UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State honored AB Volvo as its Corporate Partner of the Year at an event on Oct. 7. Penn State President Eric J. Barron presented the award in celebration of AB Volvo’s multifaceted relationship with the University. This award recognizes AB Volvo as a corporation that has demonstrated extraordinary generosity in promotion and support of Penn State, consistency of giving and support to areas of greatest needs, and impact across the University.
“The comprehensive partnership that Volvo has forged with Penn State will help to keep both organizations on the leading edge of innovation across multiple fields,” said Barron. “I look forward to seeing this partnership continue to grow in the years to come.”
Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, AB Volvo is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses, construction equipment, and marine and industrial engines. AB Volvo has been a key Penn State partner and is one of its first corporate partners to establish a comprehensive partnership model that drives innovation and creates opportunity. AB Volvo is unique among Penn State’s other corporate partners because of its model that encompasses research, recruitment and philanthropy.
Volvo has sponsored generously in research through multiple units, including the Larson Transportation Institute, the Energy Institute, and the Departments of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. As the company capitalizes on Penn State’s research capacities in such areas as diesel combustion and efficiency, alternative fuels, intelligent transportation systems, and vehicle-driver safety systems, it is strengthening those capacities and spurring technological advancement. AB Volvo’s philanthropic investments have also grown rapidly under the Preferred Partner agreement, a three-year program that was established in 2010 that provides Penn State students with co-op, internship and mentoring opportunities and offers talent recruitment benefits to AB Volvo.
AB Volvo’s philanthropy also supports faculty fellowships in mechanical engineering and scholarships in engineering and business, serves as a sponsor of the Learning Factory within the College of Engineering, and has donated vehicles for research within the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute.
Volvo’s robust recruiting presence at Penn State has likewise allowed benefits to flow both ways. Several co-op and intern students have been placed at nearby AB Volvo facilities, where they have provided real solutions to AB Volvo business challenges while preparing themselves for rewarding careers. Today the company employs nearly 200 Penn State alumni.
“This partnership is nothing less than a model for how corporations and institutions can join together to benefit the larger world,” said Neil Sharkey, vice president for research at Penn State. “This is why it’s fitting that Penn State has chosen AB Volvo as its 2016 Corporate Partner of the Year.”
Former Penn State Corporate Partners of the Year include United Technologies Corp., General Electric, Chevron, Toshiba/Westinghouse, Dow Chemical, Boeing, Highmark, PNC, Barnes and Noble, Lockheed Martin, and Bank of America.
These corporations and others are invaluable partners in fulfilling the University's land-grant mission of education, research and service. Private gifts from alumni and friends enrich the experiences of students both in and out of the classroom; expand the research and teaching capacity of faculty; enhance the University's ability to recruit and retain top students and faculty; and help to ensure that students from every economic background have access to a Penn State education. The University's colleges and campuses are now enlisting the support of alumni and friends to advance a range of unit specific initiatives.