UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Jill Findeis, professor of agricultural, environmental and regional economics and demography, and A.J. Turgeon, professor of turfgrass management, have been named Harbaugh Faculty Scholars by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Penn State alumnus Earl K. Harbaugh and his wife, Kay, donated $100,000 to endow the college's Harbaugh Scholars Program for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Income generated from the endowment is used to help faculty develop innovative teaching and learning processes.

Faculty members who demonstrate a commitment to creativity and wish to cultivate new, innovative curricula are selected for the Harbaugh Faculty Scholars program. Findeis and Turgeon are the third group of recipients of the honor, which includes a monetary award to be used to enhance teaching.

"The Harbaughs' generosity allows us to reward our faculty for their innovative teaching and provides them with the support needed to further enhance the educational opportunities for our students," says Robert Steele, dean of the college. "We are truly grateful to them for making this opportunity possible."

Findeis says she plans to use the award to enhance collaborations with the Global Seminar, a videoconference case-based course that she has taught for four years with partners at other universities worldwide. The funding will also be used to actively involve Penn State students in the Transitional Zone Ecosystem Initiative, a multidisciplinary systems-based effort that she leads. The program involves collaboration with other Penn State faculty in the social and physical sciences to understand the motivations for and human-environment effects of land-use change across the urban-rural population gradient.

Turgeon says he plans to use the award to support the development and evaluation of Web-accessible instructional modules, lessons and decision cases, as well as a key-word accessible historical case library. Turgeon's instructional modules utilize a unique "loop" system to provide students with more in-depth knowledge on specific topics as needed. This loop structure provides flexible learning resources to serve the unique learning styles and intellectual capacities of a broad and diversified student body.

Earl Harbaugh earned his bachelor's degree in general agriculture from Penn State in 1961. He and his wife, both Pennsylvania natives, live in St. Charles, Ill., where he is the president of Ditch Witch Midwest. Founded by Harbaugh in 1970, the company provides products, services and training for the underground construction industry.

In addition to this gift, the Harbaughs established the Earl and Kay Harbaugh Scholarship in Agricultural Sciences in 1994 and the Earl K. and Kay L. Harbaugh Trustee Scholarship in the College of Agricultural Sciences in 2003. Earl is also a member of the College of Agricultural Sciences committee for the university's Investing in People Campaign and served on the committee for Penn State's Grand Destiny fundraising campaign.

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Gary Abdullah Writer/Editor Phone: 814-863-2708 E-mail: gxa2@psu.edu