The Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) Music Club is one of the groups who benefitted from the 2024 campus-wide GivingTuesday initiative for enhancements inside the Markowitz Music Room.
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — As a part of Penn State’s 10th GivingTuesday event on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, members of the Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) community celebrated the milestone year by raising $7,762 towards the focus of the initiative, the Jerome and Martha Markowitz Music Room.
Twenty-eight donors, including Penn State alumni, faculty, staff and friends, rallied together in support of the effort to provide additional equipment and instruments to the Markowitz Music Room, a space dedicated to campus in 2012. The room provides students enrolled in music and media courses at PSU-LV with the resources to develop their talents and skills.
The ongoing investment in the Markowitz Music Room continues to yield benefits for both students and the wider Penn State community.
“The campus Music Club performs at a variety of events each year, including donor celebrations and talent showcases” said Kristen Wynn Stellfox, Penn State Lehigh Valley director of campus development. “The opportunity to enhance the music room and provide students with the resources to cultivate their musical interests and talents on campus while earning a Penn State degree is one of the amazing opportunities here at Lehigh Valley.”
Julius Santos, a senior criminal justice major and Music Club president, is thrilled about the future of the club and the range of possibilities for students on campus.
“I can’t express in words how grateful I am and how grateful the club is to receive the amount of funds we did,” Santos said. “This will give us an opportunity to grow musically with the use of recording equipment and instruments; we could even have our own songs that we record on campus to play at PSU-LV and possibly locally.”
The Music Club rehearses weekly in the space, continuously working on new songs to add to their repertoire.
“GivingTuesday impacted not just me, but the community and student musicians that will follow me after I graduate,” Santos said.
Music Club members will now have access to a variety of instruments and sound equipment.
“The funds raised on GivingTuesday will directly benefit the PSU-LV Music Club by augmenting the resources they have by adding a new drum kit, soundboard, guitar amplifiers and more. I know this will lead to more music classes and jam sessions that the entire campus will enjoy,” said PSU-LV Chancellor Tina Q. Richardson.
Gifts made on GivingTuesday are advancing the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead in the community. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.paulytheprayingpup.com.
