News about Students

Forestry Club Completes Civic Project for Nearby Golf Course

Trees are ground into mulch at the Schneebeli Earth Science Center.

In a mutually beneficial service project, the Penn College Forestry Club removed approximately 45 trees from the White Deer Golf Course entrance and hauled them across Allenwood Camp Lane to the college’s Schneebeli Earth Science Center.  The trees were stacked in a pile for summer storage at the campus – home to many of the majors in the School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies – then, last month, the Lycoming County Landfill sent over its tub grinder for chipping and grinding of the material. The mulch will be used on the ESC’s trail system and for various recreational projects throughout the academic year.
Photo provided

Nursing Students Start Weeklong Mission to Guatemala

The students are taking a variety of items to donate, including Penn College hand sanitizer and backpacks, toothbrushes, children’s books, hair ties and sunglasses.

The adventurous group (from left): Rene Ramirez, Maggie K. Calkins, Glendalis Guadarrama, Christine B. Kavanagh, Mikaila E. Lugo-Schlegel and Sarah J. Schick.

The group will take an assortment of educational items.

Nursing students in Explorations in Global Health Care, a study abroad course, held a packing party in the Breuder Advanced Technology & Health Sciences Center on Thursday. By noon Friday, the group is expected to land in Guatemala, where they’ll be transported two hours by bus to their hotel near Santa Rosa, Guatemala. There, they will spend seven days working at a medical clinic with volunteers from Glens Falls Medical Mission. Making the trip to rural Guatemala are Penn College students Maggie K. Calkins, of Bloomsburg; Glendalis Guadarrama, of Avondale; Mikaila E. Lugo-Schlegel, of Lebanon; Rene Ramirez, of Venezuela; and Sarah J. Schick, of Williamsport, with Christine B. Kavanagh, instructor of nursing.

A Taste of What’s in Store

Vendors tempt students up and down the CC hallway.

The discriminating palates of students will decide the Question of the Day: Which snack foods will cut it?

Thursday morning’s annual Wildcat Sampler in the Bush Campus Center gave students a voice in what items may be available for purchase in the near future. After nibbling and noshing, scarfing and sipping from 10 a.m.-noon, students filled out surveys indicating their favorites – many of which will be brought to Dining Services’ retail line in the coming months.
Photos by Rachel A. Eirmann, student photographer

College Boasts Record Employer Turnout for Career Fair

Students and employers connect at the Field House for Penn College’s Fall 2017 Career Fair. Other employers were stationed at the college’s Bardo Gymnasium for the event, which featured 237 employers offering 3,180 jobs and/or internships.

The future recipients of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s “degrees that work” attracted a record number of employers to the school’s Fall Career Fair.

Representing all economic sectors, 237 employers – including 19 Fortune 500 companies – recruited students at the event. The employers offered approximately 3,180 jobs and internships, reflective of the college’s 100-plus bachelor’s, associate and certificate majors.

“The employers are looking for students who are technically skilled and prepared to enter today’s workforce,” said Erin S. Shultz, coordinator of career development at the college. “Those are our students. That’s why we have a record number of employers recruiting our students. And that’s why our students enjoy a 96-percent placement rate.”

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Employers Schedule Information Sessions

Five employers will hold on-campus information sessions in the coming week, hoping to interest students and alumni from a variety of academic programs. Scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday are Ford, Rooms 110-12 of the Parkes Automotive Technology Center; High Construction, Room B2052 of the Hager Lifelong Education Center; and High Steel, Room 157A of College Avenue Labs. (High Construction will conduct interviews the following day in Room 202 of the Bush Campus Center.) On Thursday, Oct. 26, Geisinger will meet with prospective employees at 2 p.m. in Room W133 of the Breuder Advanced Technology & Health Sciences Center; and Hydro Extruded Solutions will offer its session at 3:30 p.m. in CAL, Room 104. For more, including available positions and sought-after majors, consult the Career Services flyer: Recruiters Visiting Campus

Dental Hygiene Clinic Holds ‘Pink Out’ for Breast Cancer Awareness

The college’s Dental Hygiene Clinic takes on a pink hue as students and faculty don pink gowns for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Penn College’s dental hygiene program helped to promote National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this week. While treating patients in the Dental Hygiene Clinic on Thursday and Friday, second-year students and their faculty donned pink gowns, creating a clinicwide “pink out.”

