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Penn State Hazleton marked the first class of graduates from the new practical nursing program on Fri., Dec. 2 at a ceremony in the Evelyn Graham Academic Building. Fourteen students completed the requirements to earn a certificate in practical nursing and will be eligible sit for the National Council Licensure Examination-Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN).

The inaugural class began their studies in June 2010 for the 18-month noncredit program offered in the evening and on weekends in the newly renovated classroom and laboratory in the lower level of the Slusser/Bayzick Building. Students took classes at Penn State Hazleton and attended clinical studies at area partner facilities.

Chancellor Gary Lawler presided over the ceremony, along with Practical Nursing Program Coordinator Patrice Rimbey and Interim Director of Faculty Affairs Thomas Smialek. Betty Corcoran, president of the Penn State Hazleton Council, the campus advisory board, extended congratulations from the council. Guest speaker was Roxanne Downs, R.N., B.S.N., director of Adult Day Services at Blue Mountain Health System and instructor in the Penn State Hazleton Practical Nursing program.  

During the ceremony, graduates were presented with a certificate and Penn State Hazleton pin to represent the educational institution.

Graduates were Kaylee Beishline, Sugarloaf; Jamie Douglas, Weatherly; Aleshia Hatch, West Hazleton; Ruth Hatch, West Hazleton; Cynthia Howe, Nescopeck; Rebecca Kennedy, Bloomsburg; Krystal Lombardo, Shenandoah Heights; Danielle Owler, Quakertown; Akilah Parker, Wilkes-Barre; Michelle Saldukas, Shenandoah; Pamela Scarano, Mountaintop; Vicki Stanton, Hazleton; Judy Veron, Coaldale; and Gina Vuocola, Nescopeck.

Awards were presented to several graduates. Awards and winners included:

Dr. William J. David, campus executive officer from 1973 to 1986, died Dec. 8 at the age of 90.

David became the leader of Penn State Hazleton in 1974. He presided over the largest facility expansion in campus history which included construction of the Physical Education Building and campus entranceway, along with oversight and planning of the bookstore and West residence hall.

Additionally, four new associate degree programs in physical therapist assistant, medical laboratory technology, nuclear engineering technology, and sociology were started.

Nicholas Skimbo, business faculty member from 1969-1988, remembered David as “a hands-on administrator, highly involved in strategic planning, and very active with the community through his associations with CAN DO and the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce.”

David and his wife, Gloria, both were integral parts of the campus and community during his tenure. She spearheaded campus restoration and beautification projects. Following her death in Aug. 2002, the fountain in the Administration Building garden was restored and dedicated in her memory in 2004. During the fountain dedication ceremony, David and his daughter, Diana, spoke eloquently of Gloria’s affection for and devotion to the campus, its students and faculty.

David came to Penn State Hazleton from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., where he served as associate dean of the College of Engineering. From 1953 to 1961, he was dean of the Graduate School of the Chrysler Institute of Engineering in Highland Park, Mich.

He earned degrees in mechanical and automotive engineering and a doctoral degree in higher education from the University of Michigan.

While at Penn State, David served as a board member of the United Way of Greater Hazleton, Hazleton Kiwanis Club, Greater Hazleton Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, Community Concert Association, Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, MMI Preparatory School, and Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

After he retired in 1986, David continued as director emeriti of the Penn State Hazleton Council, the campus advisory board.

David was born in nearby Lansford. He served in the Army in World War II as an engineer on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

He is survived by daughters, Deborah and Diana; son, David ’81, and a granddaughter.

To make a donation in memory of Dr. David, please call 570-450-3175.

Penn State Hazleton THON members will host “Breakfast with Santa and the Nittany Lion” from 8 to 10 a.m., Sat., Dec. 10 at Applebee’s in West Hazleton. Cost for the event is $5 for children and students, and $7 for adults. All proceeds benefit the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, THON for short, the world’s largest student run philanthropy, which raises money for the fight against pediatric cancer at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. Last year, Penn State students raised more than $9.5 million.  

Penn State Hazleton THON captains planning the “Breakfast with Santa and the Nittany Lion include, front row, from left, Samantha Fuss, Jaclyn Vukson and Paulina Jones. Second row, Jairo Estrella, Gina Correll, Megan McGee, Juliann Daramola, Tara Perpignan, Jacqueline Dailey and Melissa Hajduk. Back row, Michael Warner, Kristina Polachak, Zena Lewoc, Kristen Bogash, Marques Pereira, Jana Wojciechowski and Raven King. Missing from photo: Michelle Kennedy.

Under the direction of Joe DeMuro, "Private Eyes" will deliver an unforgettable performance with an ensemble cast starring Joe DeMuro, Eric Lutz, Jon Maier, Alicia Nordstrom, and Kimmie Wrazien. 

The play focuses on Matthew and Lisa, married actors involved in a play about deception with famed director Adrian Poynter. Their lives are turned upside down when Lisa becomes the object of Adrian's next love conquest. Matthew’s suspicions of Lisa's infidelity, coupled with his fear of the truth, drive him to the brink of insanity. Matthew’s memories of past and present collide with reality and fantasy as he tries to find the truth within his mind with the help of his therapist. Audiences will be taken on a wild ride of twists and turns that result in a surprise ending.

The Bracken Theatre Company is a community centered, volunteer supported theater company founded in 1996. They are committed to producing works that are professional in quality, but non-profit in organization. 

For additional information, call 570-762-6809 or email alicianordstrom@yahoo.com

Penn State Hazleton’s 2011-2012 Cultural Events Series continues on Tues., Nov. 15 with the Pennsylvania bluegrass group Cabinet performing at 7 p.m. in the Slusser/Bayzick Building. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Combining a penchant for bluegrass-infl­ected instrumentation and a knack for extending selections into crowd-pleasing jams, Cabinet is becoming more popular as they reach more and more listeners. Performing at clubs, theaters and festivals, the group has earned a reputation as a live act that should not be missed. And now, with the release of a live album on Ropeadope Records the Cabinet experience is available to everyone.

