Students in the Regional American Cuisine course, taught by Chef Michael J. Ditchfield, instructor of hospitality management/culinary arts, produced authentic German Oktoberfest food for the Millheim Oktoberfest, a community event that benefits the Millheim Fire Co. In the course, students study cuisines, preparations and influential culinary leaders from various regions. They prepare regional recipes using traditional and modern kitchen techniques.
Photo provided
Christine L. Faherty, who received Penn College degrees in culinary arts technology (2005), dietary manager technology (2005) and culinary arts and systems (2008) returned to campus on Nov. 6 to talk with students in Chef Mary Trometter’s Hospitality Beverage Management Service and Controls class about her work as a professional craft bartender and about the role of a beverage program in a restaurant’s operations and revenue.
Faherty is the assistant to the beverage manager at 2941, a fine-dining restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia.
“I use all of the tools that I learned in school,” she said. “We all build menus; I do that, but for a liquid menu.”
Fifteen Pennsylvania College of Technology business students learned about marketing efforts behind televised athletics events when they were hired by a marketing firm to help distribute noisemakers at the third MLB Little League Classic, played at historic Bowman Field at BB&T Ballpark, just a few blocks from campus.
Under the direction of California-based firm USA Marketing and Major League Baseball, the students – joined by eight students from nearby Lycoming College – moved throughout the stands at the Aug. 18 game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs.
“Our task was to hand out noisemakers – thundersticks and mini drums,” said John J. Shadle, of Williamsport, who is enrolled in business administration: marketing concentration. “Our target audience was the youth in the crowd. The goal was to enhance the experience for the youth and the players. We brought the excitement in a noisy fashion.”
A Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member recently presented research at the 23rd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries.
Spyke M. Krepshaw, assistant professor of web and interactive media, presented “Gatekeeper: Quantifying the Impacts of Service to the Scientific Community,” at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway on Sept. 10.
Career Day brought hundreds of ninth-12th graders to campus on Thursday to explore more than 30 activities offered by employees and students to help high-schoolers learn about the wide variety of career options available to them. The event is coordinated by the College Transitions and First Year Initiatives Office.
A Pennsylvania College of Technology student recently wrapped up an internship that helped to inform the community about a hardworking nonprofit organization and to raise funds for its work.
Stevie A. Petrison, a business administration: sport and event management student from Landenberg, helped the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation to organize the group’s fourth annual Farmapalooza, a music festival in Oxford.
The foundation honors the life of McDonough, who battled leukemia, septic shock and other complications for nearly six months before he died on July 14, 2007, at the age of 14. His B+ blood type became a motto for his family and friends: always be positive. The organization, headed by his father, Joe, provides financial and emotional support nationwide to families of children with cancer, and it funds childhood-cancer research.
The Penn College Business Club recently made and sold 100 apple dumplings to benefit survivors of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.
The hurricane struck the island nation on Sept. 1, leaving 70,000 people in need of immediate humanitarian relief after high winds and waves combined to destroy homes and infrastructure.
The idea for the fundraiser came from conversations with the club’s advisers about the devastation experienced by Bahamas residents. The advisers suggested the club raise funds. The club’s members quickly agreed.
The 580,000 restaurant and food service jobs in Pennsylvania represent 10% of the state’s total employment. To serve that industry, Pennsylvania College of Technology is launching a bachelor’s degree in business administration: restaurant and hospitality operations.
The new degree, available in Fall 2020, answers the hospitality industry’s demand for front-of-the-house managers who have strong knowledge and skill in business applications. Feedback from the college’s industry partners further indicates that a bachelor’s degree is required for entry-level management positions in most restaurant companies.
“What I enjoy most out of life is giving back.” Pennsylvania College of Technology alumnus Robert E. Wood lives that credo daily as the executive chef at JBJ Soul Kitchen in Toms River, New Jersey. As part of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, JBJ Soul Kitchen is a nonprofit community restaurant that serves paying and in-need customers. Wood, who earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts and systems, employs his skills to create three-course meals that feed stomachs and souls. “I love cooking. I love all that stuff. But being able to feed someone that really needs it, someone that really wants it, it goes a long way. You can actually see the difference you’re making in people’s lives.” As is readily apparent in a new video on the college’s YouTube channel, the 2017 Penn College graduate truly is a tomorrow maker.
Four Penn College sport and event management students spent the day getting to know the industry firsthand on Sept. 10. The group traveled to Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, to network with team executives.
State Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), the second-highest ranking member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, visited Penn College on Thursday. Cutler, serving his first term as majority leader, was accompanied on the tour – which took in a number of instructional areas of main campus – by Jacob G. Smeltz, his chief of staff, as well as two members of the college’s board of directors: Sen. Gene Yaw, chair, and Rep. Garth Everett. President Davie Jane Gilmour and other members of the college administration (including Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic affairs and provost, and Patrick Marty, chief of staff) welcomed the guests, and various deans and faculty members led Cutler through The Victorian House, welding and metal fabrication, advanced manufacturing, automotive restoration, culinary arts and hospitality, plastics and polymer engineering, and several majors in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences. Cutler started his career in radiography, earning a certificate from Lancaster General School of Radiology. He worked as an X-ray technologist before earning a health care management degree from Lebanon Valley College and working as an administrator in his local hospital’s radiology department. He later earned a law degree, focused on health care law, from Widener Law School and has served in the Legislature since 2007. The day’s itinerary also included lunch at Le Jeune Chef Restaurant and a chance to see the Gold Rush Excavator on a nearby parking lot.
An instructor of baking and pastry arts and culinary arts at Pennsylvania College of Technology was invited to teach one of this year’s two-day regional workshops for the Bread Bakers Guild of America.
Chef Charles R. Niedermyer II, a faculty member at the college since 2005, taught “A Modern Approach to Classic Viennoiserie” to 14 guild members Aug. 8-9 in the college’s baking and pastry arts laboratory.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Le Jeune Chef Restaurant, which offers casual fine dining to the public, received Wine Spectator magazine’s 2019 “Award of Excellence” as part of the publication’s Restaurant Awards program.
Wine Spectator magazine reaches about 3 million readers worldwide. The magazine’s annual Restaurant Awards program recognizes restaurants whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to their cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers. Honorees are published in its August issue.
Le Jeune Chef, operated by the college’s School of Business & Hospitality, has been recognized by Wine Spectator each year since 1995.
Nine students from Pennsylvania College of Technology’s SkillsUSA team earned medals in six categories – three silvers and three bronzes – during the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, from June 24-29.
“The students represented themselves and the college well, and it showed with the number of medals we returned home with,” said SkillsUSA adviser James N. Colton II, an assistant professor of welding. “I look forward to next year and the students that we will have competing.”
The email contained a stark message for the transfer student. After a year of subpar grades, Pennsylvania College of Technology had to place her on academic probation.
Jacqueline M. Westervelt repeatedly scanned the message, hoping that the words would change. They didn’t.
Her dream of earning an information technology degree – already delayed for two years – was in jeopardy. Self-doubt, fueled by past struggles in school, flooded her mind. Tears flowed as she thought that the people who told her she wasn’t college material were right.
Turns out, they were wrong.