UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State held the final mini-event in its series — Class of 2024: A Virtual “Welcome to the Penn State Community,” consisting of four livestream Q&A sessions with students, alumni, faculty and members of Penn State’s leadership team. Penn State President Eric J. Barron recently invited the newest cohort of accepted students to watch the series and learn more about the Penn State community’s commitment to their success.
Barron hosted this event and provided an inspirational welcome to accepted students, telling them that Penn State is working hard to move safely toward on-campus learning in the fall. He encouraged students to think beyond the next couple months, however, and to consider how this decision will impact not only the next four years but the rest of their lives. He asked them to think about what Penn State offers them in terms of its breadth of opportunity, flexibility to deliver high-quality education in any circumstance, and outstanding outcomes by the same faculty in all courses.
Penn Staters came together in this session to answer submitted questions and help students and their families understand how Penn State will help them achieve their long-term goals. In keeping with the theme, Value of a Penn State Education, participants focused on topics related to the incredible outcomes that result from a Penn State education and access to the Penn State alumni network. The archived live event, can be viewed at Classof2024.psu.edu.
Barron was joined by Steve Wagman, national healthcare business leader for Siemens Industry–Building Technologies and the 80th president of the Penn State Alumni Association; Robert Wolfe, Penn State Lehigh Valley economics lecturer and advisor to the Lehigh Valley LaunchBox; Saschelle Mandoza, Class of 2020; Nathan Smith, Class of 2020.
Wagman provided his perspective as a top recruiter of Penn State students. “I take a lot of pride in interviewing and putting forward Penn State students. From a corporate perspective, we’ve hired scores of students. In fact, for my company, Penn State is always the number one or number two school that we recruit from in the U.S. every year... What separates a Penn State student are several things. First of all, they’re well-prepared with academics, no question. And, they’re smart. When you get a Penn State student, you know that they’re smart and they do well in the classroom, but more than that is that they’re a well-rounded student. From a corporation perspective, you want somebody who is going to be able to make a more immediate contribution to the company, and Penn State students come well prepared...Even those recruiters who don’t come from Penn State always comment that they wish they could hire all their college grads each year from Penn State.”