The Penn State Alumni Association has granted Collegian AIG Treasurer Megan Hennigan the Martin R. Cepeda Jr. Award for Alumni Career Advancement and Development.
This award recognizes Megan’s work to launch, develop, coordinate, and promote the Zoom Roundtable programs that she and former AIG President Jordan Hyman created to introduce current Collegian staffers to Collegian alumni with expertise in areas that would aid the student news organization.
Between spring of 2020, when the Roundtables began, and spring of 2023, Megan organized 22 Roundtables that connected Collegian students with professionals who benefitted from their time working for the Collegian.
In that time, 44 Penn State alumni served as presenters, clearly illustrating Hennigan’s ability and tenacity in securing a significant investment of time and interest by alums in assisting current and former Collegian staff members. An estimated 250 Penn Staters – students and alumni – participated in those Roundtables.
At the outset, Hennigan not only scheduled all of the events and lined up the speakers, but she also prepared and asked all of the questions. Later, Collegian leaders chose a moderator to question the guests.
Hennigan arranged the Roundtables while also serving as treasurer for the AIG and working full time as Senior Director Shopper Marketing at SodaStream International, Ltd. She is a 2000 PSU graduate in marketing, international business and French and a 2011 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business.
This is the 2023-24 award, for which the AIG nominated Megan last spring. The Alumni Association explained the delay in granting the award was caused by a change in how the association selected the recipient for this award.