Formed in 2006, the sextet is comprised of J.P. Biondo on mandolin and vocals, Pappy Biondo on banjo and vocals, Mickey Coviello on acoustic guitar and vocals, Todd Kopec on fiddle and vocals, Dylan Skursky on double bass and electric bass, and Jami Novak on drums and percussion.

Cabinet’s music might have its roots in the past, but it is current and vibrant, with a sense of celebrating the now.

For more information on Cabinet, visit www.cabinetmusic.com

 The next cultural event will take place at 7 p.m., Mon., Jan. 23 with a Chinese New Year celebration with The Wong People performing the ancient Chinese lion dance.

The Penn State Hazleton THON Committee will host Vera Bradley Bingo on Sunday, Nov. 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Highacres Café, the campus dining facility. There will be 20 games played and chances to win numerous new Vera Bradley purses, duffels and bags, as well as raffle prizes. The cost to play is $20 per person. All proceeds benefit the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, THON for short, the world’s largest student run philanthropy, raising money for the families of children with pediatric cancer at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. Last year, Penn State students raised more than $9.5 million.

Please check back on the Web site http://www.hn.psu.edu/ and the Penn State Hazleton Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pennstatehazleton for further updates.

Penn State Hazleton’s next program in the Cultural Events series will feature the Gypsy music and dance of North America’s premier Russian-Romani group, “Moscow Gypsy Army,” at 7 p.m. on Wed., October 12 in the Black Box Theater of the Slusser/Bayzick Building. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Established in New York City in 2001, the group blends Cossack, Russian, Ukrainian and Gypsy music, song and dance with traditional costumes and instruments, making for a cultural revival of the Old World infused with aspects of the New World. The Moscow Gypsy Army performs Gypsy standards including Dark Eyes and Two Guitars, classic pieces including Chardash, along with ballads, tangos, waltzes and a number of popular songs.

To preview videos of the Moscow Gypsy Army, go to http://www.gypsyswing.us.

The next installment of the series will feature the blending of bluegrass, country and folk influences into the music of the Wilkes-Barre based group, “Cabinet” at 7 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15 in the Slusser/Bayzick Building.

For more information on events at Penn State Hazleton, call the Public Information Office at 570-450-3180.

The goal of this meeting is to get input on Penn State's Sustainability Strategic Plan.  Penn State already has many sustainability initiatives in teaching, research, operations and outreach.  There are classes, student clubs, Green Teams, recycling programs, energy conservation efforts and community engagement efforts such as Farmers Markets.  The Penn State Sustainability Strategic Plan seeks to recognize, support and expand those efforts. 

Earlier this year, a University Sustainability Council was charged by Provost Rodney Erickson to conduct research, draft the plan, and get input from the Penn State community. Erik Foley, director of the PSU Campus Sustainability Office and a number of his colleagues have been traveling to each Penn State campus to meet with people, share the draft of their plan, and listen to ideas about how each Penn State campus can meet the goals of the plan. In addition Foley and his team are interested in learning about Hazleton’s specific campus needs, concerns and unique contributions.

Faculty, staff, students, administrators and community partners are encouraged to attend this town hall meeting. Those who plan to attend our town hall meeting are encouraged to complete a brief questionnaire BEFORE attending. The questionnaire will introduce people to the Sustainability Plan's five goals, and gauge people's various interests. The questionnaire can be found at   https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SSPquestionnaire.

The agenda for the town hall program will include:

•             Welcome
•             Video "Sustainability at Penn State:  We are just getting started"
•             Plan review
•             Small group brainstorming
•             Open discussion with our Campus Community

More information about the Penn State Strategic Sustainability Plan is available at www.green.psu.edu. 

The saxophone and classical guitar combo Duo Montagnard will present a lecture-recital for the annual George Tseo Memorial Lecture at Penn State Hazleton. The event will take place at 7 p.m., Thurs., October 13 in the Black Box Theater of the Slusser/Bayzick Building at the campus. The program features original works written for the saxophone/guitar duo, including the premiere performance of Indelible Imprint by composer L.A. Logrande of Drums. The event is sponsored by the Penn State Hazleton Faculty Lecture Committee.  Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Performers Joseph Murphy and Matthew Slotkin formed Duo Montagnard in 2002. They have performed over 160 concerts in 35 states, Canada, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Festival performances include the Chautauqua Institution, the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival, and the Alexandria Guitar Festival. They have commissioned and premiered ten pieces and currently play all original music.

Murphy has been the saxophone professor at Mansfield University since 1987, where he has also served as department chair and director of bands. He received the Bachelor of Music degree from Bowling Green State University (OH), and the Master of Music and Doctoral of Musical Arts degrees from Northwestern University.

Slotkin directs the guitar program at Bloomsburg University and has previously taught at Mansfield University, Buffalo State College, and Alfred University. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music.

L.A. Logrande was twice awarded the Southeastern Composers’ League Arnold Salop Memorial Composition Award, first for C.A.G.E (Clarinet & Guitar Etude), then again for Quartet for Brass. Commissions include a work for solo alto saxophone and band, An Appeal Amid the Razing, from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Her saxophone compositions have been performed in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and China. 

