Posts filed under ‘Hintz Family Alumni Center’
More Ducklings Than You Could Possibly Imagine (with Video)
Ever since the alumni center grounds were re-landscaped a few years ago and the pond was enlarged, we’ve had ducks.
It began with a pair of mallards one year, and then they started a family, and then somehow the word got around in Duckland that the Hintz Family Alumni Center was the place to be. Last year especially was a banner year for ducklings (you can read earlier blog entries on the subject here and here), and this year, sure enough, they came back again—at one point in late February, I think it was, we counted about 35 adult ducks milling around the alumni gardens.
About two weeks ago we spotted our first ducklings of the year (here’s a photo from the other day), and now we have multiple families of them scurrying over the lawn. It’s quite a show. Yesterday I went outside with our Flip video camera and shot a little footage, and our associate editor, Amy Guyer, edited it for me. It’s 97 seconds’ worth of duck babies. Enjoy.
Tina Hay, editor
New Arrivals
Here’s a quick shot of some of the Alumni Center’s newest neighbors. The ducklings have taken over the alumni gardens and have been drawing quite the crowd. It must be rough to be that cute.
Jessie Knuth,
graphic designer
A Newbie Takes a Penn State Campus Tour
I’m new to Penn State. What I’ve learned about campus since moving to Central PA a few months ago comes from old issues of The Penn Stater, watching President Spanier’s State of the University address, and walking my dog around the Alumni Center on Saturday afternoons.
So when the kickoff committee for the University’s new fundraising campaign needed volunteers for a test run of its upcoming “Day in the Life” campus tour, I hopped on board — literally. We drove around campus Wednesday afternoon in those lovely blue buses which our graphic designer, Jessie Knuth, also new to campus, pointed out resemble prison buses in Indiana, where she’s from.
That is one thing I learned on the three-hour tour. Most everything else I learned has to do with Penn State:
1) Redifer Commons serves 6,000 meals a day. None of these meals were served to me at 9:30 a.m., but that does not change the fact that I wanted one. And Redifer Dining Hall smells fabulous, which was unfortunate for me — all I could think about was food as we bumped along Pollock Road on our bus.
2) The Business Building also smells really, really good. As we walked around, I got hints of coffee and pastries in some spots, and then clean, flowery, soapy whiffs in other areas.
3) Pollock Road is just wide enough for two fire trucks to squeeze through. Good to know.
4) The Gateway to the Sciences (above), the stretch of Shortlidge Road stolen from cars and gifted to pedestrians a few years ago, is the most popular student space. Gordon Turow, director of campus planning and design, told us this with a smile on his face —apparently drivers created quite the hubbub when architects first suggested the idea.5) The fountain in front of the HUB is not abstract art. It was designed to emulate the bedrock of Pennsylvania. Speaking of bedrock, you know the Millennium Science Complex that’s under construction? Its foundations are built on bedrock, which Turow says is essential for the super sensitive microscopes needed for the nanotechnology research that’ll be conducted in the building come this fall.
And those are the things a Penn State newbie picks up on her first campus tour. Obviously students have it pretty good, taste-bud-wise, because now all I can think about, again, is food. Yum.
Amy Guyer, associate editor
The REAL Photos From That Snowy Penn State Wedding
One of our most popular posts of the past week has been the one where I stumbled onto a wedding party getting photos taken in the snow on campus. I suspect that the bride and groom, Kaitlin Infield ’07 and Nick Bevins ’07, are the ones who have helped that post go viral, by forwarding the link to their (apparently many) friends.
Anyway, the professional photographer who was hired for the wedding—Amanda Kraft of Lancaster—has just posted some of her shots from that day. You can see them here. Be sure to check out the shot at the Nittany Lion Shrine. And that cake, by Kim Morrison ’76—wow.
Tina Hay, editor
A Snowy Penn State Wedding
I happened to be driving through campus yesterday and noticed a wedding party getting photos taken at the Nittany Lion Shrine—in the snow. It was a great scene, and I did happen to have my camera with me, but by the time I pulled my car over and got out, I was too late: The photo shoot was over, and everyone was piling back into “Molly Trolley,” which they had apparently rented for the day.
Oh well, I figured, and I drove on.
But then it occurred to me that they might be going somewhere else for more photos, so I turned the car around and followed the trolley. As they headed down Burrowes Road past the IST Building, I had a suspicion they would turn into the lot for the Alumni Center, which has become a popular place for wedding photos.
I was right.
I tagged along as the wedding photographer set up some shoots at the gazebo and the bridge (Ridge Riley’s Bridge, it’s officially called) outside our offices. The bride and groom turn out to be Kaitlin Infield ’07 and Nicholas Bevins ’07, who were getting married on New Year’s Eve in Eisenhower Chapel. The photo shoot took place about an hour before the wedding, and the snowfall we had gotten in the morning made a perfect backdrop.
Here’s a collage of three shots I took; click on them to see them bigger:
I should mention that the photographer (Amanda Kraft of Lancaster) was a good sport in tolerating my presence at her photo shoot. I learned long ago from my brother Chris, who is a professional photographer, that if an amateur photographer—or any friend or family member with a camera—shows up at a wedding shoot, it can be an unwelcome distraction. The professional photographer ends up with images where half of the wedding party is looking at the camera and the other half is looking off at something else (like me, in this case).
So, in retrospect, I don’t actually recommend doing what I did yesterday. But I thought you’d enjoy seeing the result.
Tina Hay, editor
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From One Veteran Among Many, A Reminder To Say “Thanks”
As part of its Veterans Day coverage, Wednesday’s Daily Collegian profiled local World War II vet Joe Tomczuk. He’s not a Penn State alum, but he’s part of our extended family, and we just had to share.
Joe’s wife, Kay, is a colleague of ours—often the first voice you hear or the first face you see if you call or visit the Hintz Family Alumni Center, and just flat-out one of our favorite people. Their children are Joan Schweitzer ’82 and Paul ’85, and I’m sure they join us today in thanking their dad, and all the other veterans of wars past and present.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Jim Zarroli Leads a Roundtable for Us
We held the roundtable in Robb Hall of the Hintz Family Alumni Center. (Click to see bigger version.)
A project I’ve been working on for the last several months finally came to fruition today, when a group of key campus leaders came to the alumni center to talk about college costs and affordability.
Penn State has long prided itself on providing an affordable education to the sons and daughters of the working class—that’s what a land-grant school is supposed to do, after all—but that mission is a tough one to uphold in the face of shrinking state appropriations, a nationwide recession, and other challenges.
NPR's Jim Zarroli ’79 moderated the discussion.
So we brought together some major players to discuss these issues in Robb Hall at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, and we were especially happy to have NPR business correspondent Jim Zarroli ’79 drive in from New York to moderate the discussion.
The panelists were Anna Griswold, executive director of student aid at Penn State; Don Heller, a faculty member in the College of Education and director of Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education; Gavin Keirans, president of the University Park Undergraduate Association; Rod Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni relations; and Rob Pangborn, vice president for undergraduate education.
Don Heller and Anna Griswold were among the five panelists.
What did they talk about? I don’t know—I was too busy running around with a camera and periodically stopping back to make sure the audio recorder was working. I did catch some bits of conversation about how facilities construction and upgrades at Penn State are funded … about the role of the University’s capital campaign in raising money for more scholarships … and about the latest news out of Harrisburg about Penn State’s appropriation and how it may hinge on casinos adding table games.
I’ve already shipped the recording off to a transcriptionist, who will return it to us as a text document; from there we’ll edit it down and print it as a feature in our January-February issue.
Tina Hay, editor
Romeo & Juliet On Our Lawn
Unlike our senior editor Lori Shontz ’91, I am not a Shakespeare geek. In fact, I think I probably had never in my life seen a Shakespearean play performed until this week. But when the School of Theatre brought a production of Romeo & Juliet to the lawn right outside our offices in the Hintz Family Alumni Center, I definitely wanted to check it out.
So I went to opening night on Tuesday—and I went back to see the second performance the next night. I might well have considered going to the closing performance Thursday, except that we got the now-famous Earliest Snowstorm in State College History and the finale was canceled.
Undergraduate students Gilbert L. Bailey II and Leah Mueller played the lead roles in the production.
Romeo & Juliet was, in a word, terrific. The cast—made up entirely of undergrad and grad students—was first-rate, and the costuming and set design were pretty cool too. This was the School of Theatre’s first-ever outdoor production at University Park, and you can see from the photos that this was no small-scale effort—they went all out. We’ve been watching for the past couple of weeks as the crew re-landscaped the area directly below our magazine offices, constructed a stage, installed bushes and trellises, rigged up lights and sound, and stashed costumes and props in various rooms on our first floor.
