This summer, members of the Student Occupational Therapy Assistant Club at Pennsylvania College of Technology contributed their expertise to outfit a new play structure at the Lycoming County Sensory Garden.
A wooden “teepee” was added to the garden in 2018 by Montoursville Area High School junior Colton Ulmer as part of his Eagle Scout requirements. It is framed by debarked white pine poles, and walls are made of hemlock slabs. Working with input from garden volunteers, Ulmer planned the structure for easy accessibility by wheelchairs and with large windows that allow parents to see what’s happening inside. Ulmer’s work, completed with the help of 12 volunteers, took 283 man hours.
Students gather around one of Geisinger’s Life Flight helicopters after it touches down on the library lawn.The Life Flight crew supervises as students strap a classmate onto a stretcher, detailing the protocol for loading a patient onto a helicopter.
Students in the emergency medical services and paramedic technology majors received a hands-on lesson in air ambulance operations when a Geisinger Life Flight crew landed one of the medical system’s nine helicopters on the Madigan Library lawn Tuesday. The crew taught the Penn College students about Life Flight services and safety protocols when on the scene of a medical helicopter landing. The experience was part of the course Operations and Rescue Practices for the Paramedic. During the summer course, students learn about crime scene awareness, medical incident command and emergency vehicle operations. With the help of area emergency professionals, they experience water rescue, vehicle rescue, rope rescue, confined-space rescue and more.
The approved 2019-20 state budget delivers appropriation funding to Pennsylvania College of Technology reflecting its long history of success in producing skilled workers, while leveling the playing field with other publicly funded institutions in the commonwealth, the college’s board chair said Friday.
“Finally, Penn College is being recognized for the invaluable hands-on education and training it provides to students, who become highly skilled members of the workforce – addressing the skills gap that continues to impact industry and hinder the economy,” said Sen. Gene Yaw, chairman of the college’s Board of Directors. “All we have ever asked for is to be treated with parity in funding with other state institutions. With this budget, we have made real progress.”
A dozen residential Pre-College Programs and a daytime Creative Art Camp brought hundreds of young women and men to Penn College’s campuses in mid-June, providing hands-on entry to the myriad career opportunities reflected in the institution’s postsecondary curriculum. Keeping campers (and PCToday photographers) busy in recent days were these fun learning opportunities, some of which involved culminating projects: Architecture Odyssey, Autism Spectrum Post-Secondary Interest Experience (ASPIE), Automotive Restoration, Aviation, Building Construction (new this year), Creative Art Camp, Engineering, Future Restaurateurs, Graphic Design Summer Studio, Grow & Design Horticulture, Health Careers, Information Technology and SMART (Science and Math in Real-world Technologies) Girls.
A Pennsylvania College of Technology student received one of two 2019 education scholarships from the Pennsylvania Health Information Management Association.
Each year, the association awards scholarships to students who demonstrate academic achievement and commitment to the field of health information management in Pennsylvania.
The college’s newest (and most lifelike) medical mannequin is introduced by Christopher T. Boyer (left), director of paramedic technology programs, and Sandra L. Richmond (right), dean of nursing and health sciences. Getting a closer look are (from right) Sens. Yaw, Phillips-Hill and Ward – a registered nurse.Bradley M. Webb, assistant dean of industrial, computing and engineering technologies, explained the processes taught in three of the college’s plastics labs: thermoforming, blow-molding and rotational molding. First stop? Thermoforming, where Webb shows how clamshell packaging is produced.
A pair of first-term state senators visited Penn College on Thursday, stopping by several academic areas in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences and the School of Industrial, Engineering & Computing Technologies. The tour, abbreviated by a stormy forecast (but no less valuable), took Sens. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) and Judy Ward (R-Altoona) to nursing, dental hygiene and three labs in the college’s ABET-accredited plastics program. The tour covered substantial ground: In addition to curricular information on all six schools, the legislators were apprised of the college’s integral corporate advisers, the focused global experiences of students traveling abroad, high-profile internship opportunities, and the essential contributions of equipment and expertise by business and industry. Also on the tour were President Davie Jane Gilmour; state Sen. Gene Yaw, chairman of the college’s board of directors; Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic operations/associate provost; Patrick Marty, chief of staff and assistant to the president for college relations; Zack Moore, vice president for government and community relations at Penn State; Jon Hopcraft, chief of staff to Phillips-Hill; and Senate photographer Christopher J. Guerrisi.
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.
