Grivner decided to try out for the position after he heard the previous student trustee, Bob Myers, was graduating.
The process began with a written application, and moved on to a round of interviews with the elected student leadership and a representative for the governor, as the field of applicants narrowed.
Visiting Harrisburg to meet with legislators was an interesting experience for Grivner, who aspires to a career in politics.
Since beginning his work on the board, he has stressed to fellow students the importance of lobbying for Penn State's interests in the General Assembly, especially when it comes to state appropriations.
"If people see a problem with the level of tuition, I think that (the state legislature) is where you really have to look, solely because it costs 'x' number of dollars to finance an education here," Grivner said. "That money's gotta come from somewhere."
His duty to bring student concerns to the board is reflected in the amount of mail he gets on a daily basis. He said that this year he has received many more letters from students at Commonwealth Campuses than correspondence from people at University Park.
He said much of that response followed on the heels of a presentation he gave in September to the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments.
"They have very well-attended council meetings. They have probably several hundred people there," Grivner said. "To some extent it's an excuse for a lot of them to come up here and have a good time."
Nonetheless, he noted that University Park rarely offers such a large forum to talk about student-related issues, but he said he hopes to change that by reaching out more this semester.
Being a trustee has provided Grivner with other leadership opportunities. He currently serves as chair of the student committee for the Teaching and Learning Consortium (TLC).
The consortium comprises more than 200 people in the Penn State community who assemble to discuss, plan and implement ways to improve teaching and learning at the university, said Cheryl Achterberg, dean of the Schreyer Honors College.
"Geoff is a true leader . . . He has impressed so many people that the TLC is planning to ask him to speak at the Teaching Colloquy sponsored by the Provost's office in May," Achterberg said via e-mail.
Grivner met the dean as a freshman in a new experimental course -- Sociology 497H (Globalization Trends and World Issues) — which has since reappeared yearly.
"We literally invented the course from week to week . . . I'd like to think it was good preparation in its own way for the position he now holds," Achterberg said.
In his spare time, Grivner volunteers more than 20 hours each month as a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, said Philip Burlingame, who knows Grivner as advisor for the group and also as assistant vice president for student affairs.
"He has taken the time to learn about the . . . budget process and he focuses attention on ways to keep a Penn State education affordable," Burlingame said.
Grivner has also started to understand the dynamics of the trustee's decisions, such as why the meetings sometimes seem to proceed without much deliberation.
"A lot of the direction probably goes, not necessarily behind-the-scenes, but in those casual conversations and at the different social gatherings," he said. "Those are crucial in relaying opinions.
"There's so much required in our bylaws that we have to take care of, like the building procedures and the budget, that we don't necessarily have time to talk (too much) . . . Obviously (the trustees) are very busy people."
But the Board of Trustees meetings aren't always entirely predictable, though.
Take Friday's election for vice-chairman.
"There's going to be a contested race between Joel Myers and Cynthia Baldwin, which is an odd occurrence, apparently," Grivner said last week before the meeting.
Baldwin ended up edging out Myers in the balloting.
Grivner and the rest of the trustees will meet again on March 16 in Hershey.