This will be the sixth program in the annual lecture series established in memory of George K. Y. Tseo, Ph.D., assistant professor of Earth Sciences. Tseo taught at Penn State Hazleton from 1988 until he passed away in October 2005. In addition to teaching meteorology, he was the author of numerous publications in a variety of forums on the Chinese economy and served as a Chinese policy consultant.  He served as Faculty Senate president and chaired important faculty committees. Tseo was an accomplished writer, having written an ambitious novel as well as non-fiction work in his areas of expertise. He was also a musician and graphic artist. 

For additional information, call 570-450-3180. 

Penn State Hazleton will kick off the 2011-2012 Cultural Events Series with wildlife adventurer Marty Essen presenting “Around the World in 90 Minutes” on Thurs., Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Slusser/Bayzick Building. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

This high-energy show featuring interesting facts, humorous stories, and the best of the thousands of photos, chronicles Essen’s travels for his multi-award-winning book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents.”

One part lecture, one part theater, one part slide show, one part comedy—it’s the type of show where the audience has fun laughing at the stories and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the photos. Essen divides his show into eight segments, covering his adventures and wildlife encounters on each of the seven continents, plus Central America. He talks about endangered species, new scientific discoveries, and the need to protect our environment. After the show, he opens up the floor for questions and engages the audience in a lively discussion.

Additional information about Essen is available at www.coolcreatureshotplanet.com.

The next cultural event will take place on Wed., Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Slusser/Bayzick Building with the invasion of the Moscow Gypsy Army performing Romani (Gypsy) music and dance in traditional costumes.

For more information, call 570-450-3180.

The exhibit explores Charles Darwin’s vision—“from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved”—a vision that now forms the foundation of the biological sciences. Radical in sweep, Darwin’s idea of naturally innovating and endlessly changing webs of life undercut all previous sciences.

Produced by the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine and the Office of History, National Institutes of Health, the display will run through Oct. 29 and is available for viewing during library hours. The library is open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday – Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, and 2 to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, contact the Penn State Hazleton Library at 570-450-3170.

Additional information is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/darwin/.

Special events included in Community Day 2011 include:

• Jack Palance Art Exhibit and Sale
• Alumni Open House
• Slusser/Bayzick Building Rededication
• Book reading and signing of "Nittany Lion™ Has the Hiccups" by Denise L. Kaminsky '73
• Performance by alumni rock band Hoozya Daddy

Schedule of events: View PDF 

The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research programs. Held annually in hundreds of communities, Walk to End Alzheimer’s is an empowering event that gives participants an opportunity to take action and raise funds to fight Alzheimer’s. In addition to the two-mile walk, participants will enjoy refreshments, have the opportunity to win door prizes and have a chance to win one of many tricky trays.

Currently in the United States, 5.3 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and a new individual is diagnosed with the disease every 70 seconds. Unless something is done, by 2050 up to 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s, and a new case will be diagnosed every 33 seconds. The number of Pennsylvanians living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia is 500,000. In the Hazleton area alone there are an estimated 2,000 people who are afflicted with the disease and are in desperate need of the community’s help.  We are on the move to end Alzheimer’s.

For more information about the Hazleton Area Walk to End Alzheimer’s, contact Kathleen Vozar, walk chairperson, at 570-788-4178 ext 102 or visit www.alz.org/pa to register online.

View the Jack Palance Artwork Collection

Artwork by the late Jack Palance was exhibited at Penn State Hazleton from September 30 through October 2. Images of the artwork are available at the above link, along with sales contact information.

Artwork by the late actor, artist and poet Jack Palance will be featured at an art exhibit and sale at Penn State Hazleton with proceeds benefiting the Jack Palance Trustee Scholarship at the campus. The show and sale, arranged by Palance’s widow Elaine, will take place in the Atrium Gallery of the Evelyn Graham Academic Building at the campus and will be open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Friday, September 30; 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Saturday, October 1; and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday, October 2.

The exhibit and sale will feature more than 30 original paintings by Palance, along with giclee prints of some works. Also offered for sale is Palance’s book “The Forest of Love,” a love story in blank verse, with a CD of the book read by Palance. Additionally, memorabilia of Palance’s acting career will be displayed, including his 1957 Emmy award for “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and his 1991 Oscar for “City Slickers.”

Born Volodymir Ivanovich Palahniuk, son of a Ukrainian coal miner, in Lattimer Mines, a small town in the Greater Hazleton area, Palance had a great affinity for the region and was a highly visible member of the community for many years. In addition to his home in the Los Angeles area, he kept a farm in Butler Township to which he returned each summer to be among local friends and family. Shortly before his death in November 2006, Palance sold the farm, but still returned to the area to visit.

For more information on the Jack Palance Art Exhibit and Sale, call 570-450-3180.

More information on the Jack Palance Art Exhibit and Sale is available.

• Standard-Speaker article from Sept. 27, 2011
• WYLN Late Edition story  
• New 13 story
• Listen to WVIA's ArtScene podcast with Erika Funke interviewing Elaine Palance and Chancellor Gary Lawler at this website.  
• Watch a recording of the Sam Lesante Show featuring Elaine Palance and Chancellor Gary Lawler at this website.

Dr. Tinto has carried out research and has written extensively on higher education, including the impact of learning communities on student growth and attainment. His most recent book, “Leaving College,” was published by the University of Chicago Press and examines factors that contribute to student success. Dr. Tinto believes that student retention begins in the classroom with the connection between faculty and students. (More information on Dr. Tinto is available at: http://faculty.soe.syr.edu/vtinto/)

The agenda for this daylong workshop includes:

• 11:00 a.m. - Dr. Tinto will deliver a keynote address on retention, supplemental programs, and how to connect with students in the classroom.  He will present strategies specifically for our campus based upon student data
• 11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Group minute papers and a question & answer session
• 1 - 2 p.m. - Lunch served in the lobby
• 2 - 2:30 p.m. - Groups will identify at least four activities or interventions that can be accomplished this academic year
• 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. - Groups will report back and Dr. Tinto will provide reaction/feedback on ideas
• 3:45 - 4:15 p.m. - Groups will develop plans for the implementation & assessment of activities, with a focus on creation of measurable goals and timeline
• 4:15 - end - Dr. Tinto's reaction/feedback on action plans

Please reply to Amie Yenser at alv10@psu.edu by Fri., Sept. 16.

