“We See Tomorrow” – Making Our Potential A Reality At this year’s Homecoming celebration, 972 YSU supporters flocked to campus to set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Penguins. We think we succeeded – the previous record was 624 – but official verification from the folks at Guinness World Records will take some time. Meanwhile, a big thank you to everyone who came out to support this fun effort. Now, we want to tell you about another record-setting initiative, one that will shape the future of our university for years to come. Earlier this fall, we launched the

Editor I wanted to pass along a great experience I had recently, working as a volunteer with a wonderful young Penguin football player, Todd Brothers, at a Mahoning Valley Historical Society fundraiser. Todd is a Criminal Justice major from Connellsville, Pa. We talked about the Penguins’ winning football season in 2016, and I explained the efforts and excitement that Alumni Engagement staff, Alumni Society Board members and other alumni shared during the week of play-offs, culminating with a send-off event for the team on campus. Todd said he and his fellow team members were overwhelmed by

Covellis’ $1M Gift Supports Athletics Complex Generosity. Tradition. Community. Those were among the words President Jim Tressel used to thank Sam and Caryn Covelli for their recent $1 million gift to enhance and maintain YSU athletics facilities across from Stambaugh Stadium. “We are honored to partner with the Covellis to continue the dramatic improvement to the Fifth Avenue gateway and to enhance the campus learning experiences of our students,” Tressel said. “The affiliation with the Covelli family name, a name that speaks to excellence, is a blessing for YSU.” In recognition of the gift

The Rich Center for Autism Help and Hope for Families Facing Autism Farai Tsiga remembers the day he and his wife, Patience, received the difficult news that their 3-year-old son, Nathan, had been diagnosed with autism. “We got in the car and I told my wife, ‘I’m going to cry now, and I won’t cry about autism ever again.’ And we did that.” Tsiga, a research analyst, and his wife, a nurse, combined their expertise to find early intervention for Nathan. Living in Winchester, Va., at the time, they searched the East Coast, willing to relocate for the right fit. They found that public education

Classrooms of the Future Learning Stretched Beyond Four Walls Our society is engaged in a profound state of technological transition. Traditional, lecture-based, paper-centered learning environments are fading fast. YSU seeks to embrace this change and afford YSU students the most advanced learning environments available. The university’s overall goal is to create 18 “classrooms of the future” equipped with Cisco Spark Stations – touch-based collaboration devices that will expand the classroom beyond its four walls. Classrooms of the future have the potential to increase enrollment through a

Student Success Center Setting Students Up for Success from Day One Claire Berardini has had a busy first three months on the YSU campus. As associate provost for Student Success, Berardini is working to ensure that every student has access to a vibrant learning environment with everything they need to succeed at YSU. “It is important that we look at student success through the student’s eyes,” explained Berardini. “We want to focus on what the student needs, learn how they progress towards graduation and intentionally design the student experience to best support the student.” This is where

Endowed Faculty Positions Elevating Our Reputation, Enhancing the Community You only need to take a look at Jacob Ari Labendz’s Facebook profile photo to learn a little about his passion in life. The photo depicts the Brazilian visa of Leo Labendz, Jacob’s late great-grandfather, who, as the head of a Jewish family in Germany in 1939, moved to South America to escape Nazi persecution. “It’s one of many great reminders of my heritage and the many difficult struggles that people faced along the way,” he said. Stories of heritage and struggle and perseverance are, in many ways, at the center of

MVICC Revolutionizing the Region’s Manufacturing Sector Brian Benyo’s biggest challenge is not unlike many of his colleagues in the manufacturing sector. “We need to find a way to get more young people interested in manufacturing,” said Benyo, who, along with his brother, Alex, employs 250 people as the owners of Brilex Industries Inc., Taylor Winfield Technologies and Quality Machine in Youngstown. “We are constantly working at attracting and retaining skilled and motivated employees.” So, as the chair of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, Benyo set out to do something about it

Building Bridges Celebrating their first-place finish at the regional Steel Bridge Competition are YSU team members, from left, Leah McConnell, Julian Rosales, Kenny Anderson, Nico Pagley, David Mendenhall, Tommy Carnes, Jake Millerleile, Greg Lipp, Spencer DeSalvo, Montana Gessler, Karen Schilling and Miranda DeFuria. The 12-member team, an American Society of Civil Engineers YSU Student Chapter, went on to compete in the National Student Steel Bridge Competition at Oregon State University. Anwarul Islam, professor and chair of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, is the team’s

Work Opportunities, Scholarships Campus Jobs Build Confidence and Independence Confidence. Career clarity. Independence. Friendships. Ask Thi Pham what she gets out of working as a tutor in YSU’s Mathematics Assistance Center, and she’ll easily recite a host of benefits. In short, the junior Chemistry major says, working on campus has been life-changing for her. Pham, whose first name is pronounced like the letter T, said her parents emigrated from Vietnam when she was 15, settling in Columbus, Ohio, because they have family there. She knew very little English, but learned quickly, completed

CHAD ZALLOW: Breaking Records, Making His Mark Track and Field standout Chad Zallow spent the 2016-17 season hurdling his way past the competition and into the YSU history books. The sophomore Warren JFK grad made his mark as the first runner in school history to place in the top 10 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning him second-team All-American honors in the 110m hurdles. Earlier in the season, during the Indoor Championships, Zallow earned first-team All-American honors with a third-place finish in the 60M hurdles. Along the way he broke two school records, was named the Horizon

Penguin Pride is on the rise YSU alumni, in partnership with the university’s office of Alumni Engagement, have more than doubled the number of active regional alumni groups across the country – growing the total from eight to 18 so far in 2017. Regional alumni events have included the communities of Cleveland, Columbus, Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Savannah/Hilton Head, Tampa Bay, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, N.C. “We found ways to harness the enthusiasm generated by our National Championship Watch Parties and focus that positive energy toward the creation or

Youngstown State University and the YSU Foundation have launched the public phase of the historic $100 million “We See Tomorrow” fundraising campaign. “We start the public phase of this campaign at a time of great momentum for the university,” President Jim Tressel said at a dinner in Stambaugh Auditorium to kick off the largest fundraising effort in YSU’s 109-year history. “But as important as that progress has been, it only sets the stage for much more to come.” Tressel and Jocelyne Kollay Linsalata, Foundation chair, announced that the campaign has already surpassed the $50 million mark

Helping Flint Water Crisis Victims Face an Uncertain Future Dan Russell, ’75 BS Dan Russell stumbled the other day, and it worried him a little. He didn’t fall, he wasn’t hurt, but he wondered … “Could it be the water?” A YSU alum, Russell works in Flint, Mich., where a water contamination crisis exposed 100,000 residents to lead poisoning for 18 months. Now, they struggle with lingering doubts and mental anguish about long-term effects. Parents of more than 8,000 children who drank the lead-laced water are especially anxious, and justifiably so. Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage the

Offering the Homeless a Hand Up John Muckridge III, ’05 BSBA John Muckridge III can tell some great success stories – like the one about the homeless man who came to the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley with nothing but the clothes on his back. Two years later, he moved out on his own, employed and with $9,000 saved to buy a house. But not every story has a happy ending for the president and CEO of Youngstown’s only homeless shelter, his staff and volunteers. “So many people go back to heroin,” he said. “We see that a lot.” Muckridge never imagined he’d be committed to fighting

Battling the Opiate Epidemic Shaena Taylor, ’08 BS Somewhere in the shadows, in secret labs all over the world, criminal chemists are working to create new forms of highly addictive and potentially deadly opioids. Shaena Taylor uses chemistry, too, as she works to halt the deadly opiate epidemic. As senior chemist in the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Regional Crime Lab, she analyzes the chemical makeup of an ever-changing array of narcotics seized in the greater Cleveland area every day. “We’re on the front lines, helping local, state and federal law enforcement to prosecute criminals,”