I’m serious when I say I had never seen Romeo & Juliet. Going into the first performance, here’s everything I knew about the play: Boy and girl come from feuding families, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl can’t be together because their families don’t get along, boy and girl kill themselves over it.
At the masquerade ball hosted by Lord and Lady Capulet, Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love.
So, on the first night, I had a little trouble figuring out who was who and exactly what was taking place at any given moment. (This is not the fault of the cast or crew—instead you can blame whoever at my high school said I could take a double-math track and skip literature.)
But I certainly got the gist of the story, and I was blown away by the authenticity and passion of the performances. I was even more impressed when I read the program later and learned that the leads were played by undergrads: Romeo was played by Gilbert L. Bailey II, a senior in the musical theatre program, and the role of Juliet was played by Leah Muller, a sophomore music education major. (A sophomore. And not even a theatre major!)
Tybalt (MFA acting student Nathan James) challenges Romeo to a duel.
Another one who stood out for me was Derek Biddle, a senior musical theatre major, who played the role of Lord Capulet—Juliet’s father—with great intensity.
When he tells his daughter he has arranged for her to marry Count Paris, and she resists—since, after all, she has already secretly married Romeo—Lord Capulet’s fury at her lack of respect is so authentic. He bellows at her, he slaps her, she cowers. It’s enough to give you shivers.
And, of course, I loved the famous “balcony scene,” which was adapted in this case to show Juliet in an alumni center window (Lori Shontz’s office window, actually), talking romantically with Romeo as he clung to the trellis next to the window.
Juliet discovers that Romeo has taken his own life.
It was fun to see the production two nights in a row—I got even more out of it the second time. Now I can tell you all about the street brawl, the masquerade ball at the Capulet home, the duel in which Benvolio is killed, the duel after that in which Tybalt is killed, all that stuff. But you probably knew all that anyway. Unlike me, you probably studied Shakespeare at one time or another.
Despite temperatures in the 40s, the show attracted an audience of about 1,400 over the two nights of its run; the alumni center lawn was just packed with people sitting in folding chairs and on blankets. And, if you missed it, you can watch it on the Web—thanks to a partnership with the World Campus and the College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Tina Hay, editor
Romeo and Juliet in 45-Degree Weather
I went to last night’s University Resident Theatre Company production of Romeo & Juliet, held on the Hintz Family Alumni Center lawn, right outside our offices. Hoo boy, was it cold—45 degrees, according to the weather app on my iPhone, though it felt even colder than that. But what a great show, and what a fun place to have it.
Check out a Collegian story about the show here.
They’ll be doing it again tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30. Admission is free. I highly recommend it (but definitely bundle up). And if you can’t make it, check out the webcast.
Tina Hay, editor
We’re Getting Used to This Romeo & Juliet Thing
Lately our building has been overrun with students and others from the School of Theatre who are getting ready for next week’s outdoor production of Romeo & Juliet, which will take place right outside the Hintz Family Alumni Center.
All kinds of people have been tromping through Ryan and Lori’s offices, dangling cables out the windows, and banging and sawing on the stage they’re constructing below. Downstairs you can barely walk without running into a huge equipment case—or one of the stagehands.
We often talk about how important it is for those of us on the alumni magazine staff to get out of our offices and see what’s going on around campus. So in spite of the noise and clutter, we actually kind of appreciate the fact that a campus event is going on right under our noses.
Late yesterday afternoon I stuck a camera out our bathroom window and took the photo above, just to give you an idea of how much work they’ve put into the project. Click on it to see it bigger.
By the way, there are two giant ladder-like trellises like the grey one you see on the left-hand side; I’m not sure whether actual actors will actually climb up and down those during the course of the production. (One of the ladders is anchored by rope to the handicapped railing in our bathroom—it seems like an accident just waiting to happen.)
We’re all looking forward to seeing the actual performance, which takes place next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (Oct. 13, 14, and 15) at 6:30 p.m. on the alumni center lawn. It’s free and no tickets are required. More info here.
Tina Hay, editor
P.S. You can get snippets of Penn State-related news even more often by following me on Twitter.
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