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.
Allan Myers Inc., a heavy civil construction and construction materials company operating throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, will contribute an additional $50,000 annually to a scholarship it established previously at Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Preference for the Allan Myers Scholarship is given to full-time Penn College students who are employees/family members of Allan Myers Inc.
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 on Friday; Lauren S. Herr, of Lititz, awarded a bachelor’s in construction management 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 has presented student achievement awards to its Spring 2019 graduates.
More than 950 students petitioned to graduate at the conclusion of the spring semester, and three commencement ceremonies were held May 17-18 at the Community Arts Center. Penn College is a special mission affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University.
A year-end banquet honored 18 students with Penn College Awards, recognizing 2019 graduates who have made outstanding contributions to Pennsylvania College of Technology and who have risen above their peers through that leadership.
Anthony J. Pace, director of student activities, presided over Thursday evening’s event in the Thompson Professional Development Center. Recipients were presented with a plaque and a Penn College lapel pin, and their names will be permanently displayed on a wall outside the Student Activities Office.
Building on the words of Thomas Jefferson (“I am a great believer in luck … and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it”), President Davie Jane Gilmour welcomed the honorees’ families and friends by admitting she felt like the most fortunate person in the room.
“These students have accomplished so much for their colleagues, their teams, their friends and – most importantly – for themselves,” she said, an apt segue to the testimonials that would follow. “We are forever better for what they’ve done for us, with us and alongside us.”
An institutional emphasis on green building was channeled by architectural majors into Penn College’s first gallery exhibit of students’ sustainable designs, which officially opened with a reception Thursday afternoon. “Sustainable Design 2019,” showcased on the third floor of Madigan Library, challenged students to design and develop a substantial project in an urban setting. Eighteen seniors in the college’s building science and sustainable design programs rose to the task, drawing upon four years of immersive education to present capstones that skillfully encompass their processes, renderings and 3D models. The show, which runs through May 23, follows summer hours in The Gallery at Penn College: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays; and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. (The gallery is closed Saturdays and Mondays.)
Spurred by a local merchant and setting a blistering pace for fundraising, the Student Government Association at Pennsylvania College of Technology met its 2018-19 goal of purchasing a bicycle repair station for the Rose Street Apartments housing complex.
SGA’s Executive Board contacted the proprietors of The Bicycle Center – a 90-year-old, fourth-generation shop in South Williamsport – explaining its objective and seeking expert advice.
Take a minute to dive into what it takes to be an aviation technician with this snapshot of the Aviation Basic Electricity II course, a requirement for Penn College’s bachelor’s degree in aviation maintenance technology. Hour by hour, through hands-on activities and engaging classroom discussions, complex theories and ideas solidify into reality. In state-of-the-art labs, students in AVI 135 train with equipment used by the pros. They even build their own pocket-sized oscilloscopes to visualize electrical signals. With all that training – summarized in a video narrated by student Kate M. Ruggiero, of Easton – it’s easy to see why Penn College’s aviation graduates are real-world ready and sought after to fill high-demand positions as skilled aircraft mechanics.
The first graduating class of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s brewing and fermentation science major is fully employed and ready to share its talents with employers and beer lovers.
The six graduates are among more than 800 students participating in Penn College’s commencement exercises May 17-18 at the Community Arts Center in downtown Williamsport.
“I am very proud of the hard work this group has put in over the past two years of rigorous study,” said Timothy L. Yarrington, instructor of brewing fermentation and science. “I am also happy to have them joining the community of educated professional brewers. I look forward to following their successes as their careers take shape.”
A manufacturing engineering technology student at Pennsylvania College of Technology hit the right note with his senior project – literally.
Jaron A. Williams, of Lopez, spent countless hours during the academic year combining his twin passions of manufacturing and music to create a functional bass guitar.
“When he submitted this as a proposal, I said ‘yes,’ but I told him he would have to play it during his presentation,” noted John M. Good, instructor of automated manufacturing and machining. “He did. It sounded great! As he played, he demonstrated various technical aspects and sound-quality controls of his guitar. The audience was amazed.”
Among the recent capstone presentations held across campus, graduating students in Penn College’s brewing and fermentation science degree presented their culminating brews to an audience that included natural sciences and hospitality faculty. Two presentations were conducted, with the soon-to-be-professional brewers offering small assessment samples of their two final brews. “The primary goals of these events were twofold: one benefit to the students was to add feedback and commentary on their capstone beers from a random group of consumers to the feedback they received from the professional panels I assembled earlier in the semester,” said Timothy L. Yarrington, instructor of brewing and fermentation science. “Another was to expose the students to the challenge of engaging consumers about their beers and explaining the history, processes and rationale that inform their characteristic color, flavor and aroma. Brewers rely on professional and consumer feedback to inform their choices. We are also continually in a position to increase the beer IQ of the consumer through educational dialogue.” Six students will graduate May 17 with Associate of Applied Science degrees in brewing and fermentation science.
An inaugural exhibition displaying the architectural design work of 18 seniors in the building science and sustainable design majors at Pennsylvania College of Technology will open soon in The Gallery at Penn College.
A public reception for “Sustainable Design 2019” will be held Thursday, May 16, from 3:30 to 6 p.m., with a gallery talk at 4:30 p.m. The design work will be on display May 16-23 in the gallery on the third floor of the Madigan Library.
Unfilled manufacturing jobs through 2028 may total 2.4 million, threatening the health of the industry and the U.S. economy. With help from the National Science Foundation, Pennsylvania College of Technology is addressing that dire skills gap estimated by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute.
The NSF recently awarded the college a $591,924 grant through its Advanced Technological Education program to increase the number of qualified workers in advanced manufacturing. The money will fund several initiatives during the next three years aimed at students, teachers and school counselors.
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.
This fall, when Pennsylvania College of Technology opens its expanded welding lab facility – one that will enable enrollment of up to 60 more future welders annually – students in the popular program will hone their skills on industry-standard equipment they are sure to encounter on the job.
A partnership between Penn College and Miller, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of original equipment used in the welding industry, will ensure that students in the college’s welding majors gain familiarity with equipment that is used throughout the welding industry.