As we reflect on 2020 and look forward to the New Year, I want to express, on behalf of my Commonwealth Campus colleagues, my gratitude to the members of our Penn State community.  

I’ll begin by extending a heartfelt thank you to our students. You have shown remarkable determination and perseverance in navigating new learning environments and new ways of interacting. Thank you, too, for your unwavering commitment to learning and pursuit of your personal educational goals. You are the truest measure of our success as a higher education community.

And to our dedicated and talented faculty and staff, I extend my profound gratitude to you for providing our students with an engaging, safe learning environment, and co-curricular and leadership opportunities to enhance learning. You have served admirably as teachers, mentors and advisers to our students — inspiring, challenging and encouraging them to be full partners in the learning enterprise.  Our students’ success is a triumph for you to share.

I’ll end with a favorite quote from Maya Angelou, that reminds us that every accomplishment rests on the challenges we have endured in achieving it: "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

Learning is a beautiful thing, one in which we can all take pleasure. Each day of learning is a demonstration of our resilience and capacity as a learning community — a quiet victory, yes, but a victory nonetheless. 

Remember, we are all connected, each and every one of us, by this great University, and this extraordinary time in our lives and the memories that will come of it. 

I wish you all a happy and safe holiday. 

— Madlyn L. Hanes, senior vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor