UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An anonymous donor has pledged a gift of $1 million to create a career services endowment to support student veterans at Penn State. The gift will enable the University to create and sustain a career counselor position dedicated to helping student veterans transition into post-college careers or graduate education.
“Being a military-friendly university has become an important part of Penn State’s identity, and we are deeply committed to supporting our student veteran population,” said Marcus Whitehurst, vice provost for educational equity. “We recognize that student veterans have different needs as students than most of their peers at the University. The career counselor position that this recent gift makes possible will greatly enhance our ability to meet those needs as our student veterans prepare for what comes next after Penn State. We are grateful to the donor’s generosity and vision in establishing this new endowment for our student veterans.”
Penn State maintains a large student veteran population, with more than 3,500 students taking advantage of G.I. Bill benefits across the University. It also has one of the largest Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs in the Big Ten and the northeast U.S., consisting of over 600 officer candidates. In 2022, more than 300 student veterans were enrolled at the University Park campus alone, and that campus hosts one of the largest annual military appreciation events in the Big Ten, the Military Appreciation Tailgate. In recent years, several Penn State campuses, including the online World Campus, have been recognized by various outlets as military-friendly institutions.
Penn State’s leadership has worked to enhance the services and support systems available to student veterans, most notably through the creation of the Student Veteran Center, which opened in November 2019 in the renovated Ritenour Building. That 6,300-square-foot center consolidated and expanded services, support and activities for student veterans in a central location on the University Park campus.
“This is the most significant gift to support student veterans that we have received during my time at Penn State,” said Eugene McFeely, who has served as senior director for veterans affairs and services since the position was created in 2017. “The career counselor position that the gift makes possible will have a huge impact, which I believe will be on par with the creation of the Student Veteran Center itself.”
McFeely explained that over the course of their higher education journey, veterans face two significant life transitions. The first occurs as they start their academic journey at Penn State, where they transition from the military as a servicemember to college as a student. The second transition occurs as they leave Penn State to either pursue a career or to earn another academic degree at the next level.
“Though we do the best we can to assist with the second transition, we do not currently have the resources to adequately meet the need,” McFeely said. “This gift allows us to fill that gap, to create a position that is solely focused on helping our military students with that second transition. The new endowment will provide the funding not only to create this position now, but also to sustain it permanently, regardless of whatever budgetary pressures we may face from one year to the next.”
The career counselor will be responsible for engaging military-friendly corporate partners, planning and executing veteran-specific career fairs each semester, guiding student veterans on career opportunities and assisting them with resume writing to help them translate their military experiences into skills that will resonate with civilian employers. The counselor also will conduct outreach with Penn State’s veteran alumni community to foster mentoring, internship and career opportunities, and will facilitate events such as workshops that focus on topics like resume writing, networking, interviewing and salary negotiations.
“Our success as an institution is judged not only by the fact that our students receive a degree, but also by how well they are prepared for success in their careers or further schooling,” McFeely said. “This position is crucial in allowing us to prepare student veterans for the next phase of their lives, and I am very excited that this donor has chosen to invest so generously in their futures.”
With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s tradition of education, research and service to communities across the commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable our institution to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows our students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help us to serve and impact the world we share. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, visit raise.psu.edu.