Penn State Years – Cherry Ridge Road

After completing post-doctoral work at Stanford, Chen-Pei was offered a faculty position in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University in State College, PA. And so, four years after their first cross-country move, Yen-Sheng and David again packed up their lives and drove 3,000+ miles to a new town, this time with two young children in tow. This time, Pennsylvania-bound, their route featured stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New Mexico, Texas, and several places east of the Mississippi. In Houston, the family visited Yen-Sheng’s classmate and visited the NASA space station there. They made a stop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Chen-Pei’s 8th grade teacher lived. Their route also took them through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia, before they would reach the Keystone State. On February 26, 1980, the family arrived in State College, PA, their new home town. They got house keys from Diana Chu, a primary school classmate of Chen Pei, and started a new chapter of their lives.

The Tu family of 4 was excited to move into their new house on Cherry Ridge Road — the first home they would own — in February 1980. With the generous introduction of Diana Chu, Chen-Pei’s primary school classmate, he and Yen-Sheng quickly joined a circle of friends in the local Chinese community. Their third child, Chia-En Kimberly, was born at Centre Community Hospital in October 1980, making the group a family of five.

Yen-Sheng was a full time mother dedicated to taking care of the whole family while Chen-Pei worked hard at his job and built up the largest research group in Penn State’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She took great interest in their schoolwork, and sought every opportunity to let them take part in sports (like swimming and ice skating), music lessons, and Chinese language classes.

During this period, Yen-Sheng also took on a full time position with Chen-Pei as a research assistant and quickly became a favorite “lab mom” to members of his research group. While Yen-Sheng worked full-time, Ben, Leslie and Kim continued to excel in school. In 1990, Ben was the PA state champion in the MathCounts competition. He led the PA team of 4 mathletes to the national competition in Washington, D.C. and won 9^th place individual honors while the Pennsylvania team placed 6^th overall.