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| Young
Walter Robb takes a Penn State class.
Photo
courtesy of Walter Robb |
For a bright high school student, study hall
was a time for talking with his best buddy. To
keep Walter Robb occupied, the principal handed
him a catalog of Penn State's correspondence courses.
Robb signed up for Radio Technology.
"Every week, I had four pages of the workbook
to complete and send to the professor," he
said. "It would come back corrected with
a note of encouragement. It was terrific."
For part of the course, Robb built a crystal radio
and gathered "information about radio frequency
technology I have used all my life." A crystal
radio is a receiver that powers itself.
When he enrolled at Penn State's University Park
campus in 1945, he signed up to take chemistry,
then switched to chemical engineering, thinking
it would be more challenging.
He completed his bachelor's degree in three years.
He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in three years
at the University of Illinois.
In 1951, Robb joined General Electric Company
as a chemical engineer, where he would spend the
next 42 years.
When then-Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch asked
him to run the Medical Systems Division, Robb
recalls telling him he didn't know anything about
medical technology, but Welch told him, "The
important thing is, you know me, and I know you."
In 1973, the company was starting its work with
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, which
involves the application of very specialized radio-frequency
waves to provide information about body tissue.
Robb had learned about radio frequencies in the
Radio Technology course and was able to use this
knowledge to further the development of MRI technology
at GE.
When he retired from GE in 1992, he established
Vantage Management Inc. in Schenectady, N.Y.,
to pursue management consulting and personal investments.
Penn State ranks high among his interests. He
and his wife Anne have generously contributed
to the University for more than 40 years.
Robb recently requested a catalog highlighting
the many programs offered through Penn State's
World Campus, the online, 21st century version
of correspondence education. For someone who values
learning, the quest for knowledge never ends.
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| Tents
at the Grange Fair |
Penn State Public Broadcasting Director Joe Myers
has always been interested in doing a documentary
on the 130-year-old Centre County Grange and Encampment
Fair, the only encampment fair in the country.
“There is so much passion involved,”
said Myers, adding that the fair’s tenting
phenomenon—in which participants set up
and stay in tents for a week that look like home,
with couches and carpets—is “completely
unique.”
The program on the fair—scheduled to air
on WPSX-TV in August, when the fair runs—focuses
on those who take part in the festivities.
“These people work hard. Ten-year-old kids
get up at 5 a.m. to take care of animals, because
they take great pride in what they do,”
he said.
Fair board president Joe Hartle says a documentary
will help serve as a promotion. “With each
generation, children are getting further away
from farming. The fair is a good way to learn
about it.”
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The latest version of this testing of minutiae
includes the question: “What did Jerry Greenfield
and Ben Cohen learn to make in a 1978 Penn State
correspondence course?” The answer, of course,
is ice cream.
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The new World Campus Master of
Statistics program—for a professional degree
intended to lead to a job in the business world—recently
graduated its first class. Graduate Stephanie
T. Lanza remarked, "... The program provided
me with training and credentials that are widely
marketable and that will help me achieve my goals
in the social sciences."
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NPR’s
Melissa Block joins in 50th-anniversary
festivities.
Jeff
Bundy—Penn State Public Broadcasting
|
NPR's Melissa Block helped WPSU-FM celebrate
its 50th anniversary this fall.
"I'm glad radio still has a future. It's
the only thing I've ever done," the co-host
of All Things Considered said during
"The Future of Radio" panel discussion,
which she moderated. She has covered breaking
news and human-interest stories for NPR since
1985.
"For more than 30 years, people have turned
to National Public Radio for stories that have
a sense of authenticity. It's real people and
real voices they are hearing. Our interviews and
storytelling transport you to another place and
time," she said.
WPSU got its start as student station WDFM in
1953, changing its call letters to WPSU in 1984.
Since 1995, WPSU has been part of Penn State Public
Broadcasting and now reaches more than 450,000
listeners in central Pennsylvania.
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Ice
champ Cohen logs on to World Campus in free
time.
Photo
courtesy of Collins Marshall Management
|
Top figure skater Sasha Cohen's priority these days
is training. Nearly two years ago the 19-year-old
moved with her family from California to Connecticut
to work with the Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova,
who has instructed 12 Olympic champions. And recently,
in a strategic move, she left Tarasova for Robin
Wagner, the coach for gold-medal winner Sarah Hughes.
Despite days full of competitions and practice,
Cohen—who graduated from high school in 2002—manages
to take the time to study nutrition with the World
Campus, Penn State's Distance Education program.
Cohen said that she really wanted to continue her
education, and her schedule is so hectic that her
possibilities were limited. "I realized that
working at my own pace through correspondence was
exactly what I was looking for."
Cohen describes the "ease" of interacting
online with the World Campus, taking advantage of
blocks of downtime to log on to her class whenever
she can.
NHL hockey star Adam Graves is another well-known
athlete who likes the convenience of the World
Campus.
"When you play professional sports, you
have time to yourself at odd hours," said
Graves, who is pursuing an associate degree in
letters, arts and sciences. "I can study
if I'm home from practice early in the afternoon
or, if I'm on the road, I'll study instead of
watching TV." Sometimes Graves studies at
night to relax after he puts his three young children
to bed.
He added, "My wife has a degree, and I'd
like to finish, so that we can push our children
to do the same."
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