“Government is about tomorrow. Decisions that governments make today will affect tomorrow. To the students on campus, I say, ‘You have a lot more tomorrows than I do. If you want to change the nature of the debate, register. Be involved. Be more engaged.’ Voting is not a privilege. It’s a responsibility of citizenship.”
— Former Gov. Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, during a visit to Penn State Behrend on Feb. 22.
Ridge, an Erie native, served two terms as Pennsylvania’s governor and six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he was appointed the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Today, he is chairman of Ridge Global, which focuses on cybersecurity, international security and risk management issues.
Ridge visited Penn State Behrend to see the Jack Burke Research and Economic Development Center and the college’s Knowledge Park, a technology complex that is home to 20 companies and more than 500 employees. As governor, he was instrumental in securing state funding for both projects.
In Burke Center, Ridge toured Innovation Commons, an idea lab where students work with entrepreneurs. Their projects have led to seven patent applications.
“To see them interacting with the enthusiasm around innovation, with the enthusiasm around creation, with the enthusiasm of, ‘Hey, we were given a problem to solve. Others couldn’t solve it, and we did. And we did it as students,’ that’s got to be not only a prideful moment, but an inspiring moment, and an encouraging moment for those students,” he said. “It’s one thing to talk about it, but to have an opportunity to actually experience it, and to point to an outcome and say, ‘We did that’ … well, that’s a big deal.”