It’s a race consisting of eighty-six, all with one goal in mind. That goal involves trying to make Penn State a better place by being a member of the Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees. An August graduate and skeptic of corporate executive boards, it wasn’t until I met Dr. Joanne C. DiRinaldo that I realized not all people run for a position such as this with a purely business focused agenda.

One of the most admirable qualities I found in Joanne versus other candidates was her integrity and unique mentality. With a strong business acumen and background in business development, she maintains the perfect balance of corporate mentality with the heart of an educator. She genuinely cares for the Penn State student body, and wants to ensure our University becomes a better place. Dr. DiRinaldo wants all Penn Staters to receive equal emphasis on the importance of their education, and not have campus choice be the sole indicator. She desires the BOT’s to increase focus on satellite campuses and establish a more centralized form of governance to unite all, for more. 

In addition, she believes Penn State should offer more scholarships to students to further retain talent at the university. One thing I can testify as a former student, Penn State does not offer a lot of scholarships and this would be tremendously beneficial. Who wouldn’t want to see more Penn Staters graduate with less debt?

Aside from emphasizing the need to create more opportunities to help students, Dr. DiRinaldo stressed to me the integral urgency for more elected alumni representation on the board. Similar in structure to a corporate executive board, the current Penn State BOT has less than 25% publicly elected representation. She feels the alumni body deserve more voice in the decisions and protocol of how the board handles managing Penn State.

It is with full confidence and trust in her values as not only a candidate but as a person that I urge you to vote for her in the upcoming April election. I’ve had the chance to personally meet Dr. DiRinaldo, and let me say I think it’s rare for a BOT candidate to meet personally with a young graduate just to hear her story and thoughts on how Penn State could be made a better place. So I leave you with these simple thoughts in mind and a strong emphasis on,if you want a Board of Trustees that’s great, vote #28…

…WE ARE PENN STATE AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

REQUEST A BALLOT BY E-MAILING BOT@PSU.EDU .

FOR THE GLORY.