SEN Intern: What year did you graduate? What was your major?
Jeremy Frank:
BS Mechanical Engineering – 1997
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering – 2001
MBA World Campus – 2005
As you can see, I am over-educated and 100% inbred with PSU education, which I am glad for. But, if I fail it reflects poorly on all aspects of Penn State, so I must not!
SEN: Can you tell us a bit about your experience in you various engagement experiences while at Penn State? How has that impacted your current role? Are there any skills or interests you found in that experience that lead you to your current role?
J: Penn State – really Happy Valley – is glorious, and that is a big reason why I ended up staying here initially and building a business here (I grew up in Pittsburgh). I had so many experiences during my time at Penn State that were formative for my career and life, so I can only hit the highlights.
I joined Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity my fall semester freshman year, 1993. The friendships and connections I made through that experience are the most impactful element of my PSU experience. Nearly all of my lifelong friends are Phi Sigs, and quite a few business associates also, plus our company’s top sales generator! Our fraternity was very fortunate because we had a strong mentor – Bear Koehler, who was a Professor of Accounting at PSU and a Phi Sig from the ‘50s. He was passionate about developing character among the members, and this impacted me and so many others in so many ways that I cannot attempt to properly. I believe in the fraternity system if managed well, and am also aware of the tragedies that happen when it is not managed well. I hope that students can find this balance and seek out organizations that develop character and seek to build leaders out of the men & women of Penn State.
In 1993, I was asked to participate in the Dance Marathon. I declined, because I was not a good dancer and mistakenly thought it was a dance competition. The next year, my roommate and I joined the Public Relations Committee, despite neither of us having any skill or experience in Public Relations or anything meaningful to contribute. We were interested in meeting people. Remarkably, we were selected for the committee. Although unsuccessful in our work on the committee, our plan worked and I met Amy Stacy, who was a valuable member of the committee. We have been married for almost 20 years and have four children and a joy-filled family together. Amy ultimately became the overall PR chair in 1997, and I danced in 1996 with several of my Phi Sig brothers and best friends!
I came to Penn State because of the Schreyer Honors College, and would otherwise have ended up at a more “prestigious” engineering school – MIT or CMU. I wanted a top-notch challenging education, but did not want to spend all my time with people like myself. Penn State is that place, and Schreyer is the special element that makes it possible. It is one of the most powerful elements of Penn State because it enables us to attract the very most promising students, but put those students in life experiences that are more representative of real life.
SEN: At the Student Engagement Network, we focus on five growth areas when discussing experiences. The five growth areas are: Multicultural Awareness, Civic Responsibility, Professional Development, Ethical Reasoning, and Systems Thinking. During your time at Penn State in this involvement do you see any of the growth areas being applicable to you? If so, which stand out to you in your experience and why?
J: Yes, I experienced growth with all of these things during my time at Penn State. My fraternity experience, THON, and Schreyer were the dominant influences. The classes were also part of the experience – for example I worked at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute during undergrad and developed systems thinking in collaboration with the professors & researchers there. I also worked overseas (Japan) as part of my graduate study, and got to work and travel with people from a very different culture.
SEN: What advice would you give to a Penn State student looking to find their why?
J: There is a simple three-step process:
- Become aware of something that bothers you – a real problem in the world, a source of suffering, an urgent need for improvement. Do not think about yourself, think about others.
- Determine a path by which you can be uniquely positioned to solve that problem, eliminate that suffering, or fulfill that need. Note that this will require learning, hard work, personal development and dedication, and in some cases risk.
- Find a way to get paid to solve that problem, otherwise it’s just a hobby. My dad always said “if you find a way to get paid doing something you are love; you never have to work a day in your life”. Solving other people’s problems is something everyone can love, and there are plenty of problems to choose from.