Facts and figures

INSPIRED To eM po W e R

SCHREyER SCHolAR AlUMNI ARE MoTIvATED To SUCCEED AfTER THEy lEAvE PENN STATE. MANy of THEM ARE EqUAlly MoTIvATED To USE THEIR PoSITIoN, ExPERIENCE AND/oR kNoWlEDGE To HElP oTHERS SUCCEED. THESE ARE JUST THREE SCHolAR AlUMNI WHo HAvE, IN THE PAST yEAR, CREATED oRGANIzATIoNS CAPAblE of HElPING CoUNTlESS oTHERS SUCCEED.

JoHN CARPENTER, a Scholar alumnus and opera singer, wanted to help aspiring singers learn how to audition and navigate the profession on multiple continents. That’s why he and two colleagues, including his former singing teacher, launched MAESTRO Artists, an online musical education platform designed to connect students of all ages with professionals who have successfully navigated the music world and can offer advice and guidance. Carpenter graduated from Penn State with honors in music in 2014 and began a career that has included more than 250 performances in Munich, Berlin, Nuremberg, and Freiburg, Germany. He and Graham Sanders, his teacher and mentor, and Joseph Helinski, a 2017 Penn State graduate and a private voice and piano instructor in Pittsburgh, were inspired to create the business by the pivot to virtual connection during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most of these professionals live in New York, London, Berlin,” Carpenter said. “I was thinking, ‘What happens if you’re someone who’s in the middle of central Pennsylvania?’

“I thought it would be cool to be able to afford resources to those communities where kids are interested in learning from these people, but they don’t have the resources to get to these cities. This is a way to connect them online.”

Carpenter credits the “entrepreneurial spirit” he saw in his fellow Scholars with helping him craft the skill set that has helped him launch MAESTRO Artists. He has long believed the arts help maintain beauty in society and wants to help bring them to others.

“I think if we can teach people or provide them the resources to connect better with each other, I think that’s invaluable,” he said. “We’re trying to bridge that gap for people so that they can learn what I think is essential to their lives, really, even if they don’t know it.”

Scholar alumna JAyME ANNE GolDbERG launched Consequential Flowers, a private social media network designed to help young women grow together as leaders, in January with partnerships formed with the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Smeal College of Business. The network is designed for undergraduate and graduate female students and young professionals and uses a collaborative, data-driven approach to develop impactful leadership skills that will apply to any industry.

“Women’s support of each other will be motivated by the joy we feel from bringing out the best in ourselves and each other,” said Goldberg, who graduated from Penn State with honors in finance and has taken active roles as a mentor throughout her career as an executive in the investment and data analysis industries. “It will be a behavioral norm for women within and across industries, communities, and cultures to learn, support, and collaborate together.” The network gives members weekly challenges, such as tracking how many times they apologized in a week or brainstorming ways to say “no.” It also generates discussion via regular posts and topics and allows members to customize their notifications and feeds.

Consequential Flowers also committed to donate a portion of its net profits from product sales to support Rebuild the Block, a nonprofit organization that helps Black-owned business

PAUlA GARCIA ToDD had attended lots of career days, visiting grade-school or high school classrooms and engaging students about the possibilities of STEAM careers. When the 2003 chemical engineering alumna was awarded a grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences’ IF/THEN Ambassador program in 2019, she saw an opportunity to have a greater impact on those students and their teachers. founded in 2020 by Scholar alumna Zelnnetta Clark and fellow Penn State alumna Alexis Akarolo. Its on-campus partnerships include one with Smeal Women in Business.

“I want our next generation of leaders to have more impact and have joy, by knowing what their passion is and be great at it and enabled,” Goldberg said. “They’re going to be able to underwrite culture before they go somewhere to make sure it’s a place where they’re able to thrive.”

“I wanted it to be more meaningful and to be a long-term relationship,” she said.

Garcia Todd partnered with Science ATL, an organization that aims to build equitable access to science in the metro Atlanta area, to start the STEM Professionals School Partnership Program last fall. In only a few months, the program paired 32 STEM professionals with 32 teachers in the region to create regular interactions throughout the school year. They recruited diverse STEM professionals to ensure underrepresented students saw themselves in these individuals.

“We’ve worked to identify the needs that each teacher has around enhancing their STEM education, their programming,” Garcia Todd said, “and what are the assets that the STEM professionals have to fill those needs to make it a very fruitful year together?”

