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On Campus

IUP?student earns Exellence in Education Award

INDIANA, Pa. -?Jordan Fees recently was presented the Excellence in Education Award by the professional studies in education department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Fees, a 2008 graduate of Cambria Heights High School, Patton, recently completed his student teaching in the Richland School District and graduated on May 10 from IUP with a bachelor of science degree in early childhood/special education.

He is the son of John and Jenny Fees of Carrolltown.

WyoTech student recognized with Snap-On?Award

BLAIRSVILLE – Robertsdale native and 2014 WyoTech Blairsville graduate Matthew Duvall received the Snap-On Award at WyoTech on March 26.

The award is given to students who act in accordance with Snap-On’s beliefs and values of integrity, honesty, respect, teamwork and active listening skills.

Duvall, a 2013 graduate of Tussey Mountain Senior High School,?Saxton, was also recognized as an outstanding student in WyoTech’s collision refinishing technology program for demonstrating academic achievement, a positive attitude, cooperation, dedication and motivation.

Duvall, a mentor and tutor to his peers, was a student speaker during the graduation ceremony, as WyoTech Blairsville celebrated 274 students receiving automotive technology, diesel technology and collision and refinishing technology diplomas.

Following his post-secondary education at WyoTech, Duvall will pursue a career in the collision refinishing technology field.

Penn?State Altoona features posters, presentations

Penn State Altoona held its annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Fair on April 12 to showcase the exciting research and creative activities that students undertake.

In addition to engineering, information technology, physical sciences, health, life and social sciences posters, there were three sessions of oral presentations. There was also a category for performances and exhibitions.

Kelly Ketterman and Jacob Gromiller of Hollidaysburg won third place in the health, life and physical sciences poster presentations.

Joe Dively of East Free-dom took third place in the social sciences poster presentations.

Zachary Sinisi of Altoona and Michael Phillips took first place in the computing/information technology and engineering poster presentations, where Paul Santella of Altoona and Megan Brobeck of Bellwood took second place and James Pratt of Altoona and James Hackenberry took third place.

In the arts and humanities oral presentations, Anne Maucieri of Altoona took first place and Heather Myers of Altoona took third place.

In the math and computing and information technology oral presentations, Jackson Brumbaugh of Martinsburg took first place and Victoria McIntyre of Hollidaysburg, Patrick Shea and Natasha Csicsmann took third place.

In the physical sciences oral presentations, Shelby Stigers of Sidman took first place, Paul?Armstrong of Altoona took second place and Colin Lingafelt of Altoona took third place.

In performances, Annette Nagle of Altoona and Shana Soriano took first place and Nathanial Dibert of East Freedom took third place.

The fair is funded by the Penn State Altoona Honors Program.

Student-athlete from?Tyrone

lauded at college

WILLIAMSPORT – Five seniors at Lycoming College, including women’s basketball team member Jenna Morgan of Tyrone, wrapped up their careers with a perfect 3-for-3 in MAC Academic Honor Roll selections, earning the award in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Morgan is a graduate of Juniata Valley High School, Alexandria. She is a mathematics major.

The honor roll comprises those student-athletes of sophomore class standing or higher who participated in a varsity-level sport and registered a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 (4.00 scale) or higher at the beginning of the 2013 fall semester and completed the playing season in good standing.

Local scholar

elected for student government

LATROBE – St. Vincent College students were recently elected class officers and senators to the Student Government Association.

Megan Blake of Altoona was chosen as a senior class senator.

The students were elected by their peers and will serve until the end of the spring 2015 semester.

The Student Government Association acts as a liaison between the administration and the student body by representing and being attentive to student concerns and interests; improves the quality of life for students by effecting change in regard to policy and campus development and by overseeing student activities, both social and academic; and preserves the college’s commitment to dedicate itself to traditional Benedictine values and a strong liberal arts education.

Phi Kappa Phi honor society inducts members

BATON ROUGE, La. – The following local residents recently were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines:

n Joseph Barefoot of Alum Bank was initiated into The University of Tennessee at Martin chapter.

n Emily Barger of Clear field was initiated into Lycoming College chapter.

n Bridget Bellmore of Curwensville was initiated into Lycoming College chapter.

n Shyanne Williams of Ginter was initiated into Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania chapter.

n David Hall of Port Matilda was initiated into Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania chapter.

n Brittany Reed of Port Matilda was initiated into the Penn State University chapter.

n Kimberly Franey of Portage was initiated into Indiana University of Pennsylvania chapter.

n Douglas Harshberger of Wilmore was initiated into the Indiana University of Pennsylvania chapter.

