Eight Penn State faculty-student teams are partnering with community organizations across Pennsylvania to address locally identified challenges — from health access and food security to public safety, education and responsible technology use. These groups are the newest recipients of the McCourtney Presidential Public Impact Research Awards, a program developed under the Presidential Strategic Initiative for Public Impact Research in partnership with the Office of the President, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative.
Penn State alums Craig and Heidi Ritter have made a gift of over $1 million to establish and endow the Ritter O’Brien Excellence Fund at Penn State Harrisburg.
Penn State alumnus Sean Stanton, class of 2009, has made a commitment to establish the Eleanor M. Stanton and Patricia C. Edrington Legacy Scholarship/Igwé Family Matching Scholarship in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The gift is in honor of the service legacy of his mother and grandmother.
Penn State Harrisburg alumnus Ronald S. Vaughn has pledged an estate gift of $4.39 million, which will endow the Ronald S. Vaughn Opportunity Scholarship for undergraduate students studying business.
More than 70 faculty and staff members at Penn State Harrisburg participated in a challenge during the spring semester to promote healthier living, a program offered for the first time through a partnership between the campus’ Center for Fitness and Wellness and the center’s longtime supporter, the Ackroyd Family Foundation.
Penn State Harrisburg alums Doug Knull and Evelyn Toro Knull donated a bronze bust of Oliver LaGrone, an African American sculptor, poet and educator, that was sculpted by Ruth Fackler Sourbeer, an artist and Doug Knull’s grandmother. The bust is now on display in the Oliver LaGrone Cultural Arts Center, in the college’s Olmsted Building.
Barnes and Noble College — a Barnes and Noble Education company that operates the Penn State Bookstore — has continued its longtime partnership with the University and the Penn State Corporate Engagement Center to award a 2024-25 round of grants supporting a range of programs and initiatives across the commonwealth.
Penn State Harrisburg alumni and “lifelong friends” Gibran Jones and Marcellus Taylor have established the Jones/Tayor Legacy Scholarship, an annual gift of $2,500 for five years to support students who have financial need and who are pursuing degrees in the School of Business Administration.
The Penn State Alumni Association (PSAA) has announced a $20,000 matching commitment that will grow the scholarship endowment recently established in honor of 2024 Renaissance Fund honorees Roger Williams, retired PSAA executive director, and his wife, Karen Magnuson, retired assistant director of University marketing. In recognition of the Renaissance Fund’s 55th anniversary, the PSAA will match gifts of $550 or more to any named Renaissance Fund with an equal contribution to the Roger L. Williams and Karen L. Magnuson Renaissance Fund.
