The Black School of Business provides many opportunities for students to explore career paths and expand their professional networks. One of these opportunities includes business trips. Multiple mini-trips are offered throughout the academic year, with one large student business trip held during the spring semester. Students find these trips to be extremely beneficial.

Mini-Trips

These trips allow students to meet with companies within driving distance of Behrend, often include one overnight stay, and are held several times during the semester. Each trip focuses on a particular group of majors. Students can learn more about a business, careers in their fields, meet alumni, and get to know other students. 

Spring 2025 Mini-Business Trip Company Visits

  • Bechtel Plant Machinery (BPMI)
  • City Brewing
  • Federated Hermes
  • Fifth Third Wealth Advisors
  • First Commonwealth Bank
  • Hyster-Yale (headquarters)
  • Materion (headquarters)
  • Matthews International (headquarters)
  • Parker Hannifin (headquarters)
  • Schneider Downs Wealth Advisors
  • WESCO Distribution

2024 Mini-Business Trip Company Visits

  • Allegheny Financial Group
  • Baird Advisors
  • Bechtel Plant Machinery (BPMI)
  • Beratung Advisors
  • CS McKee
  • Federated Hermes
  • Fifth Third Wealth Advisors
  • First Commonwealth Bank
  • Fort Pitt Capital
  • MSA Safety
  • Plantensive
  • PNC (headquarters)
  • PPG (headquarters)
  • Schneider Downs Wealth Advisors
  • Sheetz (headquarters)
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • Westinghouse

2023 Mini-Business Trip Company Visits

  • Allegheny Financial Group
  • Beratung Advisors (twice)
  • Fort Pitt Capital
  • Hapanowicz & Associates

Spring Business Trip

The spring student business trip, sponsored by the Student Government Association and the Black School of Business, provides current students with an opportunity to expand their horizons. During this multi-day trip, students interact with Penn State alumni and professionals working in a diverse cross-section of industries. Participants routinely provide feedback that the trip provides a better awareness of what would be required when working for a company in a larger city. Many students also tell us the trip helped to open a new career path, and was a pivotal experience in their tenure here at Penn State Behrend.

Black School of Business Spring Student Trip

2025 Spring Trip to Charlotte, NC: March 26-29, 2025

Photo of students in business attire holding a Penn State Behrend, Black School of Business banner

Students visit Bank of America during the 2025 Student Spring Trip to Charlotte, NC.

Credit: Penn State Behrend

In addition to attending an alumni dinner, where students had the opportunity to meet with Penn State alumni, and attend a baseball game, students visited the following companies:

  • Artisanal Brewing Ventures: Marketing majors
  • Bank of America, Founders Hall: All majors, except marketing
  • Coca-Cola Consolidated: Multi-disciplinary meeting with Penn State alumni, professional development workshop, trivia game, networking, and lunch
  • EY: Accounting and Management Information Systems majors
  • Lending Tree: Economics and Finance majors
  • Truist Field/Charlotte Knights: Multi-disciplinary meeting with key leaders from several business units
  • Wray Ward: Marketing majors

Student Testimonials from 2025 Trip:

"The spring business trip is an excellent networking opportunity. The company visits and alumni dinner are awesome experiences to see more of the business world outside of Erie, PA." —Luke Rinker

"This trip connects you with so many people and lets you explore the many paths available for your major!" —Owen Kagle

2024 Spring Trip to Chicago, IL: March 20-23, 2024

  • Chicago Board of Options Exchange
  • Chicago Bulls
  • Hightower Advisors
  • Initiative
  • Logistics Plus
  • The Money Museum

2023 Spring Trip to Pittsburgh: March 22-25, 2023

Our first post-pandemic trip!

  • BDO
  • BNY Mellon
  • Brunnerworks
  • Federated Hermes
  • KPMG
  • MSA
  • Pittsburgh Penguins
  • Schneider Downs
  • Waldron Private Wealth

2019 Spring Trip to New York City: March 27-30, 2019

  • Bank of America
  • Bloomberg
  • Ernst & Young
  • Grubhub
  • North Sixth Agency (marketing agency)
  • PIMCO
  • UBS
  • Viacom

2018 Spring Trip to Chicago: March 21-24, 2018

  • Chicago Board of Options Trade
  • Dunamis Partners (private equity firm)
  • Edelmans (marketing firm)
  • JP Morgan
  • Morningstar