Get Involved

Ways to Stay Connected and Support the Bellisario College

Alumni Boards

We have two alumni boards — the Alumni Society Board (ASB) for overall communications alumni and the Ad/PR Network Board for alumni working in those industries. The boards annually add members. A requirement is mandatory attendance on campus for meetings once a year — the ASB in the fall, the AD/PR Board in the spring. Watch LinkedIn and social media for announcements about the next board openings.

Alumni Campus Visits

We help facilitate alumni visits into Bellisario College classrooms — depending upon the course, topics and professor — and for student organization panels. For these, it is usually important that you currently work in the communications field. We can also help schedule alumni tours of Bellisario College Media Center in Willard Building.

Alumni Awards

The Bellisario College annually recognizes several of its outstanding alumni through two awards programs. To nominate yourself or another Bellisario College alumni, go to: https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/alumni/alumni-awards

Career Expos

Bellisario College’s Office of Internships & Career Placements hosts three career fairs annually, and many of the booths are staffed and hosted by alumni. Details on the 2024 career fairs:) JobExpo.Comm, University Park (Feb. 23, 2024); Success in the City, NYC (March 22, 2024); and COMM Careers in the Capital, Washington, D.C. (October 2024 To participate, please contact Bob Martin, director, at rpm163@psu.edu.

Donations

To give to the Bellisario College, here is a link: https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/alumni/make-a-gift

Events

The Bellisario College annually holds alumni events in such metro hubs as New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. We send direct email invitations to Bellisario College alumni who live within 60 miles of the location, based on the home/work address in the overall Penn State database. We also promote these events via our social media and LinkedIn channels.

Host Students

The Bellisario College takes students to Philadelphia and New York City for special programming, such as AD/PR Day in NYC, SPJ Visits NYC, Maymester in Manhattan, and Career Exploration in Philadelphia. In conjunction with these visits, the students visit the companies/worksites of our alumni.

Here is a list of our LinkedIn groups — a total of seven with some 12,000 members. We encourage you to join these to stay in touch with Bellisario College and to network with fellow alumni and students. These are “gated” online communities; while logged on to your LinkedIn account, you will need to send a request to join:

Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State - Alumni
Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State - Ad/PR Network
Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State - Broadcast Network
Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State - Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State - Film Production Alumni Network
Penn State Women in Sports, Media & Entertainment
Penn Staters in the Sports Industry

Newswire

You can sign up to have Bellisario College headlines delivered to your email inbox.
https://headlines.psu.edu/

Social Media

Student Learning Assessment

Under the leadership of our two alumni boards, Bellisario College alumni perform a student learning assignment of the Bellisario College’s curriculum in nine key academic areas, required as part of an annual accreditation process. Board members and Bellisario College alumni at large with specific industry knowledge/experience take part via a review of student work, a written assessment and a meeting with department heads.