Centre Daily Times
Penn State Business School Giving Something Back

By Gwenn Miller

UNIVERSITY PARK - When several State College area organizations reached out for help, they didn't have to stretch very far. Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration was able to offer the kind of help that organizations such as The Second Mile and State Theatre Inc. needed. Whether it was an economic-impact study or public relations needs, faculty and students responded as part of Smeal's Community Outreach Initiative.

The initiative is the vision of Dean Judy Olian, who sees it as more than just image-building for the college.

"What was very important to me was that we, as a business school, contribute to the community in which we live," Olian said. "We have certain expertise that we can contribute in terms of business and economics."

One entity that received a great deal of that expertise is The Second Mile, an organization designed to benefit children through various programs and services.

Three groups in Andrew Bergstein's Marketing 310 class were looking for ways to create statewide awareness of the organization.

Each group took on the role of a public relations firm. Each suggested contacting media outlets in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and decided the most effective marketing strategies could be achieved through television commercials, advertisements, stories in newspapers and even vacant billboards.

But each group also presented its own ideas.

One group suggested producing a promotional calendar to highlight the children helped by The Second Mile and create awareness of fund-raisers.

Molly Bryan Kunkel, assistant director of development at The Second Mile, said the organization liked involving the students.

"It's certainly something we'd be interested in pursuing further," Kunkel said of the group's idea for a big fund-raising event. "I think it's a great idea and provides more exposure of The Second Mile to students," she said.

Students also came up with ideas to bolster various downtown State College projects.

"The challenge is how do you maintain a vibrant and vital downtown?" Bergstein said. "If the core is not vibrant and healthy, there have been many cases where there has been a negative effect on an entire region."

The Penn State Economics Association provided a crucial step in State Theatre Inc.'s development by preparing an economic-impact study the theater could present to corporations in order to gain funding.

"This gave us a chance to actually apply what we learned in our classes," Economics Association President Allie Martin said. "It was a really good experience with teamwork."

Copyright 2003 Centre Daily Times

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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