News about Communication & Literature

“Second Nature,” the current exhibit at The Gallery at Penn College, is attracting educational interest from students and faculty, including psychology, sociology, English composition and art classes.

The most recent class to visit was Research Methods (SOC313), taught by Rob Cooley, associate professor of anthropology/environmental science, and Elizabeth E. Winder, assistant professor of human services.

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Two recently retired faculty members at Pennsylvania College of Technology have been granted “faculty emeritus” status by the institution.

The emeritus recommendations for Sandra Lakey, associate professor of speech communication-composition, and Thomas J. Mulfinger, associate professor of building construction technology, both were approved by the Penn College Board of Directors on Oct. 3.

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Among the latest additions to the Pennsylvania College of Technology community are new full-time faculty members for the Fall 2019 semester, as provided by the Human Resources Office (all effective Aug. 15).

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College employees rallied to provide nearly 40 educational sessions for middle schoolers from across the region who visited campus on Monday for the college’s twice-a-year Career Day. Facilitated by the college’s College Transitions Office, the event provided 1,267 students with opportunities to explore a wide variety of careers in each of the college’s six academic schools. Visitors included 13 schools and home-schooled students.

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Bryan E. McCaffery, HVAC department supervisor at Bucknell University, recently returned to his alma mater to conduct mock interviews to prepare the students in Kathy M. Richards’ Communications class (ENL010) for job placement upon graduation. A 1981 graduate of Williamsport Area Community College’s diesel mechanic major, McCaffery also earned a Penn College degree in heating, ventilation and air conditioning technology in 1998.  He is a former director of maintenance and facility operations for the Williamsport Area School District and, Richards said, “was happy to give back to the college that has equipped him to be successful in life!”
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A memorial service will be Jan. 19 for Ned S. Coates, 1996 recipient of the Master Teacher Award and a retired professor of English at Williamsport Area Community College and Penn College. Coates, a faculty member from September 1967 through the 2003-04 academic year, died Sunday, Jan. 6. The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 1400 Market St. Complete details (“Anyone who knew Ned will not be surprised to learn that he wrote this obituary himself,” his family notes) are in Friday’s editions of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

Workforce Development & Continuing Education at Pennsylvania College of Technology is offering a course to help high school students better prepare for the standardized test used as an admissions tool by many institutions of higher learning.

The course will guide students toward success on the SAT through live instruction, self-paced learning and individual interaction with a professional instructor. The focus will be on math, English and reading, with an optional writing session available for those who wish to review and practice their college-ready skills with a Penn College faculty member.

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The intersection of technology, interpersonal communication and human relationships will be explored in the third presentation of the Daniel J. Doyle Technology & Society Colloquia Series, set for Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m. in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

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Two Pennsylvania College of Technology students who impressed a faculty member with their perseverance are each receiving $250 from the Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators.

While attending PADE’s annual conference recently, Calvetta A. Walker, assistant professor of reading, was one of four educators randomly selected to receive a $500 scholarship to give to a student or students of their choice.

Walker selected Heidi M. Elliott, a pre-nursing student from Port Allegany, and Chanelle Johnson, a human services student from Williamsport.

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Drawing from a figurative and literal backpack, a Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member chosen to deliver this year’s David London My Last Words Lecture encouraged his audience to explore the topic “What Are You Full Of? (The Things We Carry),” Thursday evening in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium.

Bruce A. Wehler, assistant professor of English composition, led listeners through a range of stories and anecdotes and shared the meaning he has extracted from numerous personal experiences from the tragic to the triumphant. “Experiences shape us … but we shape the meaning of those experiences,” he said.

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With wit and wisdom, a teacher intends to offer a meaningful conversation on our choices and our chances when he takes the stage as the featured presenter in a popular, annual lecture at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Bruce A. Wehler, assistant professor of English composition, is this year’s presenter in the David London My Last Words Lecture Series. His talk, “What Are You Full Of? (The Things We Carry),” is set for Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium.

“Our lives reflect our choices, and we carry the full weight of those choices everywhere we go as we make our own way in this world,” Wehler said. “At times, we all need to stop and examine what we are carrying that is weighing us down, the attitudes and actions, the beliefs and the blinders that hinder us from experiencing the fullness of life that should be ours. By surrounding ourselves with good people, by appreciating the value of our experiences, and by choosing to live without regret, each one of us can choose to create an extraordinary life.”

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Bruce A. Wehler, instructor of English composition at Pennsylvania College of Technology, recently earned his doctorate of education in adult education from Penn State.

Wehler successfully defended his dissertation, titled “Until All the Pieces Fit: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Informal Learning of Selected Foster Parents in Northeastern Pennsylvania.”

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The third large-scale art installation created to celebrate Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Centennial has woven together not only text and trees, but students from across campus.

Over two weeks, more than 160 students from various majors participated in the creation of “These Trees,” an art piece utilizing a variety of tree species harvested from Penn College’s Schneebeli Earth Science Center and installed on the west lawn of the Bush Campus Center at the college’s main campus in Williamsport.

Working alongside internationally known environmental artists Kathy Bruce and Alastair R. Noble, the students assisted in creating Bruce and Noble’s vision of a spiraling text quoting William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”

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Building on the common ground between distinct specialties, two faculty members challenged audience members Tuesday to discard the exclusionary nature of either/or thinking and find balance between their lives and the world around them. And in so doing, D. Robert Cooley, an assistant professor of anthropology and environmental science, and Mark D. Noe, a professor of English, personified Penn College’s cross-disciplinary approach to student learning – where “true education” connects disparate individuals to their shared space. Noe and Cooley presented “Google Meets Aldo Leopold: Information, Technology, and 21st-Century Environmental Ethics,” the latest offering in the college’s Centennial Colloquia Series. The pair combined resonant readings from Leopold’s timeless prose, vocabulary homework and images from Google Earth to lead a “virtual field trip” from the stage of the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. Punctuating Leopold’s recognition of the tenuous balance between humans and their environment, the tour presented stark confirmation of man’s imprint: residual logging cribs in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River (and remnants of acid mine drainage where it meets the North Branch), air pollution over China, loss of waterfowl habitat in Maryland, and contraction of the Arctic ice cap, among them. The program, introduced by Deb A. Buckman, assistant professor of chemistry/environmental science, was followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception in Wrapture.

An associate professor of English-composition at Penn College will be the presenter at the next Friends of the (James V.) Brown Library Book Review Luncheon, set for Friday, May 2. Laura M. Dickinson, a member of the college faculty since Fall 2005, will review Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch.” The story centers on Theo Decker, a young boy in New York City who miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Alone and determined to avoid being taken in as an orphan by the city, Theo scrambles between nights in friends’ apartments and alone on the streets. He becomes entranced by the one thing that reminds him of his mother: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that soon draws Theo into the art underworld. Book Review Luncheons are held in the Lowry Room on the third floor of the library’s Welch Family Wing, starting at noon with a light lunch that can be purchased for $6. Those wishing to reserve a lunch should call the library’s information desk at 570-326-0536 before 3 p.m. April 30. Attendees may choose to bring their own bag lunches or takeout. Those interested in the review only may attend the 12:30 p.m. talk without having lunch. Metered parking is available in the adjacent Market Street lot. (Dickinson’s will be the second consecutive library presentation by a Penn College faculty member. Thomas A. Zimmerman, associate professor of psychology, this month discussed chapters from a pair of books by Irish-American author Colum McCann: “Let the Great World Spin” and “Transatlantic.”)