In March 2020, a team quickly came together to support students, instructors, and staff to design and implement solutions to address learner needs in times of COVID-19. This group grew to over 300 people who are in a variety of roles from across the university and who worked in focused letter teams that affectionately became known as “alphabet soup.” They immediately became known for the high quality work, their highly effective approaches, and their tireless pursuit of understanding the issues so as to develop solutions and create resources that served the initial challenges for Spring 2020 semester and then continued to evolve as each semester flowed into the next one.
To all of the members of “alphabet soup” who responded to a request to help, and have continued to invest time and create solutions; who worked countless hours to help students learn and instructors teach; who reached across boundaries and who put the goal of learning and education above everything else; who innovated and adapted to remote learning, all united in the goal of student success; who freely shared information and resources and constantly worked to make the educational space a better one; who built behind-the-scenes solutions to support academic planning; who supported enrollment of students whether they were first-year or continuing students, undergraduate or graduate students, in-residence or remote learners, domestic or international students … we can’t begin to thank you enough!
You saw and understood our shared mission of education and the importance of strong pathways. What we have learned will help move Penn State forward as a stronger and more resilient institution that is ready to meet the challenges of student learning across a multitude of modes and formats.
Thank you for your robust conversations, your questions, and you unwavering commitment to learning and to our students. From day one, you have put into action what is meant by One Penn State.
Thank you.
— Yvonne Gaudelius, associate vice president and senior associate dean for undergraduate education
— Renata Engel, vice provost for online education