Scholarship to Aid Monroe Career & Technical Institute Students

A welding instructor from the Monroe Career & Technical Institute in Bartonsville was so impressed by a visit last year to Pennsylvania College of Technology that he spearheaded the effort to establish a scholarship fund to encourage his students to attend the college.

The Monroe Career & Technical Institute Welding Scholarship will provide an annual award of $500 to a graduate of MCTI's welding program who enrolls as a full-time student in Penn College's welding and fabrication engineering technology bachelor-degree major, the welding technology associate-degree major, or the welding certificate major.

MCTI welding instructor Gregory J. Smith visited Penn College in March 2006 for a meeting of the Pennsylvania Welding Educators Association. He was so impressed by the tour of the college's welding labs that he decided to do something substantial to encourage his students to attend Penn College after graduating from their high school program.

Smith said the scholarship also honors the memory of one of his students, who died in a collision with a drunken driver.

"The scholarship at Penn College is supported by a fund established at MCTI in memory of Jason E. Ammon Honey," Smith said. "Jason was killed in a head-on crash with a drunk driver on Jan. 22, 2006. This will be a lasting tribute to Jason, and it will promote postsecondary education and advance the science of welding."

Ammon Honey was a junior at MCTI and Pleasant Valley High School and worked part time at his father's welding business in Kunkletown at the time of his death.

The Monroe Career & Technical Institute provides career and technical education opportunities for high school and adult students in the Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mountain, Stroudsburg Area and East Stroudsburg Area school districts in Monroe County.

Penn College is a special mission affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University. With more than 6,500 students enrolled in bachelor-degree, associate-degree and certificate majors, the college has the second-largest enrollment in the Penn State system.

For more information about Penn College's welding majors, or any of the more than 100 fields of study available at the college, call the Admissions Office at (570) 327-4761, or toll-free (800) 367-9222; e-mail Admissions ; or visit online .

For more information about establishing scholarships or making a gift to Penn College, call the Institutional Advancement Office at (570) 320-8020, or toll-free (866) GIVE-2-PC; send e-mail ; or visit on the Web .