Insight/Outlook - Aug. 2011 (PDF)

Complete stories:

• Graduates, audience inspired by former Mack Truck executive at commencement
   
• Gym named after long-time A.D., coach
   
• New engineering degree draws students to Hazleton
   
• Service learning an important co-curricular activity for students
   
• Norwegian business students study at Penn State Hazleton 

Community Day - Creamery ice cream order form (Print, complete and mail with payment.)

Links of interest: 

Penn State Hazleton Facebook page

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Alumni Organizations (Information and links to Websites and Facebook pages.)

Campus Calendar of Events 

Give to Penn State Hazleton

You don’t need a turbine to tell which way the wind’s blowing, but the blades generating electricity as they spin indicate a new direction at Penn State Hazleton.

For more than 75 years, students have started their education in Hazleton and transferred to University Park to finish their degrees.

Now a slight breeze is pushing in the other direction.

Students from University Park and other Penn State undergraduates campuses are arriving in Hazleton to earn a bachelor’s degree offered nowhere else in the system and at a few other universities.

The engineering degree in alternative energy sources prepares students to design wind turbines, make buildings and businesses more efficient energy consumers, and perfect systems to absorb power from sun, tides and the depths of the earth.

“It will be this generation of students, I think, that defines what our energy future looks like,” Dr. Gary Lawler, the chancellor at Penn State Hazleton, said. 

While providing a niche that draws students to Hazleton, the program equips students with the background and the flexibility to deal with one of the world’s most complex problems, as Dr. Wes Grebski knows.

Soaring prices at the gas pumps, an oil spill at a deepwater drill in the Gulf of Mexico and rising levels of carbon dioxide predicted to change climate all suggest reasons for replacing fossil fuels as a primary source of power, Grebski, an associate professor of engineering, said. 

“I got my master’s degree in 1974 so I’ve been in engineering quite a while. The way I see it, if I would be starting my career right now, I see in the future the big change in energy,” he said.

Grebski thought up the idea for the program 10 years ago, about the time that he built a solar hotwater heater for his home from glass vacuum tubes. 

Five years ago, the university began reviewing plans to establish the program at the Hazleton Campus while some groundwork for the program was done at campus.

The wind turbine went up in 2008. 

A year later, students installed an array of solar panels that generates 3.2 kilowatts, enough to electrify an adjacent building and have power remaining to sell on the grid. 

A solar car that the students designed is garaged on campus, as is an electric car that Grebski retrofitted with solar panels. When parked in the sun, the car recharges its batteries. 

“We want to be ahead of everybody else. That is the key. With new technology, the first one out there can make an impact. Right now, we are one of the first programs in the country so we can make a big contribution,” Grebski said. “We got ahead of everybody.”

Dhaval Bhalodia is one student who got into alternative energy ahead of the program. After graduating with honors from Hazleton Area High School, Bhalodia enrolled at Penn State Hazleton before the program in alternative energy engineering started. He planned to become an aeronautical engineer.

Penn State Hazleton provided him a setting close to his home that offered the same level of courses as the University Park campus, but with smaller classes.

“This enables professors to provide more time for each student, and enables students to learn more in the process. The Hazleton campus allowed me to participate in many extra academic activities, such as engineering projects, which not only provided me with a stronger academic background, but also helped me build teamwork skills,” Bhalodia said.

As a junior after transitioning to the main campus, he arranged to work through a co-op program with the wind energy division of General Electric. “I had always been intrigued by the concept of alternative energy, especially wind,” Bhalodia said.

Through the co-op he became determined to learn more about wind power when he returned to college. For his senior thesis, done through the Schreyer Honors Program, Bhalodia re-directed his training in aeronautics to wind power. His thesis examined the design of wind turbine blades.

Now he works at General Electric as a wind turbine performance engineer. 

Approval for Penn State Hazleton to launch the program – officially called the Bachelor of Science in General Engineering with an Alternative Energy and Power Generation Track – to train more engineers like Bhalodia arrived in time for students to enroll for the fall of 2010. 

Some students from other campus have transferred into the program already, but Lawler and Grebski expect more transfers in the fall of 2012. 

That’s when third-year courses will be offered to students who have completed two years of core mathematics and science classes and are ready to delve into courses on fundamentals of renewable energy, hydrogen fuel cells, electrochemical energy conversion, circuits and computer-aided design. 

The curriculum is designed to make students nimble enough to work in design, research, manufacturing or technical sales for the new energy industries. 

“Everybody agrees within the next 5, 10, 15 years, lots of jobs will be created in renewable energy,” Grebski said. “…Precisely what those jobs are going to be is harder to predict. 

To create a curriculum and offer the courses, the engineering faculty at Penn State Hazleton transformed classes that they offered previously and adapted ideas from an advisory committee. Grebski continues to recruit new advisers from leaders in the sustainable energy industry. 

“What we’re trying to do at Hazleton is stay a little ahead of the curve … be ready for the what the future brings,” he said. 

When President Barack Obama, during a speech on Feb. 3 at University Park, told Penn Staters to be as proud of what they do in the lab as they are of what the football team does, he touted an Energy Innovation Hub that Penn State leads at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. There, teams are retrofitting a building to promote and commercialize innovations in sustainable energy. 

