Tag: RealWorldRelevant

Pennsylvania College of Technology student Trey L. White practices the tools of innovation even in his down time.

That’s how the Jersey Shore area resident came up with the Chillin’ Chair Challenge, a product that he dreamed up in February and is already available for purchase.

The Chillin’ Chair Challenge is a compact, lightweight tossing game that attaches to the back of a camping chair – or any other chair.

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Penn College’s “My Tomorrow” program (June 21-24 and June 28-July 1) opened middle-schoolers’ minds to a variety of vocational possibilities through hands-on activities and faculty-led sessions. The initiative, sponsored by the Soars Family, exposed students to a number of prospective careers – such as engineering, business and hospitality, the arts, and health sciences – as well as giving them a jump on charting their paths to success and satisfaction.

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George “Herman” Logue Jr. and George Logue III recently donated an entire brewing system and accessories to the brewing and fermentation science program at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The equipment, which represents the functional design of large industrial brewing systems, will be used by the college for instructional purposes in its brewing & fermentation science certificate major.

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As if the industrious fulfillment of her proud Pennsylvania College of Technology days isn’t a sufficient bequest, Kate M. Ruggiero punctuated her academic performance with a larger-than-life mic drop: impressively taking the lead in repainting a single-engine Cessna 175C airplane donated to the Lumley Aviation Center eight years ago.

Ruggiero earned an associate degree in aviation technology from Penn College in December, crossing the stage in a COVID-delayed ceremony on May 15, and will move from Easton to Michigan in early July to start a job as an aircraft paint specialist – working on corporate and private jets for Duncan Aviation in Battle Creek.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology President Davie Jane Gilmour has made a substantial commitment to the college’s Legacy Campaign for Penn College fundraising effort. The donation will benefit several key scholarship initiatives for students.

Gilmour, who recently announced plans to retire as president on June 30, 2022, is making a six-figure gift that will support the existing Tomorrow Makers Scholarship, as well as two new endowed funds she is creating: the Gilmour Global Experiences Endowment and the Gilmour Student Competition Endowment.

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Following the footsteps of their predecessors, members of the physical therapist assistant Class of 2022 recently visited Trailing Pines Tree Farm in Muncy, where they planted 150 seedlings as part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership. The certified tree farm is owned by Paul Huffman, a 1987 graduate of Williamsport Area Community College, a forerunner of Penn College. The farm is dedicated to wildlife management and conservation. The college’s physical therapist assistant program’s Class of 2021 (set to graduate in August) has been to the farm twice, and this was the first visit for the Class of 2022. Service learning is part of the physical therapist assistant program’s curriculum, with the goal of fostering altruism – putting patients and others above self – and community involvement.
Photos courtesy of Victoria Hurwitz, director of physical therapist assistant

After a year’s absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Baja SAE team returned to action with a flourish, posting four top-10 results at Baja SAE Louisville.

The recent Society of Automotive Engineers competition – hosted by the University of Louisville – required students to design and build a single-seat, all-terrain sporting vehicle to meet various challenges. Penn College topped several prominent colleges and universities in the 78-car field, including Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Auburn, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

In dynamic events, Penn College finished first (acceleration), fourth (suspension) and eighth (maneuverability) before capping the competition with a third-place showing in the endurance race, considered Baja SAE’s toughest test.

The overall performance was Penn College’s best in the team’s 16-year history.

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The nation’s longest-running major sporting event – the Kentucky Derby – ran for the 147th time May 1, and 24 Pennsylvania College of Technology students were on hand in the kitchens of historic Churchill Downs to lend their culinary skills.

While Penn College hospitality students’ work at the Kentucky Derby has been a tradition for more than 25 years, the students were unable to attend the 146th running of the Derby in 2020, when, due to the pandemic, it ran without guests in the stands in September instead of its traditional time slot on the first Saturday in May.

The students were grateful to return in 2021.

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Graphic design students from Pennsylvania College of Technology captured all student awards in the latest American Advertising Awards presented by the Northeast Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Advertising Federation.

“Our students did outstanding work, and these awards reinforce the quality of our program and our soon-to-be graduates,” said Nicholas L. Stephenson, instructor of graphic design. “Congratulations to all of this year’s American Advertising Awards winners. Amid COVID and social distancing, the AAF of Northeast PA was able to put on a great virtual awards show.”

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Philly Shipyard Inc. recently donated welding consumables to Pennsylvania College of Technology for instructional use in the college’s welding program.

The donation includes nine pallets of Lincoln Electric brand welding consumables; Lincoln Electric paid for the freight costs associated with the donation.

Philly Shipyard, a leading U.S. shipbuilder presently pursuing a mix of commercial and government work, expects to hire nearly 200 welders in 2021 to accommodate work on a new project involving four government training vessels for use at the state maritime academies. The donated material had to be replaced with material specific to the company’s new contracts.

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For Thomas L. Snyder, his graduation at Pennsylvania College of Technology on May 16 will mark more than the end of a rigorous academic pursuit. It will close his family’s chapter at the college, which dates to the Kennedy Administration.

The Weedville native’s lineage is linked to the college’s evolution from a renowned postsecondary technical institute to the second community college in Pennsylvania to its current status as a national leader in applied technology education.

Snyder’s maternal grandfather, Thomas E. Foster, earned a machinist certificate from Williamsport Technical Institute in 1962, and his father, Troy L. Snyder, attended Williamsport Area Community College in the mid-1980s, just a few years before it became Penn College, a special mission affiliate of Penn State.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology’s paramedic program is accepting applications for a new Bachelor of Science degree in health science: prehospital medicine concentration for the Fall 2021 semester.

The new degree is being offered in addition to the paramedic program’s current certificate and associate degree options. It provides a strong foundation in the natural sciences while preparing graduates to function as competent entry-level paramedics.

Coursework prepares students for administrative and teaching positions within the paramedic profession, as well as providing the necessary foundational knowledge for entry into many graduate-level programs, including medical school and physician assistant degree programs.

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From the Spring 2021 Penn College Magazine: Extraordinary curiosity led Fletcher Ewing, ’98, from childhood Soap Box Derbies to an innovation-filled career. His latest role is senior mechanical engineer for X, developing robots with the humanlike capacity to learn. Read “Revolutionizing Robotics.”

Nursing alumna Stephanie Suzadail, whose airborne delivery of emergency care is featured in the spring issue of Penn College Magazine, recently established two aptly named funds in support of Pennsylvania College of Technology students.

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A Pennsylvania College of Technology electronics student used a game synonymous with skill to showcase his automation and robotics acumen.

For his senior project, Aaron T. McGinley, of Williamsport, created a virtual version of chess that allows a robot to mimic the game. Users play via a computer screen and a Kuka industrial robot picks up and arranges 3D pieces on wooden chessboards to reflect the on-screen action.

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