Campers Enjoy the Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer

The hunger for knowledge continued for hundreds of young women and men who explored the hands-on world of Penn College's summer camps mere weeks after their school year ended.

– Photos by Cindy Davis Meixel, writer/photo editor, and Jennifer A. Cline, writer/magazine editor
(unless otherwise noted)

A future architect?

Striking a pose in the Victorian House’s second-floor rotunda are Architecture Odyssey campers.

Family dinner? Architecture campers enjoy the Victorian House dining room along with their camp leaders, Daniel L. Brooks (far left), architectural technology instructor, and Naim N. Jabbour (far right), assistant dean of construction and design technologies.

All aboard the Carl E. Stotz Trolley ...

... as campers wheel off to tour Williamsport’s historic district and downtown (where they also enjoyed dinner and ice cream).

With the help of a beach ball featuring fun questions, an ASPIE camper enjoys a lighthearted ice-breaker.

Laughter fills the air as Connections Links (orientation leaders) and high school students participating in the Autism Spectrum Postsecondary Interest Experience enjoy a social activity on the Keystone Dining Room’s outdoor patio.

Decked out in an appropriate “Born to Fly” T-shirt, an Aviation Camp teen works with composite materials.

Aviation campers check out the cockpit of the college’s twin-engine Dassault Falcon 20 business jet.

New this year, Aviation Camp offers ample opportunities for exploration by adventure-seekers.

Networking on many levels

A highlight of the college’s summer camps: fun experts like Spyke M. Krepshaw, web and interactive media instructor.

A college gaming lab serves as an inspiring space for the Designing a Digital Future Camp.

... and is rewarded with a precision-cut Wildcat keychain keepsake.

In an electronics and computer engineering technology lab, a camper listens intently to instruction.

Engineering campers enjoy the creation of flying discs.

A musician learning to weld! A camper displays the artwork he sketched prior to applying a torch to it.

Sparks fly in the welding lab.

Fittingly clad in a NASA T-shirt, a camper crafts a Popsicle-stick skyscraper in engineering design technology.

An Engineering Camp participant programs a machine in the manufacturing lab …

Quiet contemplation in the Graphic Design Summer Studio

Campers learn the art of presentation and creative brainstorming while sharing their initial pen and pencil designs.

Nicholas L. Stephenson, graphic design instructor, offers a constructive critique.

A camper poses with her “gig poster” at the finale.

Before departing campus, a mom captures a memory of three roommates at their graphic design student show.

Karen R. Ruhl, a part-time horticulture faculty member and alumna, aids a camper in assembling a bow from ribbon.

Students in the Grow & Design Horticulture Camp take pride in their floral arrangements.

Crafting with carnations! Ruhl and campers work with floral tape to fashion boutonnières.

Campers file into the Klump Academic Center Auditorium on June 18 for an all-camp evening activity.

On their way to a scavenger hunt are these campers led by Joseph M. Morrin (far left), summer conference assistant and graphic design student.

Penn College’s main campus serves as a beautiful backdrop for visitors.

Have Penn College backpacks, will travel … across campus.

A summer of refreshing, enlightening exploration

Campers traverse their picturesque surroundings.

Another group poses on the campus mall.

At the end of the day, campers walk back to Dauphin Hall to dine in Capitol Eatery.

Socializing in Rose Street Commons at day's end

A pickup football game on the Rose Street Commons lawn

After lunch in KDR, Daniel W. Yoas (at front), associate professor of information technology, leads Digital Future campers back to the ATHS.

Another group of Digital Future campers stops on the mall for a commemorative shot.

Campers walk into the Breuder Advanced Technology & Health Sciences Center.

SMART Girls have fun between lunch and lab.

Framed by summer beauty are these SMART Girls at the floral feature outside College Avenue Labs.

During the Automotive Restoration Camp, Paul J. Rose, laboratory assistant for automotive restoration technology, guides a camper through sewing a seam in her upholstery project.

Shaun D. Hack, instructor of collision repair, gives each camper instruction in pinstriping.

A camper carefully adds tape to the flames he painted before adding pinstripes.

Wayne Sager, of the West Branch A’s chapter of the Model A Restorers Club, discusses the

features and history of a 1929 Ford Model A. Three Model A owners brought their vehicles to the

Automotive Restoration Camp: Alfred Reeves, James Baskin and Dale Hoover.

With guidance from Roy H. Klinger, instructor of collision repair, campers drive a Ford Model T around the parking lot.

Behind the wheel in a Model T.

An Automotive Restoration camper finishes a metal-forming project.

Health Careers Camp participants practice their skills at laparoscopic surgery as they learn about the careers of surgical technologists.

Campers take a break from positioning their “patient” for an X-ray. Included in the photo are Tiana F. McCormick (left) of Williamsport, who is scheduled to earn an associate degree in radiography in August, and Karen L. Plankenhorn (second from right), clinical supervisor of radiography.

Tammy S. Clossen, assistant professor of dental hygiene, discusses the work of a registered dental hygienist while demonstrating a typical prophylaxis session.

Jessica L. Bower, nursing simulation lab coordinator, walks campers through the insertion of a nasogastric tube in one of the nursing program’s three dozen manikins.

Campers show off the results of their handiwork during a session in the Dental Hygiene Clinic.

Plankenhorn (left) and McCormick (right) help a camper to position both a manikin and equipment for a head X-ray.

Before serving a meal for their families in Le Jeune Chef Restaurant, Future Restaurateurs campers gather with their faculty and staff mentors: Chef Todd M. Keeley, instructor of baking and pastry arts/culinary arts, and Danna M. Brooks, dining services manager (both on left); and Chef Charles R, Niedermyer, instructor of baking and pastry arts, and Chef Frank M. Suchwala, associate professor of hospitality management/culinary arts (both on right). Photo courtesy of Brian D. Walton, assistant dean of business and hospitality.

Niedermyer shows campers how to use an immersion blender to make ganache.

A camper mixes chocolate ganache to top a red velvet cake.

During a session using modernist kitchen techniques, Suchwala demonstrates the vaporization of liquid nitrogen.

Future Restaurateurs campers get a hands-on science lesson as they flash freeze snack foods in liquid nitrogen.

A camper portions the filling for key lime desserts that will be served to parents and other guests at a camp-ending dinner.

During the SMART Girls Showcase, campers’ posters show off their resumes, the results of an interest inventory and research on a variety of careers.

A team shows off its weeklong project: a robot with a variety of sensors that they assembled and programmed to navigate a maze, follow a line, make drawings and stack boxes.

A sample of an assembled bot

On Day 1, SMART Girls dive into to assembling their robots.

Collaboration is key on the four-girl teams.

A camper designs a business card for her Showcase presentation.

Girls test and tweak.

When two hands are not enough, teammates are ready to help.

Collaborating to put pieces in place

A robot runs its program.

Campers mingle with physician assistant students. Photo by Christopher J. Leigh, video production coordinator.

Architecture Odyssey campers pause for a group photo on the steps of the college’s Victorian House. Current students assisting the camp were Olivia Kleman (far left), an architectural technology student from Shamokin, and Riley Ferro (far right), of Berwick, a 2018 architectural technology grad and a building science and sustainable design student.