UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State alumni Ed and Missy Babcock have committed $250,000 to the Smeal College of Business to establish a scholarship that aims to bring the opportunity of a more affordable Penn State education to deserving students.

Babcock, an instructor in accounting at Smeal, and his wife, Missy, said that within their own family, the Penn State legacy runs deep. They hope to extend that legacy to the recipients of the Babcock Family Trustee Scholarship.

“Missy and I are so thankful for the opportunity to partner with the Penn State Trustees to bring the opportunity of a more affordable Penn State education to many deserving students in the years ahead,” Ed said. “Teaching in the Accounting Department here at Smeal provides me with the unique opportunity of interacting and mentoring the very students this scholarship will positively impact.”

Before returning to the University in 2009 to teach, Ed worked in private industry, beginning his career at Deloitte. He now interacts with students on a daily basis, teaching Intermediate and Managerial Accounting, Auditing and Introductory Accounting in the Schreyer Honors College.

“As costs associated with obtaining a premium education continue to rise, Ed and Missy have stepped forward to help support the next generation of students pursue their dreams in spite of those costs,” said Charles H. Whiteman, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal. “Their commitment to current and future students of Smeal will be felt for generations.”

Both Ed and Missy Babcock earned degrees in accounting from the Smeal College of Business, and all three of their children are pursuing Smeal degrees as well.

“This scholarship is particularly exciting because it further solidifies an aspect of our family legacy to the institution that has had such a tremendous impact on our family,” said Missy. “Our sons, David and Eric, both graduated with master’s degrees from Smeal, and our daughter Rachel, a sophomore here at Smeal, intends to graduate with a degree in marketing.”

The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program maximizes the impact of private giving while directing funds to students as quickly as possible, meeting the urgent need for scholarship support. In this groundbreaking philanthropic model, Penn State matches 10 percent of the total pledge or gift at the time a Trustee Scholarship is created, making funds available immediately for student awards. This University match, which is approximately double the endowment's annual spendable income, continues in perpetuity, tripling the support available for students with financial need.

The Babcock Family Trustee Scholarship will help the Smeal College of Business to reach its goals in For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students. This University-wide effort 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. The For the Future campaign is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State's history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.