Private Giving
Penn State Intercom......January 31, 2002

$2.5 million pledge a hit
for new baseball facility

The University has received a pledge of $2.5 million from alumnus Anthony P. Lubrano, a member of the Penn State baseball squad under Coach Chuck Medlar, as the lead gift for a new facility for the Nittany Lion baseball team.

Lubrano's gift is a significant step in the construction of a new baseball facility, which is projected to cost approximately
$5 million. The gift is the second largest made by an individual to support an athletic facilities project.

Plans call for the new facility to be built in the same location as Beaver Field, the Lions' present home. The new stadium would have 2,000 to 3,000 seats, concession and picnic areas, locker rooms, a press box and lights, permitting night games for the first time. Beaver Field has a capacity of 1,000 in the stands and standing-room-only baselines often are filled during the season.

Lubrano is a 1982 graduate and president of A.P. Lubrano & Co. Inc., a financial services company located in Lionville.

A new baseball facility on the University Park campus not only would provide a major boost to the Nittany Lion program, but also would provide opportunities for the University to play host to high school, PIAA and NCAA Tournament competition.

The timetable for stadium construction will be based upon the identification of additional contributions for the project.

Gift aids programs for
disadvantaged students

Alumni John and Micheal Mihm West of Tampa, Fla., have committed $125,000 to the College of Education to support programs that encourage disadvantaged students to pursue postsecondary education.

The John and Micheal West Endowed Fund will support further development of educational programs for at-risk students, primarily the Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP). At-risk students are considered those who have the potential to succeed in higher education and who may have social and emotional, as well as economic, barriers to overcome in order to achieve academic excellence during their middle and high school years.

John West graduated from the University in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and Micheal Mihm West earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from the University in 1983.

PEPP is an early-intervention collaboration between Penn State and selected Pennsylvania school districts, developed to help at-risk youths improve their chances for successful employment in later life. It seeks to encourage hope among students by increasing self-esteem, social skills and career awareness. The program is designed to heighten parental awareness of the value of education; and to educate aspiring teachers about how they can serve at-risk students in culturally diverse classrooms. In the past 12 years of operation, about 1,400 middle and high school students from Philadelphia, Reading and McKeesport have participated in the program.

Gift establishes retail
leadership lecture series

Melvin Jacobs spent his whole career in retail.

He took a leadership role in the industry and, to this day, he is highly regarded by counterparts in the industry as an intellectual, retail innovator, patron of the arts, traveler, mentor and friend.

The 1947 graduate of the University rose through the ranks of the retail industry to become chairman and chief executive officer of Saks Fifth Avenue, and a new lectureship series, named in his honor, has been established at the Smeal College of Business Administration. "The Melvin Jacobs Retail Leadership Series" will support lectures by outstanding leaders and chief executives who are shaping the future of the retail industry.

Jacobs' widow, Rosalind "Roz" Jacobs, and daughter, Peggy Learner, contributed $250,000 to establish the fund.

After retiring from Saks, Jacobs started a retailing and investment company called Retail Options Inc., and joined the board of QVC Network Inc., the television shopping service.

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