By: Nick Spaventa, Lion’s Path editor, njs5681@psu.edu
The bookstore is the place to buy your books, supplies, gear or candy.
Students and staff may have met the two men who run the bookstore, Alan Pine and Dan Bruno in their time at Penn State Brandywine, but have they stopped to talk to them? Now we will get to know the two men behind the counter.
Students interact with Pine and Bruno all the time. Student Will Copeland said that they, “serve staff and students with helpful and excellent customer service.”
Pine is a Penn State Altoona graduate, class of 2010, and has been working in the Brandywine bookstore since 2014. He had an internship at Altoona’s bookstore and decided to stay with Barnes and Noble. A position opened at Brandywine in 2014 and he has been here ever since.
Bruno is not an alumnus of Penn State; however, he has a rich Penn State family
history. His sister, niece and
nephew all attended Penn State. His brother-in-law is a retired professor who worked at Penn State University as well.
When asked what he likes about working here, Pine stated, “as an alum, it is nice to stay in touch with Penn State.With a lot of the questions students ask me, it is nice to help them out because I have the experience and it is nice to help people out. It is also nice to get all the new Penn State gear.”
When asked the same question, Bruno said, “I really like the campus environment. I like the students and talking about their majors and future goals and helping them out. I also like providing sustained customer service to people.”
Both Pine and Bruno said they have made, “good friendships with many different students and staff
members over the years and even remembering students’ majors and future aspirations.”
Outside of work, Pine loves playing X-box when he has the time and watching and going to sports events. He and his wife are big animal lovers and they have two dogs and four cats.
Bruno also enjoys watching and attending sports events. He also is a, “music nerd, loving all kinds of music especially classic rock and Motown.” He is a family man
who,“loves spending time and playing with his grandchildren and attending their events.”
Both are huge sports fans. Pine is a huge soccer fan and he is a fan of a couple of European soccer teams.
Bruno is a huge Phillies fan. In 2008, he attended three playoff games, including a World Series game. He was also at the “divisional game when Shane Victorino hit a grand slam off C.C Sabathia.” He has been “following the Phillies since 1964,” and nearly “jumped through the roof when they signed Bryce Harper” last March.
Get to know the people that you run into every day. Get to know everyone’s favorite bookstore “guys,” better known as Alan and Dan.