UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With a commitment of $100,000, 2012 Penn State alumnus Josh Korn and his wife, Sarah, have created the Josh and Sarah Korn School of Public Policy Student Access Fund in the College of the Liberal Arts.

The gift leverages a $50,000 personal commitment from the Korns as well as a matching gift from Netflix, where Josh Korn is head of global innovation and technology public policy.

The fund is intended to help support equitable access to field work, internships, study abroad or other enrichment experiences for students in the School of Public Policy, particularly those for whom financial circumstances would prohibit them from accepting unpaid or underpaid career-enhancing opportunities. Established in 2018, the School of Public Policy offers master’s degrees as well as integrated undergraduate/graduate degrees that allow students to complete both degrees in a compressed time frame.

“Our students have benefited from the time they have spent with Josh as he has worked to help secure career and networking opportunities and provided insight on careers in public policy,"  said Lilliard Richardson, director of the School of Public Policy. "We are delighted that Josh and Sarah have given this generous gift to support a truly immersive experience for a diverse set of students on their path to being future policy professionals. Their support enables students to participate in the enrichment experiences fully and will help produce public service leaders like Josh and Sarah Korn.”

Korn, a member of the School of Public Policy board of visitors, was a member of the Paterno Fellows Program and a Schreyer Honors Scholar as an undergraduate. He said his internship and field experiences were directly related to his success after graduating from Penn State.

“There was a pretty linear correlation between extracurricular activities in Washington, D.C., and my career,” he said. “I was lucky that the experiences I had were made possible through the Paterno Fellows Program and the Schreyer Honors College, but those opportunities are not available to everyone. The more likely scenario is that students have to figure out how to fund these experiences themselves.

“Public policy internships are notorious for not paying much if they pay anything at all,” he continued. “My hope is that this fund will be used to help students afford real-life experiences outside the classroom that lead to growth and employment opportunities.”

Korn, who grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts, believed he was best suited to attend a small liberal arts college. “I explored several schools in New England, and none of them felt quite right, so I expanded my search and took a road trip to Penn State,” he said. “I instantly knew it was exactly what I wanted. Penn State felt like what a college should feel like, and I loved the fact that you could do anything academically there — take any class or study any subject to really customize your experience.”

Korn entered Penn State hoping to launch a career as a producer for a television program like “60 Minutes” or public radio’s “This American Life.” The storytelling aspect of these shows and an internship with WPSU — Penn State’s National Public Radio affiliate station — led him to major in history and sociology.

A course in telecommunications, which included discussions about policy’s impact on television, radio and the internet, however, made him rethink his long-held ambitions, he said.

“I found it so interesting that I decided to take advantage of a sponsored trip to Washington, D.C. It included meetings with economists, members of Congress and their staff, and public interest groups,” he said. “One of the speakers would end up being my future boss at Netflix years later.”

Excited by the idea of working in telecommunications policy, Korn eventually applied for and was offered a position with the U.S. Department of Justice’s paralegal specialist program, where he was able to work in the telecommunications sector.

Once in Washington, Korn was able to maintain relationships with the people he met on the Penn State trip. “When a job opened up at Netflix to work on media policy, I was able to use the education and relationships from Penn State, along with my work experience at DOJ, to apply,” Korn said. He was named manager of global public policy in 2015 and was promoted to head of global innovation and technology public policy in 2019.

Sarah Korn is a graduate of Washington College in Maryland and works in e-commerce for Vivino, an online wine marketplace. She said she shares Josh’s enthusiasm for supporting students in public policy.

“Public policy is something Josh is really passionate about, so it seemed appropriate to get involved not only financially but through Josh’s role on the board of visitors,” Sarah said. “We are looking forward to being able to have an impact. It’s an exciting opportunity.” 

“Much of public policy work is about relationships and people and making connections,” Josh added. “Learning in the classroom is of course important, but actually doing the work is different, so I hope this fund will help students develop the skills and the relationships that will lead to fulfilling careers.”