Grebski met with a Penn State Professor working on the project at the Navy Yard. “Already we’ve established a working relationship with them. Those are big players. They visited us at Hazleton. They knew we were working with alternative energy,” he said.
He also hopes to use the Hub’s alternative energy lab. It’s mobile, he said, and could be trucked to Hazleton for a short, intensive training course. Meanwhile, faculty in Hazleton have offered short training courses to local businesses.

CAN DO, the economic development organization for Greater Hazleton, teamed with Penn State to design training programs for businesses looking for ways to trim energy costs. Since March, the campus offered courses in best energy practices, pumps and motors, and industrial electricity. 

The relationship with CAN DO and local companies may open opportunities for students to serve internships and for graduates to obtain employment. “We talk with companies to set that in motion so we make sure students have practical experience and apply the content to real situations,” Lawler said. 

Graduates like Bhalodia will become part of what Grebski calls an ecosystem of people, industries, local school districts, a business incubator and agencies that will keep updating the engineering program after his retirement, which he already postponed. 

“I’m too excited to retire,” Grebski said. “I want to see students graduate from the program.”

For more information on the Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering with an Alternative Energy and Power Generation Track, visit http://www.hn.psu.edu/Academics/GenEngin.htm or contact Dr. Wes Grebski at wxg3@psu.edu or 570-450-3087.

For more information on the Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering with an Alternative Energy and Power Generation Track, visit  or contact Dr. Wes Grebski at or 570-450-3087.

Adam Taliaferro, former Penn State football player and founder of the Adam Taliaferro Foundation will be the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Greater Hazleton Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association. The event will be held Wed., June 1 at Mea’s Restaurant in Hazleton. The public is invited to attend.

Taliaferro was paralyzed while making a tackle in a game at Ohio State in 2000. He embarked on a courageous and miraculous recovery that has enabled him to walk again and enjoy a career today as a practicing attorney in South Jersey. The Adam Taliaferro Foundation is named after the former Penn State player and had helped raise nearly $500,000 to help local athletes recover from spinal cord injuries. Taliaferro’s inspirational story has been featured nationally in media outlets such as ESPN, NBC News, the New York Times, and USA Today.

The dinner begins at 6 p.m. with social time and a cash bar, followed by dinner and the evening program at 6:30. Cost is $35 per person. Attendees will have the opportunity to win door prizes including autographed books, a football signed by Joe Paterno, and a limited edition poster signed by Adam Taliaferro.

Reservations with payment are required by May 25. For additional information or to make a reservation, please contact dinner chair Theresa Brennan, Esq. at 455-7700 or the Penn State Hazleton Alumni office at 450-3016 or email chs14@psu.edu.

The tournament will be held in a four-person scramble format, with a 1:00 p.m. shotgun start. Registration will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The price of $65 for chapter members and $70 for non-members includes greens fee, cart rental, hot dog and beverage coupon for use during registration or the golf round, family style dinner after tournament, goodie bag for each golfer, and chances on a large variety of door prizes, including a football autographed by Joe Paterno.  

Pre-registration and payment is required prior to May 5, 2011.  For more information or to register, visit http://www.hn.psu.edu/Alumni/alumevents.htm or call Chapter President Blair Bell at 956-8549.

The Penn State Hazleton Lion Ambassadors invite the community and prospective students to come meet the Nittany Lion and talk with are Ambassadors about anything you ever wanted to know about Penn State!

Penn State Hazleton’s Lion Ambassadors, along with the Nittany Lion, club advisers, and the Sonic mascot, will be at the Sonic Drive-In, 58 Station Circle, Hazleton, from 4 to 7 p.m., Fri., April 15, to promote the campus in the community. Sonic is located off Interstate 81, exit 143.

Lion Ambassadors encourage and share Penn State pride and enthusiasm with current and future students, alumni, and friends. The group provides information and tours to prospective students and their families visiting the campus for open houses and other visitation events, as well as support for off-campus activities and on-campus events, including commencement and Academic Achievement Awards ceremony.

For more information, contact Penn State Hazleton's Admissions Office at 570-450-3142.

Penn State Hazleton’s Theatre Department will present the annual spring performance under the direction of Eric-Michael MacCionnaith, instructor in Integrative Arts. This year’s production of Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden will continue in the black box theatre of the Slusser/Bayzick Building with performances on April 14, 15 and 16.

Death and the Maiden is a drama thriller set in post-Pinochet Chile, detailing a day in the life of Gerardo, a human-rights lawyer, Roberto, the good-Samaritan doctor who stops to help him, and Paulina, Gerardo’s wife, a woman haunted by her past.  When a chance encounter brings these characters together, none of their lives will ever be the same again. 

The show includes mature themes which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Tickets will be on sale at 6:30 p.m. at the door. The theatre opens at 6:40, with the curtain set to rise at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $10, and $8 for students with PSU ID. Bring a friend and purchase two tickets for $15.                                        

Performances of "Death & the Maiden" open in the Black Box Theatre of the Slusser/Bayzick Building.

Penn State Hazleton will host a program from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Diversity Education Consortium (NEPDEC) on “What’s Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?” at 7 p.m., Thurs., April 14 in 115 Graham Building at the campus.

According to guest speaker Dr. John Corvino, he’s heard many arguments in the past 18 years while giving lectures on moral and civil rights issues raised by homosexuality.

In the lectures that earned him a nominee as best speaker this year from Campus Activities Magazine, television appearances on MSNBC and his weekly column, Corvino confronts beliefs that underpin discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.

Penn State Hazleton will host his talk on behalf of NEPDEC, which seeks to make the region’s culture more inclusive and prepared for diverse communities and workplaces.

Corvino’s lecture is scheduled as the American military is in transition from the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy stricken by Congress and the nation is reacting to a spate of suicides among teenagers bullied because of their sexual orientation.

When addressing gay marriage, workplace conduct and homosexuality in the Bible, Corvino will apply the logical training that he gained while earning a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Texas and honed at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he is an award-winning teacher and winner of the 2004 Detroit Award from the city council.

The Bible in Leviticus calls homosexuality an abomination punishable by death, yet can believers and non-believers follow that law today? After all, Corvino points out, the Bible lists the same penalty for adultery and tolerates practices now discouraged such as polygamy and slavery.

Is homosexuality inborn or acquired? Research is inconclusive and should continue, Corvino said, but science doesn’t settle moral questions. How he became who he is matters less than how he is treated. Rather than judging people for whom they love, Corvino issues a challenge to judge people on whether they love.

Since starting his lectures at colleges nearly two decades ago, he has seen animosity toward gays dissipate among younger people. But he welcomes people with contrary viewpoints to his lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that follow. Rather than having people labeled perverts, sinners and lost causes by one side or bigots and haters by the other side, Corvino wants to have a productive conversation about homosexuality.

For more information on this event, which is free and open to the public, visit nepdec.org or contact Penn State Hazleton’s Public Information Office at 570-450-3180.

Dr. Sally Winston, clinical psychologist and founder and co-director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland, will speak about compulsive behaviors and disorders at 7 p.m., Thurs., April 7 in 1 Kostos Building at Penn State Hazleton. The event, sponsored by the Faculty Lecture Committee, is free and open to the public.

Winton’s lecture will cover the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders, which include panic, phobias, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She will describe the phenomenology and experience of having these disorders and present the current state-of-the-art of integrating biological and psychological approaches to recovery. While the information given is scientifically evidence-based, this is a user-friendly, non-jargon way of understanding the mind and body of excessive worry and fear.

The Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland was started in 1978 as part of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital and has been a freestanding facility since 1992. Winston is nationally recognized as an expert trainer and master clinician in the field.

She has served on the board of directors of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, helped to draft the first National Institute of Health Consensus Statement on Panic Disorder in 1991, and currently serves as the chair of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Public Education Committee. She has appeared on A&E’s popular television program “Hoarders.”

More information on Winston is available at her web site at www.anxietyandstress.com.

For more information on the lecture, contact Penn State Hazleton’s Public Information Office at 570-450-3180.

Penn State Hazleton's forty-first annual commencement will be held 7 p.m., Fri., May 6 in the Physical Education Building at the campus. More than 100 bachelor's and associate degrees will be awarded to graduates during the ceremony. Guest speaker for the event will be Hazleton native John B. "Jack" Curcio, a leader and pioneer in the commercial vehicle sector for more than 50 years. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact the Office of Academic Affairs at 570-450-3138.

About the speaker:

Born in Hazleton in 1934, Jack Curcio began his career in the automotive industry in 1954. He joined the Montone group of companies and progressed to the position of president and general manager, a position he held until April 1967 when left to join Mack Trucks, Inc. where he worked his way through the ranks of management before being elected president and managing director of Hayes Trucks, Ltd., a subsidiary of Mack. In 1971, he was elected a corporate vice president of Mack Trucks.

Curcio left Mack Trucks in June 1973 to lead Crane Carrier Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the president, chairman and chief executive officer. In March 1976, he was asked to return to Mack Trucks and was elected vice president of Marketing Distribution, overseeing the company’s U.S. domestic distributor organization. Less than a year later, he was elected executive vice president of International Operations, where he was responsible for the company’s extensive overseas production, marketing and service operations in 83 countries on six continents.

In July 1980, the Board of Directors elected Curcio president and chief operating officer. He was elected chief executive officer and president in 1983 and chairman of the board in 1985, positions he held until his retirement from Mack in 1989. 

In addition to leading and managing companies, Curcio influenced the truck industry when he spearheaded a shift to using high strength aluminum alloys in construction truck bodies and trailer manufacturing. He holds eleven patents in truck body and design.

Following his retirement, he served from 1993 to 1999 as vice chairman and consultant to Dallas-Mavis Specialized Motor Carriers, and was vice chairman of their wholly owned Mexican corporation, Jupiter Logistics de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. He was also a director and vice chairman of Harvard Industries, Inc. and Integrated Component Systems.

In 1990, he was elected president of the American Truck Foundation in Allentown and was a founding member of the American On Wheels Museum in Allentown. 

His most notable professional recognitions include being named 1985 Automotive Industry Leader of the Year by the Automotive Hall of Fame, joining previous honorees Lee Iacocca, Roger Smith and Philip Caldwell. In October 2007, he received the inaugural Society of Automotive Engineers International’s Commercial Vehicle Sector Lifetime Achievement Award.

Curcio served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953 and in the U.S. Naval Reserves from 1954 through 1959. He is a member of the Marine Corps Staff and Command College Foundation, Navy League, U.S. Naval Institute, American Legion, Korean War Veterans Association, a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League, Marine Corps First Division Association, and Naval War College Foundation.

Curcio was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National Commission for the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and was national chairman of the Korean War International Memorial in San Pedro, California. He is a founding member of the board and former vice president of the Parris Island Museum and Historical Society at the USMC Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C.

In 1984, he was awarded the Legion of Honor medal by the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, Valley Forge, in recognition of service to God and country, and the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge. He has been honored twice by the Marine Corps League, first in 1986 with the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s Semper Fidelis Award for dedicated and inspirational service to the corps and for community service and leadership, and in 1989 when he was presented with the Commandant’s Gold Medal.

Long dedicated to improving education on all levels, Curcio has served as a board member of Muhlenburg College, Moravian College, Spring Garden College, and Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. He also was a member of the National Advisory Board of American University.

