The Chaiken Center for Student Success is home to several offices that are committed to supporting and advocating for IST students. Each office offers unique resources to guide students through their academic journey. These resources are supported by professional staff who are available to meet individually with students seeking academic, internship, university life, belonging, and engagement, health and wellness, and career advice.

• Careers Solutions and Corporate Engagement
• Inclusion and Diversity Engagement
• Information Technology Helpdesk
• Student Engagement
• Undergraduate Advising
• Undergraduate Recruiting

Additionally, Penn State has a number of Chaiken Centers that offer a wide variety of programming and services that extend success across the Penn State college and campus network:

• Penn State (University Park campus)
• College of the Liberal Arts (University Park campus)
• Penn State World Campus
• Penn State Abington

• ABC To Do List
• Coveys Four Quadrants
• Daily Time Tracker
• Five-day Study Plan
• Organizing Your Syllabi
• SQ3R Method
• Student Success Plan
• Study Plan
• Weekly Schedule

Visit the multiple Chaiken Centers established at Penn State to explore their impact on student success.

• Penn State Chaiken Center for Student Success
• College of the Liberal Arts
• Penn State Abington
• Penn State World Campus

“Helping other people is a privilege, not a chore.” –Gene Chaiken

Gene (class of 1962) and Roz Chaiken’s love story began when they met at summer camp in 1959. They married in 1963 and have been supporting Penn State ever since, becoming the largest scholarship donors—and second-most generous benefactors overall—in University history along the way.

Their first major gift was in 1989, when they joined forces with Gene’s brother, Sheldon, and his wife, Gail, to endow the Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts. They followed that gift with other philanthropic contributions to the Jewish Studies program, often encouraging other Liberal Arts benefactors to join them.

 Perhaps their most significant contributions came when Roz, concerned with the rising cost of Penn State tuition, said she wanted to do something that would directly benefit students. The Penn State Trustee Scholarship Program offered the perfect solution; they decided to establish the Gene and Roz Chaiken Trustee Scholarship in 2008, followed in 2013 by the Chaiken Family Trustee Scholarship. In 2021, they created the Roz and Gene Chaiken Center for Student Success in the College of the Liberal Arts—a center designed to provide students with the resources, programming, and other support needed to help them succeed in their studies. A subsequent gift in 2024 led to the naming of four additional Chaiken Centers across the University.

Gene is a former member of the Penn State Board of Trustees and the Liberal Arts Development Council. He has received several honors from the University and the college for his leadership, philanthropy, and service. In honor of their legacy at Penn State and inspiring students to lead meaningful, generous lives, Gene and Roz were named Penn State Philanthropists of the Year in 2021. In recognition of their transformational 2021 gift that cemented their legacy as the largest scholarships donors in Penn State history, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved Gene and Roz’s request to name the Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building (which opened in January 2025) in honor of their friend who served as dean of the College of the Liberal Arts from 1991 to 2019.