It’s a sign of just how popular our “We Are … Around the World” section has become that we’re now getting submissions from nonalumni—although in this case, I’d say they’re very much Penn Staters.

Pictured above is my brother-in-law, my grandmother (who will celebrate her 94th birthday right around the time this issue hits mailboxes), my sister, and my mom, who brought our November/December 2023 issue with them last year on a Panama Canal cruise. None of them actually attended Penn State, but they all qualify as honorary alums in my book. My mom left the West Coast for State College a few years ago and is a regular at Nittany Lion soccer and hockey games; my sister has been a regular visitor over the years and has stuck it out through some of the coldest Beaver Stadium game days (and tailgates) on record. And Grandma? She watches every Penn State football game from her home in California and invariably texts me to celebrate or lament the outcome.

That I wouldn’t have run this one in place of an actual alumni submission speaks to just how many such photos we receive—on average, three or four times as many as we’ve got room to include in any given issue. It’s a great problem to have; we love that so many of our readers are bringing the Penn Stater along on their travels. But, as with the submissions we receive for our feature collections of reader memories—such as the college jobs feature on p. 42—getting a lot more than we’ve got space to run inevitably means we can’t accommodate everyone.

We occasionally hear from readers who are disappointed to have been left out, and we get it. We’ll keep doing our best to include as many as we can, and we appreciate your understanding of the math we’re up against. For what it’s worth, we do tend to have space to spare in the Class Notes section, so whether it’s a wedding, a retirement, a new job, or a new child, please do send that news our way—the odds there are on your side.

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

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