News about College Store

Penn College employee Marlin R. Cromley, renewing his longtime August commitment as a team “uncle” at the Little League Baseball World Series, is featured in a photograph posted to Major League Baseball’s website over the weekend. The photo by Alex Trautwig encapsulates – beautifully, genuinely and emotionally – a Japan player’s tears and torment and his host’s offer of solace and support. As a cashier/customer service associate in The College Store, Cromley is accustomed to diplomatically dealing with students and other members of the public from his front-end cash register. In more than a decade at the Series, Cromley said, he feels fortunate and humbled to also see a more personal side of life. “Moments like that just happen,” he explained. “They’re kids. Outside the (International) Grove and on the field, everyone expects the best out of them. We’re privileged that they let us see them at their most tender moments, too, when they’re sometimes at their lowest, and we just try to console them the best we can.”

With a boost from ticket sales for a Snap-on toolbox raffle, Friday’s Student Government Association Silent Auction raised $4,127 toward the Student Leader Legacy Scholarship. The total – benefiting from the 63 campus and community bidders vying for items and services donated by more than 50 employees, students, alumni and friends of the college – is a considerable increase over the approximate $2,300 raised last year. Two toolboxes were given away during the event in the Madigan Library, with $2,660 in proceeds split between The College Store Scholarship Fund and the SGA Leader Legacy Scholarship Fund (awarded by SGA each year to Penn College students who display exemplary leadership). The tool chests were won by Terry San Angelo, of Quakertown, whose son, Drew, will be a freshman in Fall 2017, and Tanya Berfield, manager of College Transitions.

Soon-to-depart students with questions about commencement and postgraduate life – everything from the life span of student email to tickets for their big day to student loans – checked off their to-do list at Tuesday’s Grad Finale on the Bush Campus Center patio. Staff from Alumni Relations, Career Services, Financial Aid, Registrar, The College Store and Workforce Development & Continuing Education were available for the convenience of petitioned students, who could pick up commencement tickets, purchase caps and gowns, and learn more about alumni benefits at one handy location.

The College Store will discontinue its Wildcat Rewards Loyalty Program effective May 31.  The store will offer more storewide promotions and other sales so that more students have the opportunity to save money on purchases. “The program has been popular with some students, but most students never trade in their points for College Store gift cards,” said Matt Branca, director of The College Store. By discontinuing the program, Branca said that store will be able to offer more discounts and sales on other merchandise.  The store recently started one-day-only “Flash Sales” that are announced via The College Store Facebook page and on the myPCT Portal the morning of the sale. Those have proved quite popular with the campus community. While the Wildcat Rewards Program is ending May 31, students will continue to earn points through May 27.  Students have until the end of the day May 31 to trade in any points for a College Store gift card.  College Store gift cards do not expire, so students should make sure and cash in those points before they expire: 500 points earns a $25 College Store gift card and 900 points earns a $50 gift card.  All points will expire and access to the program will be turned off on June 1. Students should log in to their Wildcat Rewards account via The College Store web site.  Instructions can be found on the store’s Portal page.

A collection of faculty member Keith M. Whitesel’s stained glass is on display in The College Store during February, the first in a series of mini-galleries featuring artists who teach noncredit classes at Penn College. An instructor of electrical technology/occupations in the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies, Whitesel is teaching Stained Glass for Beginners through Workforce Development & Continuing Education starting Feb. 22. A second class, Stained Glass: Level II, will begin April 11. Stop by The College Store to see his beautiful works of art as they glimmer in the sun – and revisit throughout the year as other media (photography, jewelry, etc.) are exhibited. (The pieces of art are not for sale.)

Kendel F. Baier, of Jersey Shore, a senior in the building science and sustainable design: architectural technology concentration, has been chosen as the December/January Student of the Month at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Exemplifying both academics and athletics, Baier maintains a full course load and is a national bowhunter champion on the Penn College archery team.

Among her accomplishments, she was selected as the college’s 2014 Female Athlete of the Year.

