Maralyn Mazza, Director
Retires after 38 years at the helm
In her cozy office that's becoming more spacious these days as she packs up old course booklets and materials to make room for the new director, Maralyn Mazza pulls out a tattered checkbook and flips through it.
Dozens of transactions made on behalf of dozens of names fill the pages. This special savings fund Mazza created with the $10,000 her mother, Laura Davis, left her when she died 37 years ago has been drawn upon countless times by students at the South Hills School of Business and Technology.
Having trouble paying a utility bill this month? Don't have enough gas money to get through the week? No problem. That's what the fund is for, and pay back what you borrow when you can, Mazza says.
"Somehow, like the water at the well, it never goes dry," Mazza said, skipping ahead to the most recent transaction listed. "Right now we still have $10,000 in there, and you can see the people that have borrowed it this year. It's helped all these people."
In the grand scheme of everything that has encompassed Mazza's tenure as director at South Hills, the Laura Davis Fund is just the beginning. But the fund is a perfect example of the philosophy Mazza has run South Hills on: Do what is best for the student.
After 32 years as director, Mazza, 81, is retiring today, leaving that philosophy to Mark Maggs, of Bellefonte, to carry on.
'The student comes first'
Mazza's husband, Paul, entrepreneur and longtime lawyer in State College, "was the idea man," Mazza says.
He founded South Hills, then only a secretarial school, in 1970 as a means of providing affordable, hands-on education to students in a small, two-year setting - a sharp contrast to Penn State in its backyard with most students pursuing four-year degrees.
But it was really Maralyn Mazza, employees and her husband said, who made South Hills what it is today. She runs the school like a mother runs a family, drawing upon her experience of raising six children.
"She handpicks her South Hills family according to her motto - what is best for the student," said Ellen Spinelli, career services coordinator who has worked at South Hills for 20 years. "The student comes first and that really defines how things are going to be solved."
Spinelli, a mother of two, will never forget the day Mazza interviewed her for the job. Mazza had asked her what she was planning to do afterward. It was Children's Day at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
"I told her we were going to take the bus into town because we didn't have the car and she said, 'I'll just take you downtown,' " Spinelli recalled. "So she took me and my kids to the arts festival, and I was like, 'Who is this woman?'"
Mazza understands the demands of a working family, and employees have been given the flexibility to adjust their schedules, working part time to raise a family and then coming back full time.
"If someone was in need of even a place to live, they would live with us," said Gina Mazza, her daughter who works as director of marketing at South Hills.
She would let financially struggling students take leftover food home from the school cafeteria, and the Davis Fund was there as a cushion as well.
When Rich Fornicola decided to run for Centre County treasurer eight years ago, Mazza told him he could still work at South Hills if he wasn't successful in the election, he said. And she helped him fulfill his next career path by allowing him to use the school building for fundraisers and election events.
Ultimately, Fornicola won and left South Hills, where he had worked as an accounting instructor and admissions officer.
In making a list of words to describe Mazza for her retirement party tonight, Fornicola said it included "everything from mentor to manager all the way down to beloved."
"She is just a wonderful person," he said. "She had a unique management style that could never be copied by any business school. She once told me everything she knew about running South Hills came through her involvement with girl scouting and raising her six children."
'Changing with the times'
South Hills began with seven graduates and one classroom and is now up to 6,000 graduates and four sites. The school's main campus is located on Waupelani Drive in State College but classes are also held in Philipsburg, Altoona and Lewistown.
Eighty-six percent of students who begin studying there graduate, and between 87 and 91 percent of South Hills graduates get jobs in fields in which they were trained for. Over the years, South Hills has changed and adapted to new technologies.
"When I began in the early '70s, we had four computers," said Susan Hammerstedt, a department head who retired seven years ago. "It was really interesting because we kept saying, 'Well, let's go with it. It looks new. Let's try it.' And the story tells itself after that."
Hammerstedt taught computer software, word processing, desktop publishing and Excel. She would visit workplaces and "always keep my eye out for new things." She'd go back and tell Mazza what skills she thought students ought to be learning to help them prepare for the work force.
"She had the vision to let us go ahead and make the changes we felt were necessary, and there are not many places like that," she said.
That flexibility is part of the reason why many teachers stay, said Brenda Stover, who has been teaching in the medical program for 20 years.
Billie Willits, associate vice president for human resources at Penn State, said Mazza is "one of the most passionate people I have ever worked with." In the past eight years the partnership has existed between Penn State and South Hills, 340 South Hills graduates have received internships at Penn State.
"As a result of the internships, Penn State has had the opportunity to hire many of the graduates," Willits said.
'Spirit must go on'
It's going to be difficult for Mazza to leave South Hills, she said, but she feels "very strongly" the school will carry on successfully.
Maggs - hired as the new director - brings a wide array of experience, including work as a director of human resources for Lewis Lumber Products in Picture Rocks, physical therapy at Evan Hospital and pharmaceutical and orthopedic sales.
"At this point, I just want to carry on the tradition and the culture and to continue to focus on quality education, quality graduates and excellent job placement," Maggs said.
Mazza said she hopes the spirit of South Hills will live on, never getting in the rut where "you are worried about the bottom line."
"Because if you lose sight of what you are doing, you might as well be one of these chains where they have 87 schools under the same banner and check to see how many students are in the classrooms," Mazza said. "If we ever get to that point, I'd rather close the school."
Pam Ferguson, head of the English department, said she thinks Mazza will spend time at South Hills. And she's certain she'll continue to have lunch in the cafeteria with students as she's done time and time again.
"She tells us she's going to be retired," Ferguson said. "But we don't think she'll stay away."
Original article printed in the Center Daily Times - Wednesday, June 18, 2008
