 7.
Smeal faculty and staff campaign co-chairs Ginger Breon, chief information officer, and Randy Woolridge, Goldman Sachs and Co. and Frank P. Smeal Endowed University Fellow, announced the establishment of the Smeal Faculty and Staff Trustee Scholarship at the kick-off luncheon. The scholarship, which is part of the University's Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, will support business students with financial need and has already received two pledges of $25,000 each from Breon and Dennis Sheehan, associate dean for MBA and executive education.
The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program maximizes the impact of private giving while directing funds to students as quickly as possible, meeting the urgent need for scholarship support. In this groundbreaking philanthropic model, Penn State matches 5 percent of the total pledge or gift at the time a Trustee Scholarship is created, making funds available immediately for student awards. This University match, which is approximately equal to the endowment's annual spendable income, continues in perpetuity, doubling the support available for students with financial need.
"The hope is that all members of the Smeal community will contribute to this scholarship or to the program or initiative at Penn State that is most meaningful to them or their family," said James B. Thomas, the John and Becky Surma Dean of the Smeal College of Business. "Faculty and staff are asked to participate because they know the University best, their contributions add needed resources, and their support resonates with other alumni and friends who are asked to contribute."
For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students is directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. The University is engaging Penn State's alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University's tradition of quality. The campaign's top priority is keeping a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. For the Future is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State's history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.