Students Take Direct Route From Competition to Community Service

Representing Penn College at a recent woodsmen’s meet in North Carolina, as well as in a gratifying demonstration of community service on the way home, were (from left) students Kristin E. Cavanaugh, Bellefonte; Aaron V. Jedrziewski, Williamsport; and Jackson H. Gehris, Cogan Station; G. Andrew Bartholomay, assistant professor of forest technology; and students Levi J. Weidner, Mechanicsburg; William A. Morrow, Newville; Tyler W. Lauver, Mifflinburg; Abigail L. Hufnagle, Lewisburg; and Derick S. Gower, Sunbury.

Returning from an Oct. 7 woodsmen’s competition in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest, the Pennsylvania College of Technology Forestry Club – conveniently toting the tools that had earlier brought many of the students individual honors – put their skills to work in a much-appreciated display of public assistance.

Eight members of the club’s Woodsman Team had journeyed to The Cradle of Forestry to compete in the 22nd annual John Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet, the third consecutive year that Penn College students made the trip. While the students comported themselves admirably in their respective events, the collective Good Samaritan act that followed left no axes to grind.

“Interestingly, the chopping didn’t stop with the conclusion of the meet,” said coach and club adviser G. Andrew Bartholomay, an assistant professor of forest technology. “After breaking camp Saturday night and heading home, the team happened upon a large, dead hemlock tree that had fallen and was blocking the Pisgah Highway. Under the headlights of two college vans and several other trapped cars, the Woodsman Team went to work chopping and clearing the obstruction.”

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Penn College Launches Redesigned Athletics Website

Roar, Wildcats, roar!

Fans of Pennsylvania College of Technology Athletics now have a new and improved source for information as the department revealed its redesigned website, which features the same content that fans have enjoyed in past – with several enhancements – and a sleek, modern look.

With the creation of a new Wildcats logo in May and the department extending its contract with SIDEARM Sports, Penn College Athletics’ website provider since 2014, it was the perfect time for a new look.

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Resilient Student Achieves Goal With John Deere Position

“I just knew this was where I was supposed to be,” Hanna J. Williams says of Penn College, which attracted her through small class sizes and personal interaction with faculty and fellow students. (Photo by Tia G. La, student photographer)

Approximately 200 employers greeted the sophomore at her first Pennsylvania College of Technology career fair. As an industrial design major, the student could approach numerous companies representing all economic sectors. But her focus was the booth decked out in yellow and green, the iconic colors of John Deere.

Hanna J. Williams fell in love with John Deere tractors while growing up on her family’s 800-acre produce farm in Marion, New York. She dreamed of working at the company responsible for the equipment that made her father’s hard farm work a bit easier.

At the career fair, she planned to take the first step to making that dream a reality. She clutched her impressive resume and confidently approached the John Deere booth. Anticipation quickly turned to dejection when company representatives informed her they were recruiting only welding majors.

“They didn’t want anything to do with me,” she recalled.

Crushed, Williams walked away from the booth … but not her dream. “I had to go back,” she said. “This is what I really wanted.”

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Professor’s Sabbatical Yields Virtual Adviser Prototype

Jeff L. Rankinen

During his sabbatical last spring, Jeff L. Rankinen planned to investigate the possibilities of artificial intelligence. The Pennsylvania College of Technology associate professor returned to the classroom this fall after transforming one of those possibilities into a reality.

Rankinen was part of a four-person team that earned $15,000 in funding to develop a “virtual adviser” as part of the Penn State EdTech Network’s Nittany Watson Challenge, which tasked entrants to improve the student experience via artificial intelligence. Just five of 39 teams were awarded $15,000 to create both a working prototype and minimum viable product in conjunction with IBM Watson, a technology platform focused on data analysis, natural language processing and machine learning.

“I thought the competition would be a good opportunity to learn more,” said Rankinen, who has taught electronics and computer engineering technology at Penn College since 1986. “I have been interested in artificial intelligence since beginning my graduate work at Penn State in 1987. It was very enriching to get immersed in artificial intelligence with IBM Watson during the competition.”

