News about Makerspace

Nearly 140 campers from near and far participated in the past week’s seven Pre-College Programs, giving teens a taste of Penn College through an engrossing variety of academic adventure and social interaction: Architecture Odyssey, Autism Spectrum Post-Secondary Interest Experience, Automotive Technology, Aviation, Engineering, Future Restaurateurs and Health Careers.

A second week of camps, featuring an equally tantalizing menu of opportunities spread among eight more programs, convenes in mid-July.  Registrants for both weeks hail from 14 states – some from as far away as Connecticut, Florida and Virginia – and include a camper from Santiago, Chile!

Don’t think high school students are the only ones in on the fun, however! Pre-College Programs include My Tomorrow, a middle school career exploration day camp sponsored by the Soars family, from June 28 to July 1 and July 12-15.

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Ready to see what hands-on learning is all about? Here’s a teasing glimpse of the action that’s set to unfold in the Pennsylvania College of Technology episode of The College Tour, produced nationally and streaming on Amazon Prime when Season Five drops on Aug. 31:

Now that your interest is piqued, watch the full episode at Penn College’s College Tour website. Filmed over five days during the spring semester and edited into 27 brisk minutes, the video features 10 standout students in dedicated segments: Ashlee Felix, human services & restorative justice (Business, Arts & Sciences); Caila N. Flanagan, who earned two business degrees (Wildcat Life); Alejandro F. Huaman, a building science & sustainable design: architectural technology concentration alumnus (Engineering Technologies); Dacia J. James, dental hygiene (Nursing & Health Sciences); Jesse D. Laird V, a nursing student and ROTC cadet (Commitment to Service); Danielle E. Malesky, construction management (Momentum Guaranteed); Maggie J. Mangene, a softball player and heating, ventilation & air conditioning design technology student (Stay Wild); Wesley S. McCray, an engineering design technology grad (Future Made by Hand); Kathryn A. Plankenhorn, physician assistant studies (Explore Campus & Beyond); and automotive technology management alumnus Dhruv Singh (Come Ready, Leave Prepared). After hearing their stories and getting the inside track on campus life, we’re sure you’ll agree with host Alex Boylan that “There’s so much to love here!”

Six teams of third-year students in Architectural Design Studio V pursued the literal “seat of knowledge” in fashioning functional furniture out of corrugated cardboard on each side of the recent Spring Break. Offered annually since at least 2016, the creative exercise gives the groups two weeks each to design and build full-scale chairs from sheets of the recyclable material that integrate the concepts of function, aesthetics, ergonomics and detail. After their deadline at 10:15 p.m. Thursday, the teams – which made good use of The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College downstairs – reconvened on the second floor of the Hager Lifelong Education Center at 8 the following morning to share their respective projects with peers and judges (who included Geoffrey M. Campbell, assistant professor and department head for architecture, and Rob A. Wozniak, associate professor of architecture). The presentations, as varied as the chairs themselves, gave voice to the students’ development, construction and assembly of their creations – as well as occasional struggles on the path to completion. “If it fails, it fails,” one said of the risk-taking approach. “At least we tried!”

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An engineering manager at TE Connectivity facilitated the donation of electronic components to a number of instructional areas at Pennsylvania College of Technology, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in plastics and polymer engineering technology in May 2004.

William J. “Will” Moyer II, based at the company’s Middletown location, worked with Elizabeth A. Biddle, the college’s director of corporate relations, to put a variety of products into the hands of tomorrow’s industry professionals. Campus beneficiaries include students in electronics, mechatronics, electrical, aviation, automotive, diesel, manufacturing/machining, and at the Dr. Welch Workshop: a Makerspace at Penn College.

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Presidential Student Ambassador Lauryn A. Stauffer is your effusive and illuminating guide to Pennsylvania College of Technology in a newly launched video produced by Public Relations & Marketing. Loaded with fresh footage of renovated labs and popular campus hang spots, the comprehensive tour takes you through main campus, down the road to the Lumley Aviation Center and over the mountain to the Schneebeli Earth Science Center.

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George “Herman” Logue Jr. and George Logue III recently donated an entire brewing system and accessories to the brewing and fermentation science program at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The equipment, which represents the functional design of large industrial brewing systems, will be used by the college for instructional purposes in its brewing & fermentation science certificate major.

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Public Relations & Marketing at Pennsylvania College of Technology took home gold, bronze and honorable mention recognition in the 2021 CUPPIE Awards sponsored by CUPRAP, College and University Public Relations and Associated Professionals.

The 14th annual CUPPIE Awards featured 357 entries from colleges, universities, agencies and providers of private, specialized and secondary education and accreditation. Penn College was honored for writing, video and magazine production efforts completed between Dec. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020.