Thwarting Terrorism Pedro Cortes, Associate Professor, Engineering Cortes came to YSU in 2010 because he liked the university’s emphasis on hands-on research experience for students, and he was excited to join the faculty of the newly established Materials Science PhD program. He divides his time equally between teaching Materials Science and Chemical Engineering classes and his laboratory research, which usually involves students. He began working on a nano-biochemical sensor to detect explosives around 2009 at New Mexico State University, where he was an adjunct professor of Engineering

He was seated on a plane to Mexico City with his wife and two children, heading off for a much-anticipated family vacation, when Pedro Cortes recognized how crucial his research is – and how urgent. Cortes, an associate professor of Engineering at YSU, is working on a process that could simply and quickly detect the presence of super explosives – tiny, easy-to-conceal devices that terrorists have used to kill and destroy. He realized at that moment, waiting for takeoff, how his research could add a crucial layer of protection for his family, and for millions of other travelers everyday

When Carla Simonini moved from Rhode Island to Ohio seven years ago, she brought with her a well-defined East Coast perspective. “I had no idea there was such a strong Italian American presence in Ohio,” said Simonini, associate professor and director of Italian in YSU’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. “I was amazed. The focus in Italian American studies is so skewed toward New York and large urban centers. These smaller places not on either coast get overlooked.” Simonini, who holds a PhD in Italian Studies from Brown University, is able to share that broader perspective as

Youngstown State University’s recycling program has a lot to brag about, with a first-place finish in the state of Ohio and a 21st place finish overall in the 2017 RecycleMania competition. YSU is one of 18 Ohio schools that participate in the eight-week contest. RecycleMania challenges colleges and universities across the United States and Canada to compete to see who can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. “YSU’s recycling rate of 61 percent is well above the national average (approx. 35 percent),” said Dan Kuzma, manager of YSU’s recycling programs. “To reach that benchmark

Patient-Centered Research at the Cleveland Clinic Dr. Serpil Erzurum, ’79 BS She runs one of the largest research centers in the country with a $250 million annual budget – but Dr. Serpil Erzurum is most content when she’s caring for a patient or immersed in research. “That’s why my lab is right outside my office door,” she said. “I’m leading research, so I have to be surrounded by research.” A 1979 YSU grad, Dr. Erzurum is chair of the Lerner Research Institute, the research arm of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic Board of Governors named her to the top job last summer after a

Alumni Connect in the High Desert of New Mexico Chaouki Abdallah, ’81 BE • Bob Davie, ’77 BSEd For years, Burger King told its customer to “Have It Your Way.” For Chaouki Abdallah, the answer was simple – frozen. It was 1979. Abdallah had just immigrated to the United States from his native Lebanon. He was a 20-year-old freshman at YSU, and Wednesday was the biggest day of the week - Whoppers at Burger King were on sale for 50 cents each. “We were living under limited funds,” Abdallah recalls with a chuckle. “So, me and my roommates would go and buy like five or six Whoppers each and freeze

YSU’s Class of 2021 has arrived on campus with promising credentials: as a group it boasts the highest standardized test scores and high school grade point averages in university history. Get to know our newest YSU Penguins!

1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's 2010's ’70s Volunteering as a clown at Naples Community Hospital’s Healing Arts program is one way that alumna Elizabeth “Betsy” Braun Andreini-Thomas of Naples, Fla., ’72 BSEd in Elementary Education, is making the most of her retirement years. She also accepted a cashier position recently at Publix Super Markets, a Fortune 100 grocery store chain that employs people into their 90s. Over the course of her career, she worked in financial services and lived in Portland, Maine, New York City, London and San Francisco. She made plans to return to Poland, Ohio, this

Since 2013, YSU Magazine has been sharing the love stories of married YSU couples in our popular “Penguin Mates” column. We introduced the couples featured below in the Fall 2017 print edition – you can read about how they met and see all their photos here. Tom Dailey, ’75 BSBA, ’87 BSEd, and Marlene Maurer Dailey, ’87 AAB, ’90 BSAS, ’96 MBA, were married July 29, 1972, in Youngstown. They live in Austintown, Ohio and both are retired. How we met … We didn't meet at YSU but I think we were both students at the time. It was a blind date on December 4, 1965 and, even though we graduated from