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It’s All in a Day’s (Net)work at Fall Career Fair

From Field House to field of opportunity

Nearly 240 employers offering more than 3,180 jobs or internships came face-to-face with the potential payroll of tomorrow at Tuesday’s Fall Career Fair in Penn College’s Bardo Gym and Field House. (Watch PCToday for more on what they found! In the meantime, check out this photo gallery of the interaction among students, alumni and corporate recruiters – which continued Wednesday, when 33 employers were scheduled to interview more than 250 students.)

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‘Career Day’ Opens Doors of Exploration for Curious Teens

Automated manufacturing technology student Aren T. Way (right) of Jersey Shore, demonstrates an industrial-scale robot during a session on “Industrial Robotics, Hydraulics and Pneumatics, and CNC Machine Tools.”

More than 900 high schoolers, hailing from 28 school districts, spent Thursday on campus for the College Transitions Office’s Career Day. Faculty and students from all six of the college’s academic schools and all three campuses spent their Fall Break day off providing close to 50 career-exploration sessions for the visitors, exposing them to dozens of the college’s “degrees that work” offerings. A few of the districts traveled as much as two hours to attend. Among the highlights was a half-day session by the Penn College accounting, finance and business administration departments and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants that featured not only information about Penn College’s technology-laden degrees, but talks by guest speakers Michael Colgan, CEO of PICPA, and Joseph Siebert, president of PICPA, about future work in these fields as firms must protect clients’ financial information, and accountants can aid investigations via “forensic accounting.” Following the presentations and a Q&A with a panel of Penn College accounting and finance students, the 200 high school participants attended an etiquette lunch in the Field House.

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Last updated October 13, 2017 | Posted in Business & Hospitality, College Transitions, Construction & Design Technologies, Events, Faculty & Staff, Health Sciences, Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies, Sciences, Humanities & Visual Communications, Students, Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies | This gallery contains 19 photos. | Tagged as | Leave a comment

Students Ably Document Days (and Nights) of Our Lives

A driver, donning "drunk goggles," safely replicates impairment of judgment and faculties while motoring near the Thompson Professional Development Center.

Famed ’80s philosopher Ferris Bueller once cautioned, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Luckily for the Penn College community, student photographers are on hand to attend many of the events that fill the campus calendar throughout the academic year. Here, then, while the students take a much-deserved Fall Break (and PCToday’s editor clears away some desktop backlog), a look back at three recent happenings: the annual Golf Cart Beer Run to call attention to the perils of impaired driving, “Lanterns on the Lawn,” a cancer-fighting fundraiser for Penn College Benefiting THON, and Dining Services’ Oktoberfest in the Bush Campus Center.

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Advocates for Equality Observe ‘Coming Out Day’

Giveaways share messages of advocacy, awareness

Staffing a table in the Hager Lifelong Education Center are (from left) Community Peer Educators Maepearl S. St. George, of Bellefonte, and Samuel J. Pham, of Camp Hill; and PC Alliance members Abigail K. Leise, of Williamsport; Julieta W. Hernandez, of Mechanicsburg; and Samantha R. Labate, of Williamsport.

Diversity and Community Engagement joined in Wednesday’s observance of the 29th annual National Coming Out Day, celebrating the LGBTQ community and people who wanted to come out as allies in support. Student leaders were stationed at a table outside Penn College’s Keystone Dining Room stocked with various pins, pride flags and snacks, and information about the coming-out process.
Photos by James “J.J.” Boettcher, student photographer

WNEP Broadcasts Student Reaction to U.S. Team’s Soccer Loss

WNEP on campusNewswatch 16’s Kristina Papa visited Penn College’s Athletic Field for student-athletes’ perspective on the U.S. Men’s National Team’s loss to Trinidad and Tobago and attendant failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 31 years. Papa spoke with Randy S. Vance, of Greenwood Lake, New York, and Taylor C. Gonzales, of Lititz – both of whom play soccer for their respective Wildcat teams – and Carly E. Engel, a student who played while in high school at South Williamsport. The segment, which aired during Wednesday evening’s newscasts, also featured footage of Brandon O. Wolff, of Effort, also on the men’s roster.

Pennsylvania College of Technology is a special mission affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University