Many current and former students and their loved ones have expressed profound gratitude for the opportunities made possible as a result of their Penn State Abington education. Your financial support during the six-year A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence capital campaign is essential in fulfilling our commitment as a public institution.  

Donors at every level joined together during the campaign to support our students. We received 3,300 gifts in this campaign from 2,000 donors. Thanks to your impactful gifts, we raised $27.5 million, exceeding our goal by almost one million dollars. 

The effects of this campaign have been immediate and will continue far into the future. Structured around the imperatives of a modern land-grant institution, the campaign’s top priority was opening the doors of higher education to students from every background.  

Here are some examples of how donors rose to the challenge: 

  • Twenty-five donors created 30 new scholarship funds, in amounts ranging from $12,500 to $1.5 million. In fact, we more than doubled the endowment for Abington scholarships during this campaign and the average size of a scholarship per student has doubled.  
  • Among our scholarship supporters are major foundations, such as the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation. 
  • Gift commitments totaling $12 million will create transformative experiences such as study abroad and internships, which are proven to help students persist toward graduation and launch successful careers. 
  • $650,000 was raised in endowments for economic development internships, which will allow students to work with regional start-ups and growing companies that are building businesses, starting new product lines, and creating jobs in the Philadelphia area. 
  • A special gift from the Lurquins resulted in the naming of the Joseph and Jo Anne Lurquin Engineering Lab in the Woodland Building. 
  • And, finally, Steve Taub’s extraordinary commitment of $17.3 million for scholarships and global engagement experiences was the largest gift given to any Penn State campus during the campaign.  

As a result of this campaign, Penn State Abington will continue to amplify our impact as an engine for the social and economic mobility of our students and communities, therefore fulfilling the land-grant mission of the University. Your generosity allows us to continue to create curricular and co-curricular experiences that foster success for our students while they attend Abington and as they make an impact on the world. 

Penn State Abington has received a historic level of philanthropic support during this campaign. Your collective generosity will have a long-lasting impact on the future of the college and its most important stakeholders — our students. On behalf of the entire Penn State Abington community, I express our deepest gratitude to you for making access to academic excellence at our campus a reality for many years to come.