University Park, Pa. — More than 750 Penn State alumni and friends gathered Friday, Oct. 17, at the Hintz Family Alumni Center to dedicate the Alumni Walk, a brick walkway engraved with more than 3,800 names of alumni and their sentiments about Penn State.
The Walk, which runs between the historic University House and the newer main building of the Hintz Family Alumni Center, is a lasting legacy on campus for Alumni Association members, alumni groups and individuals and serves as a reminder to current students of their future role as alumni.
"The Alumni Walk bricks and pavers allow us to see individual women and men in the long line of Penn Staters who have arrived on campus, stood at childhood's gate, and been shaped by Penn State into who they are today," said Alumni Association President David Han. "Through this walkway, we will also be inspiring future generations of students."
Alumni Walk raised more than $1.3 million, the proceeds of which will be placed in the Alumni Association's Student Endowment Fund. The Student Endowment Fund will help fund student groups affiliated with the Alumni Association: Lion Ambassadors, Blue & White Society, and the FastStart mentoring program for underrepresented students.
President Graham Spanier praised the Alumni Association on the success of Alumni Walk. "This beautiful and distinctive walkway welcomes visitors to the Hintz Family Alumni Center. The leadership of hundreds of alumni benefactors made the Alumni Center possible, and it is fitting that their names are connected with the thousands of others permanently inscribed on this walkway," Spanier said.
Making up the Alumni Walk are red bricks and bluestone pavers laid out in a distinctive herringbone pattern with a diamond-shaped granite paver centered within each of the 20 fields or squares. For more information about the Alumni Walk project, visit http://www.alumni.psu.edu/alumniwalk online.
With more than 160,000 members, the Penn State Alumni Association is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world. The Penn State Alumni Association organizes hundreds of annual events and programs designed to inform, involve and inspire Penn State alumni. For more information on the Alumni Association, go to http://www.alumni.psu.edu/ online.