My sincere thanks and gratitude in 2020…
— To our students who have demonstrated extraordinary resilience.
— To our faculty who have worked so hard to find new ways to engage in teaching and learning.
— To our researchers who have leveraged discoveries to inform our pandemic roadmap.
— To our staff who have found creative and innovative ways to carry on their work in new formats and delivery methods.
— To our tech services employees who have ensured that our operations, students, and campuses were well cared for in every way possible.
— To our leadership team and trustees for indefatigable efforts to conduct scenario planning to address unprecedented challenges in higher education.
— To our alumni, constituents, donors, foundations, and corporations who have continued to provide generous support to our institution in the midst of their own uncertainties.
— To our family members who were home-schooled, zoomed in, and zoomed out, demonstrating extreme patience with a new “work and learn at home” scenario for many people.
— To our Penn State Health care teams and our doctors, nurses, and staff who are working around-the-clock to care for the sick and provide testing for the concerned.
— To my outreach units and our learners, listeners, viewers, clients, partners and donors for your enthusiastic engagement, leadership, service, and ongoing support in 2020.
— To the families who welcomed babies into their lives, in the midst of a socially distanced world, may these children grow up to love and embrace science.
— To the thousands of families, like mine, who lost a loved one(s) to COVID-19, for transforming anger and sadness into random acts of kindness for others as we move forward.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “…to some generations, much is given…of other generations much is expected.” Penn State — thank you for rising to the challenges in 2020.
We expected a lot from you and you delivered … for that I am deeply grateful.
Be well in 2021.
—Tracey DeBlase Huston, vice president for outreach, Penn State