The 13th annual Road Scholars Tour, held May 12-14 this year, offers new and newly tenured Penn State faculty several dynamic opportunities to learn about the University and Pennsylvania as they travel to several Penn State campuses and tour businesses and popular historic sites.

What may also appeal to faculty attendees is the chance to establish relationships with colleagues across the University system, while the itinerary connects them with Penn Staters and residents of the Commonwealth.

This year's participants will depart by charter bus from University Park to four University locations, the Capitol Building in Harrisburg and six additional sites, including:

an Amish farm in Lancaster County;

Eckley Miners' Village in Weatherly;

Samuel S. Lewis State Park in Lewisberry;

the Milton S. Hershey School in Hershey;

Starbucks coffee roasting plant in York; and

Sterman Masser Inc. in Sacramento, Pa.

Once the tour has embarked, the University will provide all lodging, transportation and meals. Colleges or departments will be asked to cover any additional costs incurred by participants not based at University Park, such as transportation to and from University Park, and lodging at University Park, if needed.

Space on the tour is guaranteed to all faculty who have joined Penn State in the last two years and have not been on a Road Scholars Tour before. Others may sign up for this tour on a space-available basis. For more information, contact Nancy Eckard at nzm1@psu.edu or Kathy Karchner at ksk6@psu.edu.

Last spring more than four dozen faculty members from nine campuses and two research centers, and most of whom had just completed their first or second year of tenure at Penn State, traveled with President Spanier, three members of the University's Board of Trustees and a handful of administrators during the Road Scholars Tour.

To view a photo journal of last year's trip, go to http://x02.ur.psu.edu/gallery/?album=923. Three short online videos also chronicle the experience at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/road-scholars/index-Gallery.html.

For more information and to register for the annual Road Scholars Tour, visit http://www.roadscholars.outreach.psu.edu.