A series of seed grants from the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses (OVPCC) has provided Penn State campus leaders with the support to implement transformative initiatives and best practices on their campuses, including Penn State Brandywine in Media.

The funding was the result of a sharing session in fall 2022 organized by the OVPCC.

During that time, each campus chancellor and another representative from their campus community — a “thought partner”— were invited to the University Park campus to present an overview of a unique or impactful leading practice their campus had developed.  

The leading practices focused on themes like mental health and wellness; diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; innovation, research, and community engagement; student support and career development; and student success.

Presentations detailed the implementation, challenges, opportunities, and outcomes associated with the practices. 

Penn State Brandywine’s best practices were the campus garden expansion and adding a vertical growing, self-watering, and self-fertilizing hydroponic or indoor garden system.

The effort will also include integrating speakers into the Brandywine LaunchBox’s “Diverse Entrepreneurs Speaker Series” who are experts in various aspects of agriculture and retaining professional grant writing services to pursue funding in support of the garden’s continued growth. 

Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi championed the sharing session that led to the seed grants after seeing many of the best practices first-hand during her listening tour of Penn State’s campuses that began in spring 2022. 

Following the session, chancellors were given the opportunity to work with their campus to identify and adopt best practices from other campuses.

Seed funding was made available for campuses to incorporate one leading practice, but campus leaders were encouraged to include multiple practices that they felt would benefit their campus community. 

“The OVPCC is pleased to support the launch of these proven leading practices as a means to demonstrate the continued commitment to excellence, innovation, and collaboration at our Commonwealth Campuses,” said Kelly Austin, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor. “Sharing our ideas and successes allows us to provide the best possible student experience. We thank campus leaders for their willingness to work together on this promising initiative.”