From the Editor
A Place to Call Home

The Hintz Family Alumni Center celebrates 25 years as a beacon for alumni, a gathering place for students, and your Alumni Association HQ.

photo of stone signage outside Hintz Family Alumni Center by Nick Sloff '92 A&A
By Ryan Jones '95 Com

 

For those of us who work at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, it can be easy sometimes to take for granted how lucky we are. The reminders come from our visitors—current and future students, peers from other institutions, community members, and of course our returning alumni—who unfailingly remark on the impressive architecture, the welcoming environment, and the surrounding natural beauty that draw students like a magnet on warm spring afternoons. Truly, this place is a treasure.

Hintz family, courtesyThe building itself has been on my mind a lot lately, not only because this year marks its 25th birthday, but because of something I’ve noticed increasingly—let’s call it an evolution in nomenclature. Depending on why, and how often, you’re here—and also, perhaps, depending on your age—you might refer to it as the “alumni center” or, in email shorthand, “HFAC.” In the nearly 20 years I’ve been here, more often than not I’ve simply called it “Hintz.” But lately—and I give our Lion Ambassadors and Blue & White Society students, who spend so much time here, credit for the subtle tweak—I’m hearing it more and more referred to as “the Hintz.”

What matters is that, in every case, these nicknames are affectionate ones. That’s a sentiment I had a chance to share briefly with the building’s namesakes and primary benefactors, Ed ’59 Bus and Helen Skade Hintz ’60 H&HD, when they were in town for a football weekend last fall: That for everyone to whom this building means so much, their family name represents a generous commitment to Penn State’s past, and to its future.

Ryan Jones sig

Ryan Jones ’95 Com  |  Editor
ryanjones@psu.edu  |  @RJPennStater

 

P.S. Congrats to our intern, Sarah Grosch, who will start her journalism career at WMAZ-TV in Macon, Ga., after she graduates in May. Sarah’s done great work with our video and social media content over the past two years. We can’t wait to see where her talent and Penn State education take her.

 

More online

spread of PSAA 150th anniversary featureLOVE AND LOYALTY: While we’re on the topic of milestones, what better time to revisit our feature on the Alumni Association’s 150th birthday from our Jan./Feb. 2020 issue?

 

spread of Zena Cardman featureBACK ON EARTH: In January, Zena Cardman returned from a five-month mission to the International Space Station. She starred on our Sept./Oct. 2017 cover, which came out after the then-Ph.D. student was named to NASA’s latest astronaut class.