New gift will enable immersive museum experiences for students

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new gift from alumnus and longtime Penn State philanthropist Jason Kogan will facilitate opportunities for undergraduates to engage with museums. The Max and Shirley Kogan Museum Experience Fund will provide a total of $50,000 across five years to support museum visits and internships and to enable students to attend professional museum conferences.

The fund will be administered through the Student Engagement Network (SEN), which is a joint venture between Undergraduate Education, Student Affairs, and Outreach and Online Education. It was launched in 2017 as a comprehensive initiative across 24 campuses to connect students with activities such as research, student organization involvement, community leadership, study abroad, internships and the performing arts. The Kogan Museum Experience Fund is among the first wave of philanthropic commitments to the SEN, and Kogan hopes his contribution will help to spread awareness of its role at the University and spur further giving.

“I couldn’t find any precedent in higher education for the kind of flexible support for immersive museum experiences that I envisioned, so I decided to pioneer a new approach,” said Kogan. “After learning about the University-wide Student Engagement Network, it became obvious it was the perfect vehicle for housing the fund and ensuring access to Penn State students across every college and Commonwealth Campus.”

Unlike many such programs that require a specific research project or deliverable, student recipients of support from the Kogan Museum Experience Fund can pursue opportunities based on their own intellectual curiosity. Program guidelines express a preference for museums accredited by the American Alliance of Museums — with subject matter spanning art, history, anthropology and science — and provide a structure for the following three engagement options:

• Travel to a museum. Students should visit a minimum of five museums located within the United States; pre-arrange to interview a museum professional; take part in a museum tour or guided experience; and participate in two in-person or virtual programs hosted by the museum.
• Intern at a museum. The internship should include at least 50 hours of museum experience, and students should interview at least one museum professional during their internship experience.
• Attend a museum conference. The conference can be regional, state or national, but it must be based in the United States, and students should make at least one significant contact with a museum professional at the conference who can assist in the student’s career aspirations.

“We are deeply grateful for Jason’s detail-oriented approach to designing this fund, which has put checkpoints in place so that students can capitalize on every aspect of their museum itineraries,” said Yvonne Gaudelius, vice president and dean for Undergraduate Education. “The Student Engagement Network makes these opportunities available to every Penn State undergraduate, and our resources can be especially valuable for first-generation college students. Jason’s generosity means we can truly shepherd students toward transformative educational ventures.”

Alora Howard, a sophomore studying music performance in the College of Arts and Architecture, is the first student to have been awarded funding.

“I grew up in a very large family, and that meant my parents didn’t have the resources to make museum travel a reality,” Howard said. “Now, I’ve set aside my entire spring break to observe and absorb as much art — and talk with as many arts curators and experts — as I possibly can. I never would have sought out this adventure, much less had the wherewithal to actually do it, if this funding weren’t available.”

Museums hold a hallowed place in Kogan’s own biography. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Penn State in 1966 and his law degree from George Washington University in 1969 before going to work as a federal prosecutor on Constitution Avenue in the nation’s capital during the 1970s. There, he often used his lunch hour to step away from his courthouse office to visit the National Gallery of Art. Inside, he’d walk the marble halls, immersed in the calm and serenity that emanated from artwork dating from the Renaissance.

That reverence for museums deepened when he met Lori Jacobson, Kogan’s wife of nearly 25 years until her death from cancer in 2018. Jacobson, who held bachelor’s degrees in history and advertising design from Iowa State University and a master’s in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (at the time named the University of Texas–Pan American), built a 37-year career in museum design, education, exhibit development, strategic planning and project management. She began her professional museum career as a curator at the McAllen International Museum in McAllen, Texas, and later became an educator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, followed by a two-year stint as executive director for the Western Museums Association. Her influence was widely felt later in her career as co-founder/principal of a firm focusing on exhibit design/build projects, strategic planning and program development, and she subsequently provided consulting expertise to an array of nonprofit organizations.

Kogan stressed, however, that his wife’s entry into the museum field came about by an accident of fate.

“When Lori was an undergrad at Iowa State, she took a part-time job at the Iowa State Museum to earn some money,” Kogan recalled. “She’d known nothing about museums, but she fell in love with them instantly. She was so smitten she stayed on an extra year after she graduated and traveled along the East Coast with the assistant director to visit 100 museums. My hope is that this fund will connect students with museum professionals who can provide mentorship and offer advice about opportunities for museum-based careers.”

Kogan retains memberships in 13 museums and continues to prioritize exploring new galleries and exhibitions.

He opted to name this new museum fund in honor of his parents, Max and Shirley Kogan. Max, an Army sergeant in World War II, married Shirley in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1942, during his four-year stint training aircraft engine mechanics.

“Later, my father became a bookkeeper, and when my brother and I were old enough, my mother became a cashier at a paint store,” said Kogan. “They worked long hours so that my brother and I could have the advantages of a first-rate education. I wanted to memorialize their sacrifice, which in many ways is what put me on the path to be able to make a gift of this kind.”

Kogan’s fund with the Student Engagement Network deepens his already robust philanthropic legacy with Penn State. A special exhibition gallery in the new Palmer Museum of Art, slated to open in 2023, will bear his name, in recognition of his commitment to the museum construction project. He also created the Jason D. Kogan Faculty Research Fund in Jewish Studies in Liberal Arts, and the Jason D. Kogan Scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts, which supports students enrolled or planning to enroll in the Jewish Studies Program or in the Department of History. These marquee gifts are complemented by support for many other programs, funds and scholarships in the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Arts and Architecture.

Kogan’s philanthropy will advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With the support of alumni and friends, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hard-working students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by serving communities and fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.