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.
Students this week took note of Penn College’s place in the global community, from cultural celebration to international study. Tuesday’s Hispanic Heritage Dinner, a collaboration of Student Engagement and Dining Services in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), filled Capitol Eatery with authentic cuisine and live music. On Wednesday, in a Global Experiences Expo facilitated by College Transitions & First Year Initiatives, faculty and students who have traveled abroad answered questions outside the Keystone Dining Room about their experiences.
Photos by Juvy A. Orillaza, student photographer
The National Science Foundation recently rewarded Pennsylvania College of Technology’s commitment to tomorrow’s cybersecurity workforce by extending a grant for an additional year.
The grant – “Improving the Pipeline: After-School Model for Preparing Cyber Defense and Information Assurance Professionals” – facilitates interaction between information technology faculty and high school students to introduce rewarding career possibilities in cybersecurity.
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.
More than 400 high school students, all enrolled in Penn College classes at their respective high school or career and technology center, visited campus on Friday. A visit to campus is a required part of every course offered through the college’s Penn College NOW dual-enrollment program. The program offers Penn College classes at more than 50 partner secondary-education facilities throughout the state. College Transitions and First Year Initiatives hosts visits for participating schools throughout the year. To ensure that courses offered through Penn College NOW maintain the same rigor as those offered on campus, secondary teachers work with Penn College faculty liaisons who train them to teach the course curriculum, visit each school at least once a year, and grade high school students’ final projects. In addition to hosting Penn College NOW student visits – including a March 19 trip, also documented in this photo gallery – College Transitions and First Year Initiatives conducts frequent group visits for other secondary students, providing college and career exploration, including a campus tour. On April 2, Lycoming Career and Technology Center plans to bring 200 students to campus for sessions with Career Services, the Academic Success Center and more.
Five area school districts who have students taking Penn College courses through the Penn College NOW dual enrollment program brought students to campus to gain a lesson in polymer chemistry from the Society of Plastics Engineers’ PlastiVan. They also toured the college’s plastics and polymer facilities. Feb. 19 brought a visit from the Jersey Shore High School and Sullivan County Middle School – which also attended a special session exploring personality types – and on Feb. 22, students from Montoursville Area High School, Central Mountain High School and Troy Middle School visited. The PlastiVan’s visit was sponsored by Sekisui SPI.
Organizations from across the region came together on Thursday on the Penn College campus to provide fun and educational activities in science, technology, engineering and math for elementary- and middle-school students. Families were invited to an evening event in the Field House, and during the day, fifth-graders from many area schools attended a sneak preview that also included a live science show by The Franklin Institute and the School of Business & Hospitality’s popular “Taste of Technology” presentation – complete with fun and delicious demonstrations of physical and chemical phase changes in food – by Chef Frank M. Suchwala, associate professor of hospitality management/culinary arts, and baking and culinary arts students. Students and employees from several other Penn College academic programs also participated. The event is coordinated on campus by the Office of College Transitions and First Year Initiatives and sponsored by Penn College, Lycoming College and the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.
Elementary and middle school students and their families are invited to a Science Festival on the Pennsylvania College of Technology campus on Thursday, Feb. 21.
The festival is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. in the college’s Field House and features hands-on activities designed to spark excitement about science, math, engineering and technology.
The Field House will be filled with fun activities and demonstrations presented by local organizations that include businesses, high school and college faculty and students, and the Society of Plastics Engineers’ PlastiVan. The event is intended to make learning fun.
Approximately 600 students from high schools across the state attended Career Day on Thursday, trying their hands at Penn College’s “degrees that work.” Faculty, staff and several students, giving up time from the Fall Break, provided 34 options for tours, demonstrations and hands-on activities. In addition, employees, students and vendors engaged another 800 high-schoolers in “PA Build My Future” activities.
PA Build My Future – coordinated by Penn College’s Building Construction Technology Department, College Transitions, and the School of Construction & Design Technologies – hosted approximately 800 secondary students and their chaperones on campus Thursday. The day was designed to allow scores of businesses to engage the students through hands-on activities that display the breadth of opportunities in the construction and design industry, from skilled trades to management. Indoor exhibits were in the Carl Building Technologies Center, Hager Lifelong Education Center and Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center; outdoor exhibits were offered on campus parking lots. WNEP’s Kristina Papa visited campus for the event, which is an outgrowth of a Homebuilding Education Leadership Program grant through the National Housing Endowment. Her report aired during Thursday evening newscasts, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania College of Technology has named Randy J. Zangara dean of college transitions and first year initiatives.
As dean, Zangara is responsible for coordinating and aligning first-year programs and services and the development of a collegewide retention plan. He also oversees the Penn College NOW dual enrollment program; K-12 outreach; new student testing, advising and scheduling; and recruitment and retention of identified populations, including veteran students. Additionally, he oversees all aspects of international programming at the college.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s SMART Girls summer camp, which encourages high school-aged girls to continue challenging themselves in math and science at an age when many lose interest or confidence, convened last week.
Among supporters of the weeklong program was PPL Electric Utilities. PPL donated $4,000 to the college through the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. The funds are used to support both SMART Girls and the Penn College NOW dual-enrollment program.
A video promoting a program in which high school students earn college credit garnered honors for Pennsylvania College of Technology in the 39th annual Telly Awards competition, representing the best work from advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers worldwide.
A Bronze Telly in the “Non-Broadcast – General-Information” category went to a news video titled “High Schoolers Earn Free College Credits with Penn College NOW,” which showcased the Penn College NOW dual-enrollment program.
The College Transitions Office hosted its Spring Career Day on Monday, welcoming 1,283 seventh- to ninth-graders from across northcentral Pennsylvania. Faculty provided more than 40 sessions in Penn College’s labs to help the visitors explore careers and learn about college expectations. Schools attending were Mifflin County Middle School, North Penn-Mansfield Jr./Sr. High School, Cowanesque Valley Junior-Senior High School, North Penn-Liberty Jr./Sr. High School, Milton Middle School, Midd-West Middle School, Jersey Shore Area Middle School and Canton High School.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Penn College NOW dual-enrollment program – which provided $2.7 million of college credits free to Pennsylvania high school students in 2016-17 – received reaccreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, the organization announced on May 2.
Penn College NOW was established by the college in 2005 to provide Penn College courses to high school students at their schools or career and technology centers. In 2011, it became the first dual-enrollment program in the state to receive accreditation from NACEP, the sole national accrediting body for concurrent-enrollment partnerships. Today only two Pennsylvania dual-enrollment programs are nationally accredited.