Tag: centennialevent

The final activities of Penn College’s illustrious Centennial observance – the filling, sealing and installation of an institutional snapshot from that 2014 celebration – took place this week in a first-floor corner of Madigan Library. Various historical and commemorative items were loaded into the time capsule on Thursday, and the contents were sealed with argon gas the following day. On Wednesday morning, the high-grade, stainless steel container was maneuvered into a glass-block repository built by the School of Construction & Design Technologies. The time capsule and its archival treasure will remain undisturbed until reopened in 50 years. A montage of Centennial activities, colorfully and energetically composed from a year’s worth of photos, has been incorporated into a video on the Penn College YouTube channel.

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An ambitious documentary produced by Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA Public Media has received a national honor.

“Working Class: 100 Years of Hands-On Education” recently garnered a bronze Telly Award for outstanding achievement in the documentary category of the 36th annual competition.

Produced to commemorate the Centennial anniversary of the institution, the 60-minute documentary reveals myriad challenges the college has overcome in honoring the dignity of work. Interviews with key officials and national experts and archival photos and video bring to life the college’s enduring commitment to the working class.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology’s efforts to publicize its 2014 Centennial celebration were honored with a Gold Award in the 30th Annual Educational Advertising Awards, sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report.

Penn College received a Gold Award in the Total Public Relations Program category for a submission that included a variety of Centennial-related works produced during the 2014 calendar year.

Among the materials submitted for judging were a documentary film, “Working Class: 100 Years of Hands-On Education”; a commemorative book, “Marketing With a Mission: Building the Brand That Became Pennsylvania’s Premier Technical College”; Centennial banners; brochures, posters, fliers, programs and invitations created for various campus events; paid advertisements; a Centennial calendar; website content; and an effort targeting multiple social media platforms.

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Six Penn College faculty members, who combined for four enlightening and provocative lectures during 2014’s Centennial Colloquia Series, reconvened on campus Wednesday night for a roundtable recap. The discussion, titled “Riding the Wave of Technological Change: Revolution or Evolution?” was held in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The group (Dorothy J. Gerring, Robert A. Wozniak, Lisa R. Bock, Mark D. Noe, D. Robert Cooley and Craig A. Miller) ably kicked around the connection between technology and progress, entertaining questions from moderator James E. Cunningham and the audience.
Photos by Elizabeth S. Greis, student photographer

Pennsylvania College of Technology has been honored with three awards in an annual competition sponsored by CUPRAP – The Association of Communicators in Education, including recognition of the institution’s 2014 Centennial celebration.

Public Relations & Marketing at Penn College earned a Gold CUPPIE in the Public Relations Feature Article category, a Gold in the Photography division and a Silver for the college’s overall 100th-anniversary marketing campaign.

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“Working Class: 100 Years of Hands-On Education,” which chronicles the rich and challenging history of Penn College and its predecessors, can be viewed on the college’s YouTube channel. The one-hour documentary – which premiered Jan. 8 on campus and continues to be shown on public television – was co-produced by the college and WVIA Public Media in conjunction with the institution’s 2014 Centennial.

A one-hour documentary that recaps a century of institutional history (and caps Penn College’s yearlong Centennial celebration) met with an enthusiastic and appreciative audience on its initial showing Thursday afternoon. The premiere of “Working Class: 100 Years of Hands-On Education,” chronicling the story of the college and its contribution to the American workforce, was held at 3:30 p.m. in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The college co-produced the film with WVIA Public Media, which will broadcast it on public television on a variety of dates beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Pennsylvania College of Technology held its Winter Commencement on Saturday at Williamsport’s Community Arts Center, honoring Fall 2014 graduates  and ringing down the curtain on a yearlong 100th-anniversary celebration. Student speaker Nicole Marie Reyes-Molina, of Lancaster, a deaf student who received an Associate of Applied Science in building construction technology: masonry emphasis, represented the year’s final Centennial class during the 11 a.m. event. Nearly 300 degrees were conferred by college President Davie Jane Gilmour and state Sen. Gene Yaw, chair of the Penn College Board of Directors, who was surprised with a leadership award during the ceremony.

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State Sen. Gene Yaw was presented with a Centennial Leadership Award during Winter Commencement for Pennsylvania College of Technology, which is celebrating its Centennial throughout 2014.

Penn College President Davie Jane Gilmour bestowed the surprise award upon Yaw during the ceremony, which was held at the Community Arts Center, Williamsport. The award honors “a legacy of leadership and a continuing contribution to the vitality of the institution during its Centennial anniversary year.”

“For more than three decades – spanning one-third of the institution’s 100-year history – Gene Yaw has served in pivotal leadership roles as solicitor, adviser, advocate, director and chairman of the Board of Directors of Pennsylvania College of Technology,” Gilmour said.

