Student Leader Legacy Scholarship Awarded at Penn College

Fundraising efforts by Pennsylvania College of Technology's Student Government Association have resulted in another scholarship award for a returning student.

Justin A. Ball, of Sandy Ridge, accepted the Student Leader Legacy Scholarship award at the 2008-09 Student Activities Awards Banquet on April 29. Ball is a graduate of Philipsburg-Osceola Senior High School. He is a sophomore in Penn College's business administration: management concentration bachelor-degree major.

The Student Leader Legacy Scholarship was established by SGA in 2007 to encourage and reward student leadership. Recipients are selected from applicants with a grade-point average of at least 2.5 and a minimum of one year of full-time status remaining in their studies, who have demonstrated through activities on campus and in the surrounding communities a strong determination to continue the legacy of student leadership at Penn College.

Ball serves as a community assistant and on the Wildcat Welcome Team and assists with the Connections freshman orientation program. He has also volunteered for several events, including Walk-It-Out (a mini-Relay for Life benefiting the American Cancer Society) and a Habitat for Humanity project. He is the brotherhood chairman for the Penn College chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity, and he was recently elected 2009-10 president of the college's Inter-Greek Council. He will also serve as a resident assistant in the upcoming academic year.

Ball is the first recipient of an award of $1,000 from the Student Leader Legacy Scholarship. An award of $500 was made in the first year the scholarship was available, and the SGA made two awards of $500 last year.

Last year's recipients, Mark R. Capellazzi, Rochester, N.Y., and Andrew R. Christoffel, Lancaster, presented Ball with a symbolic scholarship check at the awards banquet.

The SGA raised a record total of more than $4,500 for the scholarship fund in 2008-09 through a car show, a bread and pastry sale, a silent auction, and appeals to students and employees to "Feed the Pig" by dropping change in a large piggy bank in the Bush Campus Center. The SGA had set a goal of raising $2,500 for the scholarship fund.

James F. Finkler, annual giving officer at Penn College, advised SGA's Executive Board on its efforts to raise funds and to educate other students about the importance of philanthropy. In remarks at the Student Activities Awards Banquet, Finkler said, "It really shows how a small donation each from a lot of people, whether it's students or alumni, can make a big difference for students at Penn College."

Finkler noted the exceptional work of the 2008-09 SGA Executive Board in leading the student fundraising efforts.

The Student Leader Legacy Scholarship Fund is designed to generate annual scholarship awards while building to an endowment of at least $25,000, at which time it will become a permanent source of scholarship awards at Penn College.

Pennsylvania College of Technology is a special mission affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University committed to applied technology education. For general information about Penn College, visit online , e-mail or call toll-free 800-367-9222.

For information about making a gift to support Penn College and its students, visit on the Web (includes an online-giving option), call the Institutional Advancement Office toll- free at 866-GIVE 2 PC, or e-mail .