Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi is welcomed by the campus community upon her arrival at Penn State Lehigh Valley on Monday, April 18, as part of her ongoing campus listening tour.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Even before taking the reins as Penn State’s 19th president this month, Neeli Bendapudi spent much of the spring traveling across the commonwealth on her listening tour of the University’s campuses.
Bendapudi said the listening tour provided her with a stronger sense of Penn State’s land-grant mission and the campuses as engines of economic development in their regions. “If you think about the land-grant mission and the promise of social mobility, the campuses show that in true color,” she said. “It’s palpable when you’re on the various campuses — the access, the affordability, the promise.”
The president added that seeing many of the campuses up close helped demonstrate to her the impact the Commonwealth Campuses have on the economies of their local communities and the surrounding regions, ranging from educating and keeping local talent at home, to promoting and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation through Invent Penn State’s free statewide LaunchBox and Innovation Hub Network.
“I always knew the campuses mattered to the communities, but it was so gratifying to see the advisory boards, the donors, the local government representatives show up and exhibit the pride they have in their campuses,” she said.
Bendapudi also remarked about the close-knit nature of each campus. “You can see the sense of community at these campuses,” she said. “The students talked about the support they get from the faculty and staff, they really know one another. Chancellors talked about the relationships they’ve built where they check on the students, but it’s not just how they are doing in the classroom, but how they are doing with the pressures of COVID, what’s happening with their families and so on.”
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi meets with members of the Great Valley campus community.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi visited Penn State Berks on April 18, 2022.
Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi met with student leaders at Penn State Altoona on Wednesday, April 20, as part of her listening tour to meet with students, faculty and staff across the Commonwealth Campuses.
Kristal Tucker, associate teaching professor of biology, shows President-elect Neeli Bendapudi and Penn State Trustee Alvin F. de Levie real-time digital imaging of tardigrades and their eggs via light microscopy.
Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi met with student leaders during a March 29 visit to Penn State Behrend. Bendapudi is traveling the commonwealth as part of a listening and learning tour, with visits to each Penn State campus.
Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi visited Penn State Harrisburg as part of a listening and learning tour to meet and engage in conversations with students, faculty, staff and community members at each Penn State campus.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi shakes hands with JW Tabbachi, director of student affairs at Penn State New Kensington, as she visits the campus during her campus tour before taking office on May 9.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi hosted a Q&A session with Penn State Schuylkill students during her April 4, 2022, visit to campus as part of her listening and learning tour.
Posing for a photo at Penn State Scranton's lion shrine on a walking tour of the campus are Lion Ambassadors David Stoshick and Sarah Marble, Corporate Communications intern Morgan Sewack and University President-elect Neeli Bendapudi.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi meeting with Penn State Shenango students in Forker Laboratory's new study lounge.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi visited with Wilkes-Barre campus on April 8 as part of her listening and learning tour to meet and engage in conversation with students, faculty, staff and community members at each Penn State campus. Bendapudi met with campus leadership, faculty, staff and students and toured Penn State Wilkes-Barre led by student Lion Ambassadors.
Brandywine junior Dana Hallahan, president of the campus Lion Ambassadors, welcomed then-president-elect Neeli Bendapudi to the campus Student Union in May 2022.
Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi, left, reacts to the photos of 4-month-old Owen Suter, shown by his mother, Emily, as the duo talk in his room in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.
President-elect Neeli Bendadpudi, left, takes a question from an audience member during a town-hall style discussion during her visit to Penn State Mont Alto.
President-elect Neeli Bendapudi, center, is show the Idea Lab, part of the North Central PA LaunchBox at Penn State DuBois. An instructor in rapid prototyping shows Bendapudi how to use the 3D scanner to input data into the CAD system for manipulation.
Students Lilly Buzard, left, and Felicity Kibaya, right, discuss their research project with President-elect Neeli Bendapudi, center, and Penn State Vice President for Government and Community Relations Zach Moore during Penn State Beaver's Undergraduate Exhibition on April 21.
Bendapudi kicked off her campus listening tour in March — which included a visit to Penn State Health in Hershey — and spent time at each location meeting with campus chancellors, students, faculty, staff and community members in town-hall style settings with open Q&A.
Kelly Austin, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses, said having Bendapudi visit these locations was not only a great opportunity for her to better understand the campuses, but also for the campuses to let her know what’s important to them and to ask questions. The opportunity for two-way dialogue provided a greater appreciation for how each campus serves and supports students and the surrounding community.
The new president was able to visit the majority of the campuses in the spring, and looks forward to resuming and wrapping up her tour in August after students return for the start of fall classes.
“It’s been extraordinary — I’ve really, truly enjoyed this,” Bendapudi said. “What has been amazing to me is how different each of the Commonwealth Campuses is. Each is a microcosm and an independent ecosystem. It’s been wonderful to see everything, from Penn State Mont Alto and the forestry background and expertise, to engaging with faculty and staff at Penn State Harrisburg and how they are working to keep up with growth and changes happening on their campus.”
Cassie Farrelly, director of operations and strategic initiatives at the College of Medicine in Hershey, said of the new president’s visit to Penn State Health and Penn State Hershey: “What really came across in each meeting I joined with Dr. Bendapudi is that she genuinely listens and absorbs what you’re telling her. And even though she was introduced to probably 200 people, the next day she could remember the name of a student she’d met the day before and went to say ‘hello’ to the student.”
Sweeta Rasiyan, left, and Madison Forbes, both Penn State York students and Lion Ambassadors, give President-elect Neeli Bendapudi a tour of the campus during her visit in April. “I thought that she was truly kind, and she was very enthusiastic to learn about Penn State York. She was highly engaged in the tour and spoke personally to students that we passed on campus,” said Forbes, a senior majoring in human development and family studies.
Madison Forbes, a Penn State York student and campus Lion Ambassador who helped give Bendapudi a tour of York, agreed. “I thought that she was truly kind, and she was very enthusiastic to learn about Penn State York. She was highly engaged in the tour and spoke personally to students that we passed on campus.”
Forbes added, “She went out of her way to speak to students directly and ask them about their experiences at Penn State York. During the student session, she asked everyone to sit in a circle to facilitate collaboration. She treated students with respect, and she made an effort to connect with every student that she met.”
The president said she was impressed to hear of the amazing undergraduate research opportunities available to students during their time at the campuses. Bendapudi recalled two women undergraduates from Penn State Beaver telling her about research they did that helped to show how additional driving lesson requirements are making a difference in reducing driving accidents and deaths among teenagers.
“I try to have time with the students because they are really what we are about,” Bendapudi said. “It just gives you goosebumps to spend time with them. They’re making the most of their experience. They’re so proud to be at Penn State and they’re accomplishing so much – both in and out of the classroom – it is remarkable.”
The president noted that one of the things that makes the University unique is how students can customize their Penn State experience to their own needs, whether it’s starting their academic careers at one Commonwealth Campus and completing their degree in a different location through the 2+2 Plan, or choosing to stay closer to home at one of 20 campuses for all four years while earning their Penn State degree.
Bendapudi said one of the fringe benefits of her listening tour has been experiencing the physical beauty of each Penn State location.
“These campuses are so picturesque — they’re so beautiful, like community gems for people to discover and enjoy,” she said.
