Each summer, dozens of chapters across the nation host sendoff events for Penn State students from their area. From Maine to Texas, those student sendoff events were in full swing all summer—giving incoming Penn State students a warm introduction to the Penn State family before heading off to campus.

“While freshmen may have seen the campus during tours, I don’t think they really get the full Penn State picture until they go to the sendoff and find themselves surrounded by a family that supports them, wishes them good fortune, and truly believes that they will succeed in college,” said Lindsay Pino, an upperclassmen who has attended the Maine-New Hampshire Chapter’s sendoff picnics for the last few years.

About a dozen students and their families came out for the sendoff picnic hosted by the Greater Hampton Roads Chapter at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va. “It was nice to meet other Penn State incoming freshmen from my area and get in contact with a few of them,” said Scott Brubaker Jr., a first-year Health and Human Development student at Penn State Berks.

The Delaware Chapter sendoff picnic, hosted at the home of Edna Bennett Pierce ’53 and Bud Pierce ’50, included 10 freshmen and three returning students from the area. “The Delaware Chapter freshmen sendoff picnic is a wonderful event,” said Theresa Diehl, an upperclassman who attended the picnic. “It gives students an opportunity to hear about college from a student’s perspective in a friendly and laid back environment.”

For more info and tips on planning student sendoff events, go to www.alumni.psu.edu/groups/volunteer/sendoff.htm.

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