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The Centennial Legacy Celebration, recognizing the donors who help further Penn College’s mission – and showcasing the talented students in the School of Business & Hospitality – was held Saturday evening in the Hager Lifelong Education Center. Invited guests enjoyed dinner in Le Jeune Chef Restaurant, bookended by appetizers and a Grand Pastry Buffet in the Keystone Dining Room. The phenomenal success of the Centennial-related Penn College Scholarship Campaign was noted by President Davie Jane Gilmour, who said more than $6.1 million has already been pledged … and more gifts are expected before a final total is announced in mid-January. “This additional scholarship support will help the college pursue its vision of being a national leader in applied technology education,” she told donors, “and it was only made possible thanks to your generous support and commitment to Penn College. The impact of your generosity is already being felt by students, as the (Penn College) Foundation has awarded  more than $600,000 in scholarships this academic year – a 150-percent increase from the start of the campaign!” Support came from many members of the college community, who donated to an existing scholarship or established one of the 71 new funds added over the past three and a half years. The broad-based demonstration of support involved 653 alumni, 439 employees and retirees, 598 friends of the college and 197 industry partners.

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The creative work of a Pennsylvania College of Technology student captured the People’s Choice award at the close of “100 Works! – The Centennial Exhibit” at The Gallery at Penn College.

Ronni N. Warner, a junior enrolled in pre-applied health studies, won the honor for her work, “Traveling Through Amelia,” a black-and-white print relating to the exhibit’s “Past, Present, Future” theme.

“This photo, which is actually a blend of three digital photos, reminds me of the theme because I can see the past in the sand and the shells, the present by the footprints imprinted on the sand, and the future in the tree reaching toward the light in the sky,” said Warner, a resident of Muncy and native of Bellefonte. “The blend of the photos reminds me of life as a process, and that process includes all of the elements of this theme.”

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Defining history as a “conversation between the past and the present … and almost always about the future,” faculty member Craig A. Miller delivered the concluding lecture in Penn College’s Centennial Colloquia Series on Tuesday night. The assistant professor of history and political science discussed “Technology, Power and Responsibility” in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium, engaging his audience the same way he challenges his students: “I’m not here to teach you history. I’m here to use history to teach you to be critical thinkers.” So while the presentation was shaped around the construction of the transcontinental railroad, that story served as a thought-provoking springboard to the broader connection between choices and consequences. Cross-country rail service was “truly a technological marvel” steeped in progress and industrial speed, he said, a monumental achievement that was not without fallout. True, it ushered in an era of development and helped the United States become a global economic power. But the territorial expansion also relocated Native Americans under a policy of “assimilate or move,” fostered financial chicanery and altered the workforce. In an informed give-and-take, Miller urged attendees to vigilantly weigh multiple perspectives, to logically and critically analyze the societal price of decisions, and to “accept uncomfortable truths and learn from them.” The hourlong program, introduced and moderated by Paul L. Starkey, vice president for academic affairs and provost, was followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception in Wrapture.

In appreciation of their contributions to the Penn College Scholarship Campaign, donors were treated to a casual Saturday evening of tasty and tuneful entertainment. The celebration began with a Le Jeune Restaurant-catered buffet at the Field House and continued at the Community Arts Center with a private performance by Home Free, the a cappella country group that won the fourth season of NBC’s “The Sing-Off.” More than $5.7 million has been donated to the campaign, which, for 2014-15, has already more than doubled the scholarship support to students prior to the start of the campaign in 2011.

Affirming that the speed of communication governs the pace of life, a visiting physicist, author and educator made a regretful confession to his Penn College audience Tuesday: “I rarely goof off.” No matter the amount of time available – seconds can be spent answering phone messages, minutes are allotted to email responses and hours devoted to work on an article or book – Alan Lightman lamented that he no longer wastes that precious commodity. Contrasting his “long childhood detours through the woods” with his adult status as “a prisoner of the wired world,” he called for a more selective, reflective approach to time management; challenging us, individually and as a nation, to “take the time to think about where we’re going.” While he is far from anti-technology (Skype and other tools keep him connected to his nonprofit Harpswell Foundation), Lightman said society pays a heavy price for its advanced gadgetry. Among them are an obsession with speed and a corresponding impatience with relative slowness, an overload of not-always-useful information, confusing the cyberworld with reality, and the dual absence of silence and privacy. “I have lost something of my inner self,” he said; that quiet “soul space” where imagination, dreaming and exploration dwell. Lightman invoked the philosophy of Francis Bacon and Benjamin Franklin, who only championed technological invention when it served humanity. And it is humans, he said, who have the power to reverse the dizzying course and reclaim the “certain amount of stillness” required to balance societal progress with internal peace. The presentation of “Our Home in the Material Universe” to a packed Klump Academic Center Auditorium, especially written for the college’s Centennial Colloquia Series, was introduced by physics professor David S. Richards (who noted his favorite novel is Lightman’s “Einstein’s Dreams”). The series will conclude Tuesday, Nov. 18, with “Technology, Power and Responsibility,” presented by Craig A. Miller, assistant professor of history/political science.
Photos by Dalaney T. Vartenisian, student photographer

Penn College welcomed prospective students, their families and friends, and its community neighbors to Fall Open House on Sunday. Helpful employees, students and alumni were on hand throughout the day to enable exploration of academic programs, student life, and the college’s campuses and facilities. The student-focused portion of the day was held from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.; free transportation was provided to and from the Schneebeli Earth Science Center near Allenwood and the Lumley Aviation Center in Montoursville. A Community Centennial Event, inviting the public to help celebrate 100 years of adult education, was from 2-4 p.m.

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