Alumnus provides visionary gift to support students through CommAgency

Students in CommAgency, the student-driven enterprise that supports University partners with branded content, photography, social media and video production, will get mentoring from leading professionals to give their work more impact, thanks to a visionary gift from a Penn State alumnus.

Jordan Rednor, who has made a highly successful career building, growing and managing businesses in the advertising industry, is creating the Rednor Professional-in-Residence program for CommAgency, which is housed in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

“This is an exciting initiative that gives students a unique real-world perspective on what they otherwise only experience in the classroom,” Rednor said.

CommAgency provides an affordable, high-quality option to deliver messages for Penn State partners. Students who participate get hands-on, start-to-finish experience shaping campaigns, dealing with clients and producing professional quality content.

CommAgency’s reputation has grown across Penn State since it was launched in 2017. Earlier this year, the group won first place in the promotional video category in the Broadcast Education Association’s national competition and two Awards of Distinction in the 26th annual Communicator Awards, an international competition.

Rednor’s gift will allow the Bellisario College to recruit a highly qualified, experienced professional to join the agency on campus each year to advise and mentor students, especially as they work with clients from Happy Valley Launchbox and other ventures that emphasize entrepreneurship and economic development. The Professional-in-Residence will also review agency work and provide expertise on issues and trends to faculty.

“Jordan Rednor has always been a bold, innovative and creative industry leader,” said Dean Marie Hardin of the Bellisario College. “So it’s no surprise that he’s making this truly innovative investment in the agency. This will pay off in many ways for our students, faculty and agency clients.”

An adviser to industry leaders and a serial entrepreneur, Rednor also serves on a variety of boards and advises companies in and out of the ad industry on growth strategies and maximizing shareholder value. Through several investment vehicles, he’s an investor in early stage companies in ad tech and direct-to-consumer brands.

Rednor holds an MBA from Fordham University and earned his bachelor’s degree at Penn State. At his alma mater, he serves on advisory boards for the Bellisario College and the College of Information Sciences and Technology, where he endowed the first graduate fellowship.

The University has agreed to match Rednor’s gift 1:1 through a featured opportunity of the Greater Penn State campaign, the Economic Development Incentive Matching Program. This matching program is designed to incentivize gifts to spur economic development within and beyond the Penn State community, and this gift leverages this match because CommAgency creates jobs for students and provides a valuable business service to the University community.

This gift will advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With the support of alumni and friends, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hardworking students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.