UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Alumni gifts make a transformative difference in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and no one knows this better than Denny Gioia, chairman of the Department of Management and Organization (M&O).
In the last five years, philanthropy has made it possible for Gioia and his colleagues to recruit and retain the best students and faculty in a very competitive market, as well as provide curriculum in response to student demand.
“Our donors have immensely improved our ability to serve students and help students financially, to retain our star faculty, to create new programs and to target market needs that better prepare our students for their next steps. We couldn’t operate at a top 10 level without them,” said Gioia.
Last fall, Smeal benefited from a gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor, a significant portion of which went directly to support the activities of the M&O Department. These endowments help M&O attract the very best undergraduates by providing scholarships to students with financial need who have demonstrated academic excellence. They also support his efforts to bring the best doctoral students to campus by generating the resources needed to offer compensation packages that allow Smeal to compete for elite candidates.