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From the Fall 2020 Penn College Magazine: Makers from all majors learn from one another as they bring ideas to life in The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College. Read more in “Making Makers.”
(Photos were taken before social distancing/masking protocols were instituted on campus.)

A trust established two decades ago by the late Dr. Marshall D. Welch Jr. and his wife, Mary L. Welch, has matured, and its remaining proceeds are being designated for a variety of efforts campuswide to assist students and bolster instruction.

Twenty years ago, the couple established a charitable remainder unitrust with Pennsylvania College of Technology with the intent of enhancing their endowment and supporting academic programs and students.

The Welch family has always believed in providing long-term support through endowments, but they have also recognized the immediate and critical needs of Penn College. Now, the college is partnering with Marshall D. Welch III, past board chair and current Executive Committee member of the Penn College Foundation, and Mary Welch to designate funds from the trust to meet those strategic needs.

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“Jeff Repko was the ideal choice for our first artist-in-residence in the ‘Material Matters’ series as his work combines traditional materials with digital fabrication methods,” said Penny Griffin Lutz, director of The Gallery at Penn College. In addition to a public reception for his exhibit, “In Proximity,” Repko’s five-day residency (Nov. 5-9) featured workshops in the gallery and The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College. “His artistic vision was a perfect fit for Penn College’s community of makers,” Lutz added. “He took advantage of the equipment in the makerspace to begin a new sculpture, and he enjoyed the one-on-one time he spent with students, educators and the public during hands-on workshops. Jeff felt so welcomed by our campus community!” “In Proximity” is on display through Dec. 11 in The Gallery at Penn College, on the third floor of Madigan Library. Hours are 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. The gallery is closed Mondays and Saturdays and will be closed Nov. 27-Dec. 1. The “Material Matters: Past, Present, Future” series will include two additional short-term artist residencies over the next two years and is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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A revised schedule of makerspace drop-in trainings – hourlong introductions to fascinating techniques, with no registration required – has been issued for the remainder of the semester. There will be no session this week; the schedule will resume at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in The Dr. Welch Workshop (Room 104 of the Carl Building Technologies Center).

Oct. 24: Laser Engraved Woodcut Relief Printmaking
Oct. 31: Introduction to CNC Routing
Nov. 7: CNC Routing, Part 2
Nov. 14: 3D Laser Scanning
Nov. 21: Clothing Repair Workshop (tentative)

An originally scheduled session on Vietnamese hand embroidery was canceled.

Makerspaces are collaborative learning centers with equipment and tools to dream, create and innovate in a community environment. The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College (Room 104 of the Carl Building Technologies Center) represents one such “hotbed for learning” – a combination of design, engineering, fabrication and education, where students can produce multidisciplinary projects in a dynamic learning setting. Three of those students sing the facility’s praises in a video added to the college’s YouTube channel: Nathaniel H. Lyon, a welding and fabrication engineering technology major from Fredericksburg; Anthony F. O’Koren, an applied technology student from Williamsport; and Ryan C. Kuntz, of Slatington, enrolled in manufacturing engineering technology. “Makerspace to me is kinda like when you were in kindergarten and everything was new and exciting, and you were always learning and getting to learn how to share and play with others and make things and practice your skills,” O’Koren says. “I didn’t know I was a maker until I found a whole community. Once you’ve made a friendship with someone, they’ll come and ask for your advice on what you think the best idea with this would be. You get to articulate or work with others to create an idea.”

Students, faculty and staff attended a Tuesday open house at The Dr. Welch Workshop: A Makerspace at Penn College (Room 104 of the Carl Building Technologies Center), enjoying free food and refreshments and learning about all of the great things they can accomplish there. In addition to kicking off the facility’s second year, the event ushers in a full slate of weekly training sessions on a variety of interesting topics. Watch PCToday for weekly announcements of the Fall 2019 training sessions, to be held from 6-7 p.m. Thursdays through Nov. 21.
Photos by Juvy A. Orillaza, student photographer

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.

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Veronica M. Muzic, whose dedicated service as a faculty member and administrator is tightly woven through 50 years of college history, died Tuesday, June 18, 2019, at the age of 82.

Muzic joined Williamsport Area Community College as an English instructor in 1968 and was awarded its first “Master Teacher” award in 1982. In recognition of her years of distinguished service to WACC and Pennsylvania College of Technology, the award was renamed in her honor in 2006.

In nearly four decades of teaching and administrative leadership – culminating in her retirement as vice president for academic affairs/provost, part-time service as a special assistant to the president and designation as faculty emerita – she was a tireless and selfless mentor to students, alumni and colleagues.

“Veronica was an essential piece of the fabric of our college, and she will be forever missed,” President Davie Jane Gilmour said.

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