Curcio also served as a member of the Northeast Regional Board of Boy Scouts of America and vice president of finance of its Minsi Trails Council.

Capital Day’s primary focus will be on individual meetings with Pennsylvania senators, representatives and their staffers where teams of Penn State alumni and students will convey the message that the proposed budget would be devastating to Penn State and will have a negative impact on current and future students and tuition. They also will ask legislators to restore funding to Penn State at a level that would allow Penn State to preserve its in-state tuition rates and 24-campus network.

“As President Graham Spanier has noted, Penn State stands ready to do its fair share to balance the state budget, but the governor’s proposed budget allocation is not Penn State’s fair share,” said Roger L. Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association. “Such a devastating reduction in funding threatens Penn State’s land-grant mission of providing quality, accessible higher education at affordable tuition rates for Pennsylvania students and their families.”

In addition to individual meetings, Capital Day will include a noon “Rally in the Rotunda” and ice cream social to demonstrate support for Penn State, stress the negative effects on students and tuition with such a potentially sweeping cut to Penn State’s state appropriation and highlight Penn State’s $17 billion in economic impact in the Commonwealth each year.

All Penn State alumni, students and friends are encouraged to participate. For more information, visit http://www.alumni.psu.edu/grassroots online.

Penn State Hazleton students interested in attending the event may contact the Student Affairs Office at 570-450-3160 to register for transportation. On April 5, students will leave from the front of South Hall Residence Hall at 8 a.m.

To register for the event, visit: http://alumni-psu.cvent.com/events/penn-state-capital-day-2011/event-summary-fa92c98cddc04bc490366bb47b51692f.aspx 

Capital Day is organized by the Penn State Alumni Association’s Grassroots Network, an education and advocacy group supporting Penn State; the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG), which represents Penn State students at 19 undergraduate campuses beyond University Park; the University Park Undergraduate Association; and the Graduate Student Association.

Penn State Hazleton's next performance in the Cultural Event Series will feature an event just in time for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The Broesler School of Irish Dance will take to the stage at 8 p.m., Tues., March 15, in the Slusser/Bayzick Building at the campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Led by Kevin Broesler, the group will perform high-kicking routines that flash like sequins on their costumes and leave the staccato tap of their toes reverberating in the venue.

Like their teacher, a former world and national champion, students in the Kevin Broesler School of Irish Dance have won trophies of their own. They compete in national and regional competitions near schools that Broesler operates in Fishkill and Brewster, New York, Haddonfield and Westwood, New Jersey, Yorklyn, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland, as well as at the World Irish Dancing Championships.

Broesler opened his first school in 1986, and 20 years later Irish Dancing and Culture Magazine named his schools tops in the United States. Irish American Magazine in 2004 chose him as one of the top 100 Irish Americans.

Broesler’s teaching talents and moves have appeared on the big screen when taught Cher and Ryan O’Neal to dance and appeared in their 1996 movie "Faithful."

Additional information is available at www.broesler.com.

The final installment of the series is scheduled for Tues., March 29, with Tracy Silverman, electric violinist, appearing at 8 p.m. in the Slusser/Bayzick Building.

For more information, contact the Student Affairs Office at (570) 450-3160.

Sponsored by the Faculty Lecture Committee, the event will be held at 7 p.m., Wed., March 16, in Kostos Building 1. It is free and open to the public. The event honors the late campus physics professor Mylar Giri.

According to the presenters, the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin harbors natural gas which, when extracted through new technology, could supply U.S. needs (at present rates of consumption) for more than 20 years. This resource has huge potential benefits to Pennsylvania, particularly through job creation and economic activity. There are also potential impacts on communities and the natural environment that must be considered. This presentation and discussion will outline important aspects of Marcellus Shale development, from technology to water use, and the issues that have arisen as a result.

Arthur, a geochemist and sedimentary geologist, is professor of geosciences and past department head of geosciences. His research interests include investigating the nature of climates and oceans of the past and the causes of past global change. He has long focused on studies of modern marine environments characterized by organic carbon rich sediment deposits and the origin and nature of ancient “black shales.” The geology of the Devonian Marcellus Shale is a current research emphasis through the efforts of the Appalachian Basin Black Shales Group (Engelder, Slingerland, and Arthur collaboration and students in the Department of Geosciences).

He has received numerous awards for his teaching and research, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America.

Murphy is an educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, and has more than 25 years of field experience and educational consultation with landowners, government agencies, and public officials. Recently, he focused on natural resource development, specifically in natural gas exploration and related topics and provides leadership to Marcellus outreach activities. He has lectured throughout Pennsylvania on Marcellus shale and topics associated with its development including landowner leasing issues, environmental impacts, the drilling process, infrastructure development, and financial considerations. 

Murphy is a graduate of Penn State. In 2010, he was honored with Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Excellence Award.

For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (570) 450-3180.

Penn State President Graham Spanier's press conference in response to the proposed cuts for education is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3zf2b8tTXE 

For the latest news on the budget and Penn State's response, visit: http://live.psu.edu/tag/Budget_and_Appropriation 

Rebecca L. Bonnevier, SMG general manager/executive director of the Mohegan Sun Arena, will be the keynote speaker at Penn State Hazleton’s fifth annual Symposium on Contemporary Women’s Issues. The event, free and open to the public, will be held from 1 to 5 p.m., Sun., March 27, in the Evelyn Graham Academic Building at the campus. This year’s theme, “Empowered for Life: Navigating YOUR Life,” will focus on various topics to help women of all ages and backgrounds achieve personal and professional success.

Following the keynote address, the afternoon will consist of breakout sessions, open forum for discussion, refreshments and information stations. Attendees will receive a free gift bag of samples and coupons and be registered to win door prizes given away at the end of the program.

