Members of the Penn State Beaver Athletic Department and Student Success Committee prepare to serve cake at the campus's annual spring carnival. The carnival is sponsored by the Student Success Committee.
MONACA, Pa. — Penn State will celebrate 10 years of GivingTuesday on Dec. 3, and Penn State Beaver invites alumni and friends to participate by supporting the campus’s Student Success Committee.
The Student Success Committee focuses on the holistic support of students to help them adjust to college life and achieve academic and personal success.
“The work of the Student Success Committee provides targeted resources, serving as an additional tier of support for our students. This complements the efforts of their professors, advisors and our other campus resources. Importantly, this work is individualized to the needs of each student, ensuring that every student receives multiple levels of personalized assistance,” said Mari Pierce, interim regional director of academic affairs.
An example of the success the committee has had is the implementation of the SAGE (Student-Athlete Graduate Excel) program. SAGE involves engaging student-athletes in one-on-one meetings with an academic mentor at strategic points of the semester, assisting them in their academic needs, providing tutoring and resources, supervising attendance for study table hours and recognizing their academic achievements.
“The Student Success Committee and SAGE programs have been instrumental in the academic success of Penn State Beaver student-athletes,” said Andy Kirschner, athletics director at Penn State Beaver. “The department’s yearly G.P.A. has risen to over a 3.0 in the three past years, and I believe it was those programs that propelled that positive change.”
In 2018, student-athletes at Penn State Beaver had a department GPA of 2.86, and in 2024 that GPA rose to 3.12. Athletes earning Academic All-Conference (3.0+) have risen from 58 in 2018 to 153 in 2024, and the number of Dean’s List (3.5+) student-athletes has risen from 38 in 2018 to 85 in 2024.
- Some of the other ways the committee supports students include:
- Serving as success coaches during New Student Orientation and beyond.
- Celebrating academic achievements with special programs.
- Identifying academic, personal and financial concerns and connecting students with appropriate campus resources.
- Fostering a sense of belonging with ongoing outreach activities, events and success celebrations, including an end-of-year carnival.
GivingTuesday gifts will support these efforts so all Penn State Beaver students can succeed.
As has become a Penn State GivingTuesday tradition, the celebration is kicking off early on Monday, Dec. 2, at 18:55 (6:55 p.m. EST) — a nod to the year in which the University was founded. Those interested in contributing to Beaver’s Student Success Committee can learn more here.
Gifts made on GivingTuesday advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.