Pennsylvania College of Technology held the Triple Crown of commencement ceremonies May 17-18 for more than 900 students who petitioned to graduate following the Spring 2019 semester. The Friday afternoon proceedings at the Community Arts Center honored students from the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies and the School of Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications. Saturday morning featured The School of Construction & Design Technologies and the School of Health Sciences, while students from the School of Business & Hospitality and the School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies graduated during the afternoon session. Student speakers were Hannah G. Maize, of Riverside, who received a bachelor’s degree in plastics and polymer engineering technology (summa cum laude) on Friday; Lauren S. Herr, of Lititz, awarded a bachelor’s in construction management (summa cum laude) at Saturday morning’s session; and David A. Gadalla, of Mechanicsburg, who received a bachelor’s degree in aviation maintenance technology in the weekend’s final ceremony. The college also bestowed three teaching honors – the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award and two Excellence in Teaching Awards – as well as three alumni awards.
Pennsylvania College of Technology celebrated the contributions and commitment of its staff and faculty during an Employee Recognition Week gathering on May 16.
As part of an all-college meeting to end the spring semester, President Davie Jane Gilmour presented Distinguished Staff, Excellence in Academic Advising and Outstanding Assessment awards, as well as recognizing retirees, members of the Quarter Century Club, and employees hitting the 30- and 35-year plateaus during the 2018-19 academic year.
A bipartisan group of state legislators, all present for President Davie Jane Gilmour’s budget request to the Senate Appropriations Committee in February, got a follow-up look at Penn College during a trip to main campus on Tuesday. Touring a number of instructional labs with Sen. Gene Yaw (chairman of the college’s board of directors), administrators, faculty and staff were Sen. Art Haywood (D-Cheltenham), minority chair of the Health and Human Services Committee; Sen. Thomas H. Killion (R-Middletown), who chairs the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee; Sen. Daniel Laughlin (R-Erie), chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee; and Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia), minority chairman of the Banking and Insurance Committee. Along for the visit were H. Fred Walker, director of Erie County Technical School; Kendall Alexander, Haywood’s communications director; and three members of Street’s staff: policy assistant Micah Mahjoubian, legislative aide Angel Betancourt and special assistant Kenneth Carter. Some members of the Senate contingent, who collectively represent highly populated areas from Erie in the northwest to Philadelphia in the southeast corner of the commonwealth, also enjoyed lunch in Le Jeune Chef Restaurant.
WELLSBORO – A facility gifted to Pennsylvania College of Technology by UPMC Susquehanna is serving a new purpose as a site for instruction in practical nursing, medical assistant and other health care careers, as well as customized training for business and industry.
The 8,400-square-foot Penn College at Wellsboro facility, located at 22 Walnut St., was formally dedicated today in ceremonies that included members of the Penn College community, representatives of UPMC, elected officials and stakeholders, and others.
Gearhart (left) and Harkins team up for dental hygiene.
Second-year student Hailey A. Gearhart joined forces with 1992 alumna Michele D. (Heitsenrether) Harkins on Friday to represent the Penn College dental hygiene program at a Philipsburg-Osceola High School career fair. During the event, the duo interacted with approximately 100 prospective students from grades 9-12. Photo provided
Nursing students participated in a simulation in April that made them think about the choices they would make – and that many of their future patients will face – given the constraints of poverty.
During a “poverty simulation,” created by Missouri Community Action Network, students in a Community Health Nursing course were assigned to families with specified incomes and adhered to several rules: spending seven minutes of each 15-minute week at work (if they were employed); making sure children were cared for; paying for transportation to get to any destination; keeping their home secure and their utilities on; making loan payments; and providing adequate food, clothing and health care for their dependents.
The Student Nurses’ Association teamed up with six other campus organizations and Student Activities to raise about $1,800 at Tuesday’s “Penn College for a Cure” cancer benefit walk. Joining SNA in the successful collaboration were Circle K, PC Alliance, the Penn College Construction Association, Omega Delta Sigma and Phi Mu Delta fraternities, and Wildcat Events Board. The groups organized a full slate of fun: painting, pies in the face, ladder golf, cornhole, a silent auction – even human whack-a-mole! The American Cancer Society’s Ellen Bokeko helped facilitate the event, coordinating a guest speaker who lost a young daughter to the disease.
Seventeen years. Fifteen-hundred students. Four different homes. Countless exams. He’s seen it all. And now SimMan is ready to retire. He’s going to be missed by his Penn College family, but the days of worry-free retirement are calling. “I have helped so many students prepare to treat patients leading into their successful health care careers,” SimMan said in his exit interview. “However, my job here is done. It is time for the next generation in the SimMan family, 3G, to provide a new level of simulation!” With gratitude for his Penn College career, celebrated in a YouTube video with “co-star” Samantha M. Weaver, learning laboratory coordinator for nursing education, the soon-to-be-retiree issued a parting request: “Please make a gift today, so our students can continue to succeed in a field of such high demand. Your support will help us to move to the next level of preparedness as we bring this new member of the SimMan family to campus.”
