High School Students Glimpse Potential Future During 'Career Day' Visit

Nearly 900 high school students and their chaperones attended Penn College’s Career Day on Friday. The semi-annual event is coordinated by the college’s Outreach for K-12 Office to provide an opportunity for middle and high school-aged students to learn about potential careers. Faculty and staff opened their labs to the students, providing demonstrations and hands-on activities in every academic school.

– Photos by Jennifer A. Cline, writer/editor-One College Avenue;
Whit W. Worman, director, physician assistant program;
and Pamela A. Mix, secretary to the assistant dean of transportation and natural resources technologies

Career Day visitors to the Schneebeli Earth Science Center learn excavator operation and safety ... while engaging in a fun "basketball grab." Under the instruction and supervision of Ken J. Bashista, lab technician for diesel equipment technology, students picked up basketballs from construction cones and slam-dunked them in a trash can.

Justin Shelinski, lab assistant for horticulture, straps on a harness for recreational tree-climbers ...

... who easily take flight once he (literally) shows them the ropes.

Horticulture instructor Carl J. Bower uses landscape-design software to help students envision a household landscaping project – without breaking ground OR a sweat.

In the Automotive Technologies Center, students watch a demonstration of the latest computer-based diagnostic equipment as it interacts with a 2011 Ford Power Stroke diesel engine.

Physician assistant student Filippo D. Borsellino talks with high schoolers about the types of breathing sounds they’re observing.

With Tom Livingstone, associate professor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing, a group watches the process of electrical discharge manufacturing in the Machining Technologies Center.

Erin J. McMurray, lab supervisor for the Physical Fitness Specialist Program, helps a Bloomsburg Area High School student with an electronic body fat analyzer.

Students Theodore J. Persing, baking and pastry arts; Amber S. English, hospitality management; and Nicole Holley, culinary arts and systems, wait to greet visitors and escort them to baking, pastry and culinary arts facilities.

A group from Keystone Central Career and Technology Center look at the motors that power refrigeration systems.

Physician assistant student Jason A. Genco engages participants with an anatomy lesson – illustrated by a human leg that visitors were able to hold in their hands.

Francis W. Spear, Ashlee E. Frontz and Donald Wieder are among the juniors in the Physician Assistant Program who held a workshop that gave visiting high school students a glimpse into what the PA profession is all about.

Using knee models, Jessielyn L. Woolbright shows a participant the functions of the joint and its cartilages.

Junior physician assistant students enjoy a moment of fun after leading a workshop for Career Day participants that included the rare opportunity to hold human organs – a heart, lungs and a lower limb.

In a physician assistant lab, Penn College students led a workshop that kept high schoolers coming back with questions.