News about Career Services

Four virtual workshops in April, continuing Penn College’s series of free community presentations, will provide expert advice on topics as richly varied as the institution’s curriculum portfolio.

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A new Pennsylvania College of Technology facility dedicated to helping students, alumni and industry partners transform tomorrow is earning high marks today from its first group of visitors.

The Center for Career Design introduced its variety of free resources and offered one-on-one assistance to students majoring in physician assistant studies. The recent experience complemented classroom workshops presented by Career Services staff for the students’ Professionalism and Ethics course.

An “accommodating environment” is how Bryan M. Bilbao, of Old Forge, described the center. “One day we will be in the real world having to do interviews, having to make final edits to our resumes, talking to people in a professional manner in a professional setting. It was very cool to come over here and try to encompass those things into one,” he said.

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The Center for Career Design at Pennsylvania College of Technology is earning high marks from visitors. Physician assistant students were among the first to use the center’s free resources for all things career-related. Located as part of College Relations on the third floor of the Madigan Library, the facility brings together students, alumni and industry partners to benefit tomorrow’s workforce. The center’s offerings include resume/cover letter development, free business cards and professional clothing options, as well as space for interviews and networking. “One day, we will be in the real world, having to do interviews, having to make final edits to our resumes, as well as talking to people in a professional manner, as well as in a professional setting,” Bryan M. Bilbao, a physician assistant studies major from Old Forge, says in a video about the center. “So it was very cool to come over here and try to encompass all of those things into one.”

Students got acquainted with the many services available at Penn College’s new Center for Career Design – the consolidated home of College Relations in Room 321 of Madigan Library – during a Wednesday morning event. The center will foster collaboration among students, graduates and employers to ensure students’ career readiness, while enhancing alumni connections and fulfilling unmet workforce needs for the college’s business/industry partners.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology students embarked on a new approach to career exploration through the first-ever Virtual Career Fair. This Career Services-hosted event was held Oct. 20-21.

“Over the two days (for a period of 12 hours), 154 companies and 468 students connected through nearly 1,000 video chats – an impressive number of professional conversations in the pursuit of internship and career placement,” said Shelley Moore, director of career services.

Penn College’s career fairs have shown continued growth since 2009. The Spring 2020 Career Fair – slated to have more than 450 employers in attendance – had to be canceled due to the complexities of the coronavirus pandemic. Such complexities remained an obstacle as the plans commenced for Fall 2020.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology is connecting its real-world-ready students with eager prospective employers despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The college will conduct its annual Fall Career Fair virtually, Oct. 20-21, providing ample opportunity for students and employers to discuss internship and full-time job opportunities. Employers may register for the Career Fair through Oct. 16.

“Our office has been improvising since the early days of the pandemic, when we shifted many of our services online,” said Shelley L. Moore, director of career services. “Using a virtual platform for the Career Fair is the latest example of adapting to social-distancing and travel restrictions for the benefit of both students and employers.”

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered society, Career Services at Pennsylvania College of Technology has instilled a credo in students: “improvise, adapt and overcome.”

The department personifies that proactive mindset by serving students, alumni and employers virtually and by offering substantive online resources for the “tomorrow makers” enrolled in more than 100 fields of study.

“What we’ve done has worked out well for the students and is being embraced by employers,” said Shelley L. Moore, director of career services. “Most of the services we have offered in person we’ve been able to shift online for the benefit of our students.”

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Penn College’s director of career services was among the higher-education professionals interviewed for a Wednesday pahomepage.com feature about students’ preparation for postgraduate employment. “I would want to say they we’re the best kind of combination because you can get the same type of degrees and education that you can get at a traditional state school or liberal arts university,” Shelley L. Moore said. “That’s paired with the very technical, high-intensity fields that are needed in the workforce.”

For the third consecutive year – and the fourth time overall – Student Affairs at Pennsylvania College of Technology has been honored as one of “The Most Promising Places to Work in Student Affairs” by the publication Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Penn College is one of 27 colleges or universities to receive the 2020 Most Promising Places to Work in Student Affairs honor, with the honorees to be published in the March 5 edition of the magazine.

Representatives of the schools will be recognized during the American College Personnel Association’s annual meeting, to be held March 2-5 in Nashville, Tennessee.

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A celebratory ceremony Monday honored the 18 students who completed the seven-week LEAD-PCT program this semester.

Led by Allison A. Grove, interim director of student engagement, the initiative provides participants the opportunity to learn a variety of leadership skills and apply them by proposing a social change project that directly benefits the Penn College community. At the close of the event, held in the Thompson Professional Development Center during Finals Week, Grove announced two winning projects that will each be funded with $100 awards.

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The “tomorrow makers” of Pennsylvania College of Technology attracted 458 companies and organizations to campus for a recent two-day Fall Career Fair.

The employers – including 27 Fortune 500 companies – offered nearly 4,900 job and internship opportunities to the 1,942 students who attended the event at the college’s Field House and Bardo Gymnasium. Student participation was the highest in the college’s history.

The number of employers and students exceeded national benchmarks for college career fairs. A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that schools averaged 208 employers and 1,441 students at career fairs.

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Eight graduates of Penn College and a well-traveled Williamsport Area Community College alumnus returned to campus Wednesday for “Architectural Alumni + Student Day,” a career information and networking opportunity for students. Classes in architectural technology, building science and sustainable design, and residential construction technology and management: architectural technology concentration convened in the Bush Campus Center to hear individual presentations by the nine alumni, panel discussions, question-and-answer periods, and a Career Services overview. The day also included lunch and an optional campus tour. Revisiting through an event facilitated by associate professor Rob A. Wozniak, were: Brig. Gen. Frank Sullivan, ’73, executive director of the Pennsylvania Military Community Enhancement Commission, Harrisburg; Larry A. Basile, ’91, vice president of sales for SupplySource, Williamsport; Amanda J. (Miller) Harry and Erica L. Schreffler, ’12, architectural project coordinators at Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates, Architects, Mechanicsburg; Bradley A. Hoffman, ’94, director of engineering, Conewago manufacturing LLC/Conewago Enterprises Inc., Hanover; Kara A. (O’Brien) Demmien, ’06, project manager, Larson Design Group, Williamsport; Daniel R. Chapman, ’02, territory sales senior manager, Construction Specialties, Muncy; Dhaval J. Patel, ’11, lead virtual design and construction/building information modeling coordinator, McClure Co., Harrisburg; and Tyler L. Walter, ’11, architect, Stantec, Arlington, Virginia. Also part of the audience were a Warrior Run School District faculty member and a number of his drafting and design students from Lycoming Career & Technology Center.

Business and industry from across the country attended Penn College’s on-campus Career Fair this week to offer thousands of opportunities to tomorrow makers. Students and alumni attending the fair – chronicled in this PCToday photo gallery – purposefully strolled the Field House and Bardo Gymnasium in search of recruiters with whom to network and learn what internship and job opportunities are available. Tuesday’s opening of Penn College’s two-day Career Fair attracted broadcast interest from the area’s NBC and ABC affiliates. WBRE’s Morgan Parrish and WNEP’s Kristina Papa both visited campus Tuesday, talking with Career Services staff, students and employers involved in the premier networking event.

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Courtesy of a gift from a locally based financial advisory firm, students enrolled in business majors at Pennsylvania College of Technology have access to Barron’s Digital subscriptions, as well as a variety of resources provided through an experiential learning initiative offered by the Barron’s in Education Program from Dow Jones.

Hudock Capital Group is providing a two-year gift to Penn College to be licensed for the program. Also benefiting from the program are business faculty at the college.

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