These residents are among approximately 32,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year.

Membership is by invitation and requires nomination and approval by a chapter.

Shippensburg

student attends festival in D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Olivia Pompa of Hollidaysburg attended the Science and Engineering Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on April 26 and 27.

Pompa is the daughter of Joseph and Rita Pompa of Hollidaysburg.

Her group was only one of a few colleges that was picked to present at the festival.

Pompa is a full-time student at Shippensburg University, majoring in computer science. She is a member of Women in Computer Science and along with her group, presented their project at the festival. Their project was called a “Wonderfall,” which is a programmable waterfall, which allowed students to input text, words, numbers, names and other information.

The students also had preprogrammed pictures, including superhero logos, video game characters and emoticons.

The computer read the picture or the text into an image and then sent it line by line to the circuit board then sent it as 0’s and 1’s which told the valves to open or close controlling water flow.

By opening and closing them at certain times, the students could write words and draw pictures with the water.

Concentrated highlighter fluid was placed in the water, and blacklights were mounted on the frame to make the images glow.

On Campus

Juniata student to do yearlong research

HUNTINGDON – Andrew J. Maul of Portage, a senior studying biology at Juniata College, was recently awarded the National Institutes of Health’s Post-Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award, a yearlong opportunity that will allow Maul to work in an NIH research lab.

Maul will be working at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in Bethesda, Md. He will start his research in June in the laboratory of Pamela Robey, chief of the agency’s skeletal biology section and co-coordinator of the NIH Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Transplantation Center.

Last summer, Maul worked in the lab of Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientist Jenna Galloway. He spent 10 weeks working on a stem cell research project at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital after receiving the Exceptional Research Opportunities Program Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Maul, the son of Jeff and Karen Maul of Portage, is a 2010 graduate of Portage Area High School. He has been involved in undergraduate research at Juniata since fall semester 2012.

He works with Regina Lamandella, assistant professor of biology, on a project Lamandella started at Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, Calif., that examines insulin-resistant individuals and whether a resistant starch diet (foods that are more difficult to digest) will change how the bacteria in the gut may function.

Maul is a member of the Health Occupations Students of America.

Engineering students from PSU win awards

PHILADELPHIA – Two teams of Penn State architectural engineering students won seven awards at the 2014 Charles Pankow Foundation Annual Architectural Engineering Student Design Competition on March 29.

The competition, organized by the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and hosted by Drexel University, challenged students to address the design, integration and construction for a new high-profile, 30-story office building in San Francisco.

Teams were asked to integrate engineered systems for a high performance building with an eye toward sustainable design.

Students were judged in five primary categories including structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as construction management and integration.

Penn State won first place in four of the five primary categories and was runner-up in three categories.

Team AVANT from Penn State won the electrical, mechanical and structural categories and was the runner-up in the construction category. The group included Robert Fazio, Tyler Dietz, Christopher Coakley, Katharine Gausseres, Rebecca Slocum, Nicholas Rekstad, Jordan Miller and Eric Ripkin.

Team AEVITAS from Penn State won the construction category and was the runner-up in the structural and integration categories.

The group included Lara Kaiserian, Kristin Sliwinski, Alex van Eeden, Abigail Kreider, Kieran Carlisle, Drew Canfield, Jonathan Sharp and Robert Livorio.

M. Kevin Parfitt, associate professor of architectural engineering and one of the teams’ lead faculty advisers, said the four first-place awards matched last year’s tally and noted that it was only Penn State’s second year of participation in the contest.

He added, “There were numerous comments and feedback from the jury attesting to the technical strength and depth of analysis demonstrated by the Penn State architectural engineering student teams.”

In addition to Parfitt, Charles Cox, instructor of architectural engineering, and Ryan Solnosky, research associate in architectural engineering, served as lead faculty advisers.

The team’s technical advisers were John Messner, professor of architectural engineering; Richard Mistrick, associate professor of architectural engineering; and Moses Ling, associate professor of architectural engineering; and Solnosky.

A total of 10 teams from seven architectural engineering programs submitted projects for the competition.

The 2015 competition will be held during the AEI’s sixth Biennial Professional Conference from March 24 to 27 in Milwaukee and hosted by the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Student earns Academic Excellence Award

READING – Graduating seniors at Alvernia University received awards during the annual Honors Convocation on April 13.

David Michael Sloan of Huntingdon earned the Academic Excellence Award from the Allied Health & Human Services Department.

Sloan graduated with a bachelor of science degree.

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