Penn College’s planned April 4 “Service Saturday” – a dental hygiene outreach to veterans, active-duty service personnel and their dependents – has been canceled.
Pennsylvania College of Technology dental hygiene students and volunteer dental professionals will provide free dental hygiene services to veterans, members of the armed services, and their dependents on Saturday, April 4.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s state-of-the-art Dental Hygiene Clinic is scheduling appointments for the spring semester.
The clinic provides low-cost preventive dental hygiene services to the community, including cleanings, exams, X-rays and sealants. The clinic collaborates with area dental offices and can share records to prevent duplication of services.
Samantha J. Morningstar, of Lewistown, trims a study model, which is an exact replica of the athlete’s mouth. The study model is then used as a form to make the custom mouthguard.A newly vacuum-formed thermoplastic mouthguard is ready for trimming.Lacrosse team members show off their custom mouthguards.
Second-year dental hygiene students and faculty developed a program to provide professional-grade athletic mouthguards for members of the Penn College lacrosse team as part of the students’ Dental Materials and Specialties course. The multiweek project began with taking impressions of the athletes’ teeth to create exact replicas of their mouths. This model was then used, along with specialized equipment, to fabricate the mouthguards. The students were directed by faculty members Barbara K. Emert-Strouse and Marie Y. Stewart, both assistant professors of dental hygiene. The athletic mouthguards play a critical role in contact sports in the prevention of concussions and injuries to teeth.
Two informative posters presented by Pennsylvania College of Technology dental hygiene students placed in the top 10 during the Pennsylvania Dental Hygienists’ Association’s annual conference.
A poster titled “Locked in on Dental Implants,” presented by Pavel Dariychuk, of Leola, and Tyler J. Wetzel-Haynes, of Ono, placed fourth among 58 entries from across the state.
Jordyn Kahler’s poster, “Knowledge is Power: Oral Health Literacy,” placed sixth. Kahler is from York.
Radiography students support breast cancer awareness – and the profession’s role in early detection.Aptly attired, dental hygiene students and faculty paint the clinic pink.
Penn College programs went pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On Oct. 9, radiography students dressed in pink. Potential workplaces for radiographers include mammography centers. The dental hygiene program held a “Pink Out” on Oct. 23. Throughout the day, students, faculty and dentists donned pink gowns during patient care activities in the Dental Hygiene Clinic. In addition, the dental hygiene student organization, SADHA, is making a monetary donation to a local cancer patient support charity. Photos provided by program directors Christine L. Eckenrod (radiography) and Shawn A. Kiser (dental hygiene)
Pennsylvania College of Technology students provided dental care to more than 2,000 patients in the college’s Dental Hygiene Clinic during the 2018-19 academic year.
The college’s state-of-the-art Dental Hygiene Clinic is open to the public and provides low-cost services that include cleanings, exams, X-rays and sealants.
Since many patients require more than one visit, the students provided a total of 4,138 patient appointments.
Dental hygiene student Tyler J. Wetzel-Haynes, of Ono, performs a head and neck screening during the Kiwanis Club of Bald Eagle and Nittany Valleys’ “Go Gold” childhood cancer event.
On Sept. 21, dental hygiene students participated in a “Go Gold” event hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Bald Eagle and Nittany Valleys to raise awareness of childhood cancer. During the event, which was held in the Mill Hall Volunteer Fire Co., students performed free oral abnormality and head and neck screenings, which can help to detect oral cancer. They collaborated with health sciences students from Lock Haven University and networked with other community partners. The Penn College students were supervised by Bridget E. Motel, instructor of dental hygiene. This was the local Kiwanis club’s fourth “Go Gold” event. Photo provided
About 140 professionals attend a Sept. 20 oral health conference in the Bush Campus Center.
Penn College’s dental hygiene program joined forces with the North Central Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center to co-sponsor a dental continuing education program. Held Sept. 20 in Penn’s Inn, the program featured presentations on HPV by Dr. Lynn Williams, who discussed “HPV and Prevention,” and Registered Dental Hygienist Debbie Zafiropoulos, who covered “How to Screen for Oral Cancers.” The well-attended event attracted about 140 dental professionals. Photo provided
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
Students from Penn College’s School of Nursing & Health Sciences and School of Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications joined area law enforcement, emergency management and health care professionals in a recent simulation at UPMC Susquehanna Williamsport Regional Medical Center and a variety of other locations.
The college’s paramedic program has participated in the drill since its inception, and this year, the School of Nursing & Health Sciences decided to participate schoolwide to provide an interdisciplinary learning opportunity. The school had conducted its own Interdisciplinary Professional Experience on campus for several years.