With the expansion of virtual meetings throughout the pandemic, Garcia Todd, a global strategic manager for pharma solutions at International Flavors & Fragrances, now engages with classrooms and organizations across the country on almost a weekly basis.

In May, Garcia Todd was one of more than 120 female STEM professionals honored with 3D-printed statues in their images in the #IfThenSheCan — The Exhibit at the North Park Center in Dallas, Texas. She said she began to understand the impact she could have as a role model — for female students in particular — after she started visiting her children’s school, where she would talk about careers or perform chemistry experiments for the students.

“A lot of kids questioned whether I was really an engineer, because they expected a man to come into the classroom,” she said, “and I realized I could make a big impact on a lot of kids if I just put myself out there more.”

Alumnus establishes scholarship for honors engineering students

Patrick Lucas applied but was not accepted to the Schreyer Honors College as a first-year student, but his professors encouraged him to apply as a second-year student, and he went on to graduate with honors in industrial engineering in 2013.

Now a Penn State graduate and analytics success manager, he helps to support undergraduate students who enter the Schreyer Honors College in their second or third years with The Lucas Family Honors Scholarship, which will be awarded primarily to students studying engineering, as Lucas did.

“One thing at the time was kind of difficult for me as I was weighing the decision to apply or not to apply was that I wasn’t getting the financial benefit,” Lucas said. “That was something that has stayed with me.”

Lucas, who also played for the championship-winning club baseball team while at Penn State, spent a semester at Accenture as part of a co-op, focusing on labor planning and labor optimization, then spent five years with the company as a management consultant and manager.

“As a young kid just graduating college, it was definitely attractive to travel most weeks and see different parts of the country and the world,” he said. “It was a cool experience to get to do that while solving different kinds of problems for different clients along the way.”

In 2019, Lucas took a position as a customer engagement manager at Celect, an artificial intelligence startup, using analytics and optimization to deploy inventory for retailers in efficient and profitable ways. It was a new challenge that became yet another new challenge when Nike acquired Celect a few months later. He now works with data scientists and engineers to apply Celect’s inventory optimization suite to Nike’s inventory.

Lucas reconnected to the Honors College at a “Meet the Dean” event in Boston last year and credits its development team with helping him to find an achievable schedule for his gift, which also includes a corporate match from Nike. With the scholarship, he hopes to support students who have displayed both academic achievement and the same sense of curiosity and determination that led him to pursue honors courses and then join the Honors College after his second year.

“There’s a sense of pride that I have for not being accepted initially and proving that I was capable of being in the honors program and succeeding at it,” he said. “That’s a lesson I’ll take away — that sort of ‘If at first you don’t succeed …” kind of lesson.”

Make a gift to support Scholars who enter the Honors College in their second or third year at raise.psu.edu/SchreyerFamilyHonorsScholarship

Endowment and Gift Spending

2020–21 fiscal year

Number of Awards Amount Awarded

Academic Excellence Scholarships: (includes charitable and institutional funds) 1,147 $5,582,250 Need-based and Merit Scholarships: 314 $1,468,467

Student Awards: (travel grants, internships, and research awards) Program Support: 102 $86,649* – $239,717*

ToTAl: 1,563 $7,377,083

Total Endowment value: $152,381,281.96 (as of 6/30/2021)

Mr. William bogdan, attorney at law, Hinshaw and Culbertson, LLP

Mr. William Donato Jr., president and chief

operating officer, Safegard Group, Inc.

Mr. Robert Edwards, retired executive vice president, PNC Bank; vice-chairman, External Advisory Board Mr. Charlie frazier, treasurer, BDR Properties, Inc.

Ms. linda Gall

Mr. Arthur Glenn, retired vice president, General Electric Company

Ms. lisa Hart, vice president, M&T Bank

Mr. Reginald Hedgebeth, chief legal officer,

Capital Group American Funds Mr. Edward Hintz, president, Hintz Capital Management Mr. Thomas lindquist, senior vice president/ general manager for government programs, Medica Mr. Todd H. lippincott, vice president, Global Rewards, Mars

Ms. Melissa Marshall, chief compliance officer, Westinghouse Electric Corporation Mr. Edward Marx, executive director, Enterprise Analytics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Mr. Nathan Nair, neurosurgery residency director and associate professor, Georgetown University Hospital

Mr. Ryan Newman, managing director, Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Mr. Robert Poole, president and CEO, S&A Homes, Inc.; CEO, Poole Anderson Construction; chairman, External Advisory Board Mr. Mark Prybutok, managing director, GI Partners

Mr. Rick Riegel, principal, LMC Advisory, Phlexglobal, Inc.

Ms. Tracy Riegel

Mr. brian Schmanske, program manager, U.S. Government

Ms. DrueAnne Schreyer, president, BDR

Properties, Inc.

Mrs. Joan Schreyer

Ms. Sarah Shaffer, rates manager, Equitrans Midstream Corporation Mr. Andrew Sieg, head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch Ms. kristin Smith, senior vice president and chief counsel, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Mr. Stephen Snyder, retired managing partner, Accenture (Comms/High Tech/Energy) Mr. brian Stern, general counsel, Cetera Financial Group Ms. kathryn Sutton, partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Mr. Joseph versaggi, senior vice president— real estate, Washington Capital Management Mr. David Wagner, president and CEO, Zix Corporation Mr. Edward Weber, senior vice president and CFO, MLB Advanced Media, LP

Mr. Richard Whitney, chairman and CEO,

Radiology Partners, Inc.

Mr. James Wiggins, retired managing director, Morgan Stanley & Co.

Ms. brenna Wist, retired partner, KPMG Mr. Jack yoskowitz, litigation partner, Seward & Kissel LLP

Mr. Nicolas zavaleta, analyst, Hintz Capital Management

SCHolAR AlUMNI SoCIETy boARD

Ms. Alayna Auerbach ’15 Bus, freelance management consultant (independent contract), PwC; chair, student engagement committee

Dr. Samuel b. bonsall Iv ’04 Lib, ’04g Bus,

’12g Bus, Reeves Family Early Career professor in accounting, Penn State Smeal College of Business Mr. Timothy Cooney ’00 Bus, senior vice president, City National Bank Mr. brian J. Ellis ’02 Lib, partner/principal, Bressler Amery & Ross PC; chair, diversity, equity, and inclusion committee

Ms. lori feathers ’90 Lib, co-owner and book buyer, Interabang Books Mr. keith Graham ’85 Eng, senior instructor and associate chair of undergraduate education, electrical, computer, & energy engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science; chair, career development and mentorship committee Ms. Asia Grant ’17 Bus, founder and creative director, Redoux

Mr. John Hemmer ’03 Eng, partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Mr. basel kayyali ’96 Eng, senior partner, McKinsey & Company Ms. Natalie keller ’17 Agr, scientist, food scientist, La Colombe Coffee Roasters; president, Scholar Alumni Society Mr. Ryan koch ’97 Eng, U.S. director of strategy and corporate development, Intapp Dr. kristin A. lambert ’14 Agr, ’19g Medicine, ’21g Medicine, pediatric resident physician, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

Mr. Jared Edgar Mcknight ’11 A&A, ’11 Lib,

associate and designer, WRT Design

Aryath Narayanamangalam ’23 Eng, president,

Schreyer Student Council Mr. Michael o’Connor ’05 Eng, litigation

counsel, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange Ms. Carol Packard ’99 Lib, ’18g Edu, associate dean of alumni affairs and development, executive director, University Parents Engagement and Philanthropy Program, Cornell University College of Engineering; chair, alumni engagement and membership committee

Dr. Aleks Radovic-Moreno ’05 Eng, partner,

Longwood Fund

Ms. Emily kowey Roth ’12 Lib, associate attorney, Duane Morris LLP Mr. Nikhil Shekher ’16 Bus, vice president of sales, Diversified Business Consultants, Inc.

Ms. kathryn Pruss zeltwanger ’98 Lib, deputy

general counsel, Armstrong Group; vice-president, Scholar Alumni Society

Mrs. betsy bruning, co-chair, parents council Mr. David bruning, co-chair, parents council Mr. Ronald francois ’93 Lib Mrs. valerie Gray francois ’93 Com Mrs. laura Gardner

Mr. Todd Gardner, chair, development committee

SCHREyER PARENTS CoUNCIl

Mrs. Jennifer Wilson Hewitt ’85

Dickinson, chair, outreach committee Mr. Patrick Hewitt ’83 Dickinson Ms. Denise McCarthy Mr. Mark McCarthy Mr. Cort Morrison Mrs. Robin Morrison Ms. bonnie Pontell Dr. Jonathan Pontell Mrs. Jill Semmer ’88 Lib Ms. Cheryl Uzzo Mr. Robert Uzzo Ms. kim Eberle-Wang Dr. Hoau-yan Wang Mr. Mark Wiggins Dr. Nancy Wiggins