Horticulture Alumnus Testifies Before House Committee

A 2002 graduate of Penn College’s landscape/nursery technology major testified Wednesday morning before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce. Joseph C. Luther, a horticulture and landscape instructor at Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, was among 23 invited panelists for a bipartisan Innovation Forum and Showcase. During his three-minute testimony at the hearing, the award-winning educator discussed the hands-on success of his students in community projects and the importance of forming professional relationships with industry partners. In follow-up questioning by U.S. Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, whose 5th District includes CPI’s campus in Pleasant Gap, Luther shared a pair of success stories from career and technical education: a student with Down syndrome who has found full-time employment with a Centre County greenhouse and another who, while not enrolled in horticulture, was mentored by Luther into a lucrative welding job on a Marcellus Shale pipeline.