In celebration of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Penn State Schuylkill gathered at the Schuylkill Country Club, Orwigsburg, Pa.
Penn State Schuylkill raised more than $4.5 million toward this effort, achieving its goal more than a year ago. Certified public accountant William G. Heckman and Katrina Ost Heckman served as co-chairs of the campaign at the local level.
E. Lee Beard, an honorary alumna of Penn State and vice-chair of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, was the featured speaker. Beard was named 2009 Fundraising Volunteer of the Year. This award honors the leadership of alumni and friends in securing philanthropic support for the University. Her involvement with Penn State began when she moved to the Hazleton area in 1993 as president and CEO of First Federal Bank. Along with her husband, William W. Beard III, she became a supporter of Penn State Hazleton. As volunteer committee chair, Lee led the campus' successful component of Penn State's previous University-wide fundraising effort, the Grand Destiny campaign. Beard was named an honorary alumna of the University in 1999. Over the last decade, she has continued to be a top volunteer for fundraising initiatives at the Hazleton campus and throughout the University, even while heading up her own consulting company, The Henlee Group, and serving as a leader for organizations such as Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania.
The University-wide For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students began in 2007 and has raised nearly $2.2 billion, exceeding its $2 billion goal. 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, and it will officially close June 30, 2014.