news & events

September 5, 2023 ABINGTON, Pa. — When Vanessa Sexton conducted a nationwide search for a college major that encompassed music and entrepreneurship, only one matched her criteria: the Integrative Arts program at Penn State Abington. Fast forward four years, and, after earning her degree in May, she is in the early stages of developing an app to connect musicians and creators with the producers, promoters and music supervisors who can introduce them to audiences. “I have spent most of the summer building up funding to protect my intellectual property. I found some of the most affordable and efficient technologies, and I’ve been trying to find the correct...

November 11, 2022 ABINGTON, Pa. — The Penn State Abington LaunchBox will mark Global Entrepreneurship Week with the YouTube premiere of its “tech-umentary” series at 2 p.m. on Nov. 15. The 30-minute episodes will utilize artifacts from vintage technology to track and explore how innovation shaped and changed many everyday devices. Peter Hornberger, the LaunchBox director, wants to illustrate innovation in action. “Adding portability, accessibility, durability, capacity or speed to a new product rarely occurs all at once. The artifacts and vintage technology on display in the series illustrate that the innovative process often moves in a series of steps focused on one area of development...

June 20, 2022 ABINGTON, Pa. — Penn State Abington has collaborated with a German university for more than a decade to design competitions that provide students with international business experiences. The latest iteration took place recently when 10 students from Hof University of the Applied Sciences joined 10 Abington students to develop a real-world business solution for a European company with operations in the Philadelphia region. Faculty mentors mingled students from Abington and Hof to create five teams, and the group traveled to NETZSCH Premier Technologies' facilities in Exton for the discovery phase. The issue presented by NETZSCH executives and its president, Giuliano Albiero, examined the case...

March 31, 2022 ABINGTON, Pa. — Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC is an annual University-wide event that brings some of the leading minds in entrepreneurship and innovation to Penn State campuses across the commonwealth. By connecting students with innovative alumni and pioneers who are achieving success in a variety of disciplines — through startup initiatives of their own or with new ventures in already established organizations—Penn State Startup Week inspires students to go beyond what is expected of them and expand their minds to think more broadly in whatever career path they choose. According to Peter Hornberger, director of the Penn State...

February 11, 2022 ABINGTON, Pa. — A recent graduate is using the entrepreneurial mindset he refined at Penn State Abington to invest in his Philadelphia neighborhood and work with at-risk youth who call the area home. Josh Ventura is the co-owner and managing partner of The Sound Gallery Studios, a recording studio, artist development agency, and event space in the Frankford section of the city. “My biggest goal is to make an impact on people in the community where I'm from. I want to be doing something for people that look like me,” he said. The Sound Gallery had its beginnings when Ventura became acquainted with his...