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Nearly 450 students who have petitioned to graduate in one of May’s three commencement ceremonies breezed through their last-minute chores at Monday’s Grad Finale. Held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in Penn’s Inn, near-alumni could snag their Community Arts Center tickets for the big day; buy their caps and gowns; order announcements; learn about their alumni benefits, such as career services, scholarship opportunities, campus privileges and their lifetime Penn College e-mail accounts; and enjoy free food and other giveaways.
Photos by Marc T. Kaylor, student photographer, and Becky J. Shaner (center image)

With a variety of costumes ranging from police officer to leprechaun – and including a few denizens of “Duck Dynasty,” arguably the most frightening Halloween presence of all! – The College Store staff (including two current students) showed its typical willingness to do whatever to takes to chase away any rainy-day blues. From left are first-year student Alyssa L. Fink, employee Lisa A. Ely, junior Kendel F. Baier, and employees Jennifer L. McCracken, Joan M. Gilbert, Lisa M. Dincher, Colleen K. Hauser, Gale I. Grove and Alex J. Kuzio.
Photo by Matt P. Branca, store director

The third volume in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Countdown to the Centennial series, an abundantly illustrated book that employs a variety of promotional images to chronicle the transformation from Williamsport Technical Institute into Pennsylvania’s premier technical college, has been published.

Like other titles in the series, “Marketing With a Mission” was written by Elaine J. Lambert, director of college information and community relations, who drew upon her decades of experience and pulled from a rich archival reservoir to take readers on a memory-laden trip from WTI to Williamsport Area Community College to Penn College.

“I have been involved in promoting the college for more than 30 years,” said Lambert, a 1979 WACC graduate and a 2007 recipient of the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award. “Still, in writing this book, I found a few surprises and many forgotten successes in recounting a century’s worth of stories about the institution’s unique mission and dramatic marketing challenges.”

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It’s a sale that only happens every 100 years! An exclusive selection of centennial items is now available at The College Store. Penn College, Williamsport Area Community College and Williamsport Technical Institute merchandise – from T-shirts (long- and short-sleeve) to hoodies, polos to hats – is available in each school’s “retro” colors. “We wanted to help celebrate the centennial and our history in a way that acknowledged all of the institutions,” said Matt Branca, director of The College Store, who, with operations assistant Jennifer L. McCracken, worked with multiple vendors and other departments to put together the limited-edition line. Each college’s seal was specially recreated for incorporation into many of the designs, and custom centennial labels  make each piece of apparel a true collector’s item. A variety of other items, such as pins, coffee mugs, window clings and water bottles, are also available at The College Store.

The traditional Grad Finale, a one-stop opportunity for Penn College students to breeze through their 11th-hour pre-commencement chores, was held from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Penn’s Inn. Staff from Alumni Relations, The College Store and Career Services were among those on hand to assist the imminent graduates with commencement tickets, cap-and-gown purchases, graduation invitations, alumni benefits … and much, much more.

Pennsylvania College of Technology has published a book and website featuring the seven individuals who guided the institution through its nearly 100-year history – from George H. Parkes, who transformed a small, high school industrial arts shop into a postwar model of adult education, to current President Davie Jane Gilmour.

“Legacy of Leaders” also features Robert L. Breuder, who oversaw the transformative 1989 birth of Penn College as a respected affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University; William H. Feddersen, former Williamsport Area Community College president; Kenneth E. Carl, founding president of WACC and a graduate of Williamsport Technical Institute, and interim leaders C. Herschel Jones and David M. Heiney.

Stories from distinguished faculty, staff, alumni and student leaders are also included in this second of four publications planned to celebrate the institution’s 2014 Centennial, marking the 100th anniversary of the first year that adult classes were held in Klump Academic Center.

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A new textbook price-comparison service is available online through The College Store at Pennsylvania College of Technology, one of only 40 institutions nationwide to provide such a program.

Students now will be able to compare The College Store’s textbook prices with those offered through Amazon and Half.com, then make purchases from the chosen vendor. When accessing their class schedules through the secure Student Information System, students will be able to view all of their course-book information with a single click on the “Buy Textbook” link.

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The winner of The College Store’s drawing for a 32GB Apple iPad is student Britni Fennell, Drums; student Heather Krepps, McVeytown, won a 3G Amazon Kindle. The College Store congratulates them and thanks all students who sold back their textbooks.

The College Store’s scholarship assistance to Penn College students is spotlighted in theSeptember/October issue of The College Store Magazine, the official publication of The National Association of College Stores. “Most stores do this out of good will,” the article quotes store director Matthew P. Branca. “It’s a good way to show students that we have a commitment to them and their educations. … Every year, we get piles of thank-you notes from students. I keep them in a file and look at them when I’m having a bad day.” The three-page article by Kim Fernandez titled “Giving It Away” and made available here with the magazine’s permission follows: