For Scholar alumnus, serving on the University’s Board of Trustees is an opportunity for a lifetime
2/16/2009
By Nicole Arias ’08 Com
2008 Public Relations Intern
Last year during the extensive process of applying for the student member position on the Penn State Board of Trustees, little fazed candidate Rodney Hughes ’07 Lib, then in his first year as a graduate student. But when, in an interview, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education asked Rodney which editorials and economics journals influenced him, he hesitated.
So he answered honestly, "I’m trying to think of one, but I don’t think of economic and policy issues that way; I think about classical economists and apply what they wrote to our time."
Then Rodney flipped the interview with a reference to a name he learned four years earlier when he was a first-year Scholar in the Schreyer Honors College: Joseph Schumpeter, a preeminent Austrian economist and author of "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy."
"I used (Joseph Schumpeter) as an example and I asked him if he was familiar with Schumpeter," Rodney said. "He said he wasn’t, so I described some of Schumpeter’s insights."
This was as much a reflection of Rodney’s growth as a tribute to his mentor, Fletch Byrom ’40 EMS, a retired chairman and CEO of the Koppers Co. and Standard Brands Paint Co. Rodney met him through the Society of Distinguished Alumni Mentoring Program, a Schreyer Honors College program that matches Scholars with select alumni successful in their professions.
The two started a conversation at a luncheon. Rodney remembers his mentor as being "playfully aggressive" when learning that Rodney, an economics major, had never read the book "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy."
That semester Rodney read the book and the pair started talking regularly throughout Rodney’s time as an undergraduate.
"He kind of adopted me," Rodney said. "His advice to recognize opportunities was one of the best things. ‘Back into your opportunities,’ he’d always say. You can plan and plan, but really you just have to recognize opportunities."
Rodney, a Mayfield, Pa., native, took this advice and in July he was selected to Penn State’s Board of Trustees as the student representative, which is a three-year voting position appointed by the governor.
"I thought it would be fun, something important to me that I could do well,” Rodney said. “It wasn’t something I knew would be on the horizon."
On the board, Rodney serves on the Educational Policy Committee with eight other trustees.
Throughout his four years as an undergraduate, Rodney’s extracurricular activities all involved some form of public service, including participating in various student government organizations, interning with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and serving as a teaching assistant.
"I believe the Schreyer Honors College afforded me many opportunities I would not have had otherwise," Rodney said. "I learned about the program that led to my first internship from the SHC Listserv, and I don't think I would have been able to intern there after my first year without the extra preparation of honors-level introductory courses.
"I benefited from honors courses immediately. I took more than twice the minimum number of honors credits. I found honors classes generally to be great learning environments and great opportunities to interact with bright faculty members and bright students."
Those interactions led Rodney to apply to graduate school at Penn State to pursue a doctorate in economics.
"I still have questions about my honors thesis research, applying game theory to agricultural trade policy,” he said. “One of the reasons I decided to stay is that there are a lot of people here who are studying these areas."
Specifically, Rodney is interesting in learning more about how game theory, which examines a strategic situation mathematically to determine a course of action, applies to agricultural trade negotiations and "how government and economics impact different groups differently."
Rodney considers his new Board of Trustees post another opportunity to broaden his education.
By the end of his term, Rodney said he hopes he’ll have learned even more about the operations of higher education, Penn State, and economics. In addition, he hopes to offer an informed perspective during discussions on Penn State’s outreach and strategic planning.
"I place a lot of value on community engagement," he said. "A lot of my impression of Penn State is you’ll get out of it what you put in. I have no qualms about putting time into things that I think are important."
