Penn College TV Series Honored With Bronze Telly Award

Published 02.17.2010

News
Automated Manufacturing & Machining

Pennsylvania College of Technology's "degrees that work." career-awareness television series received a Bronze Telly Award for a 2009 episode profiling the advanced manufacturing career field.

The series, a co-production of Penn College and WVIA-TV, highlights careers identified by state and federal labor officials as important for future employment growth. It was honored in the documentary category of the 31st annual Telly Awards, which recognize the best in local, regional and cable-television productions and video/film productions for the Web.

This is the third time that the "degrees that work." series has received a Telly Award.

The latest award-winning episode reveals advanced manufacturing through the eyes of today's students and industry leaders, and it profiles the experiences of Penn College's 2008 SAE Baja team, consisting of members of the college's Society of Manufacturing Engineers student chapter.

The college took 11 students, two cars and two faculty members to the 2008 Society of Automotive Engineers Collegiate Design Series "Baja SAE Montreal" contest. A Baja car is an off-road, single-seat vehicle; the documentary chronicles the Penn College team designing and constructing a new Baja car and competing against more than 90 other schools in Orford, Quebec.

In addition, the types of careers available in advanced manufacturing is explored with two world-leading manufacturers Victualic and Synthes as well as the National Association of Manufacturers and faculty members from the School of Industrial and Engineering Technologies at Penn College.

Christopher J. Leigh, video production coordinator at Penn College, served as producer/director/editor/camera for the episode. Thomas F. Speicher, video production developer at the college, served as producer/writer/editor/camera/narration.

Tom Curra, WVIA-TV senior vice president, and Elaine J. Lambert, director of college information and community relations at Penn College, are executive producers of the TV series.

Produced in conjunction with WVIA-TV, "degrees that work." is intended as a public-service initiative to apprise young people of varied, and sometimes overlooked, job opportunities as they explore their fit in the workforce. Educational materials designed for use in the classroom have been developed to accompany the series.

The series airs on WVIA and other public-television stations and is available online .

Educators are invited to download for classroom use the advanced manufacturing episode, as well as other programs on nanotechnology, welding and plastics. The series is also available to educators through WGBH's Teachers Domain Service.

The Telly Awards typically receive more than 13,000 submissions. The entries do not compete against one another; rather, they are judged against a high standard of merit. Past winners include NFL Films, PBS, ESPN, NBC Universal, The Weather Channel, Harpo Productions and Warner Bros.

For more about Penn College, visit online , e-mail or call toll-free 800-367-9222.