In her position, Bonnevier is oversees operations of Wilkes-Barre’s 10,000-seat entertainment venue which hosts almost 135 events annually. The arena is home of the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and host of numerous family shows, motor sports events, tradeshows, exhibitions and A-list concerts.

Bonnevier is one of few women managers in the entertainment industry, and is employed by SMG, a professional company that manages over 200 sports and recreational facilities throughout the world.

A native of Clarks Summit, she graduated with honors from Bloomsburg University and has lived and worked in various cities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Louisiana. She currently resides in Mountain Top with her husband of 16 years, Ernie, and their two children Adam and Jessie. She is also a devoted stepmother and grandmother.

In addition to managing over 300 part- and full-time employees at the arena, she is responsible for overseeing the booking and marketing of the facility, as well as the administrative and financial functions.

Bonnevier will address the main theme of the symposium, "Navigating YOUR Life," by talking about balancing family, personal needs and career, and the flexibility needed to adapt to career changes.

Following the keynote address, four breakout sessions will be held. Sessions include:

•  Mentoring & Networking: Who you ARE and who you KNOW presented by Kathryn Maxwell, D.Ed., CHES; career counselor and academic adviser, Penn State Hazleton.
  
  A mentor is a special person who provides support and guidance on a variety of life issues. Through their own job experiences, mentors can help provide advice in career development. They can also provide support and encouragement to help you succeed in obtaining a job or making career decisions. 
  
  When you network, you are getting to know people as well as allowing other people to get to know you. Networking means talking to the people in your personal circle to learn about the jobs they have or to find out about job openings. Through networking, you can learn about the different kind of jobs that there are and what jobs you might like to do.
  
  Mentoring and networking are about sharing. This session will help participants understand the differences between the two and provide helpful hints on how to benefit from both on your path to a successful career.

• Zumba© : It's A Party presented by Alyson DiSabella, Registered Dietitian, Licensed Nutritionist, Zumba© Fitness Instructor.
  This interactive session introduces you to a dance fitness program based on international rhythms. Strengthening your physical condition helps your outlook as you navigate through life. This session will show you how exercise can be fun and something to look forward to, not dread. Ditch the workout...join the PARTY! Feel free to participate or just observe. You are welcome to dress in comfortable clothing for the symposium in order to take part in this interactive session. 

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® - An Overview presented by Sue Cromwell, Ph.D., Certified 7 Habits facilitator; Senior Director of Talent Management for Penn State Outreach. Since 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® offers individuals a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for helping them solve personal and professional problems. A top-seller for twenty-two years, the program reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service and human dignity -- principles that give people the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. Today's session is designed to provide you with a brief overview of the book. 

• Closing Panel Discussion with the keynote speaker and presenters will be held to wrap up the day and will include Q&A time for our participants. Following the discussion, door prize winners will be announced.

  Funded through an endowment established by local business woman E. Lee Beard, the Women’s Symposium at Penn State Hazleton is designed to engage women’s interest in topics related to professional and personal development. Each year, the symposium focuses on a different theme, and all women are encouraged to support and attend the events. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the event.

   

  Additional support for this year’s event is provided by the Penn State Commission for Women, Penn State Hazleton Student Activities Fund, and Penn State Hazleton Women’s Symposium Committee. Locally, PPL has been a sponsor of the event since its inception.

   

  On the day of the event, check in will begin at 12:30 p.m., with the symposium starting at 1 p.m. Reservations to attend the symposium are required, and seating is limited. For more information or to register, call Penn State Hazleton’s Office of University Relations at (570) 450-3180.

Feb. 22 marked the date that Penn State was founded in 1855 as a publicly supported agricultural college. In 1863, Penn State was designated as Pennsylvania’s land-grant college -- a distinction that only Penn State holds and a designation that created a university to educate large segments of society that had not yet been served by higher education. To underscore Penn State’s important relationship with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Penn State Outreach has created a video that highlights the many successes of the University and the individuals whose lives have been touched by Penn State.

As one of the nation’s first land-grant institutions, Penn State has been in a partnership with Pennsylvania for nearly 150 years. Through this partnership, Penn State has provided both access to education and expertise to help solve some of society’s most pressing problems.

“It’s a designation that meant Penn State would work to improve the well-being of farmers and industrial workers,” said Penn State President Graham Spanier. “It meant that Penn State was one of the ‘people’s universities,’ created to make a difference in the lives of citizens.”

Today, Penn State plays a significant role in education, research and service that supports the development of the Commonwealth and its residents.

“Penn State is proud of its partnership with Pennsylvania and remains committed to the Commonwealth as we move forward in the 21st Century,” said Spanier.

To learn more about this unique partnership, click on the video link: http://thepartnership.psu.edu.

Dancing for 46 hours straight isn’t the hard part, it’s the reward for students participating in THON, the annual dance marathon at Penn State University that starts Friday evening and raises money for sick children.

During THON, the 700 Penn State student dancers, including Matthew Bremy, one of four chosen from Penn State Hazleton, mingle with youngsters from the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, their siblings and parents on the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center at the University Park campus.

A sophomore majoring in energy engineering, Bremy said the chidren will give him energy to keep dancing for nearly two straight days. “Seeing all the kids that we’re doing this for is probably what I’ll thrive on,” he said.

When children from the hospital arrive at THON, they and their families will be treated to games, food and fun that helps them forget their medical issues for a weekend. To ensure that the children have a good time and to root for the dancers, 15,000 students fill the stands and volunteer to help at THON.

That’s what Danielle Zavala of Penn State Hazleton did last year. “Once I went to THON weekend, it was a totally different experience, like it opened up your eyes,” she said. “There’s no words to explain it; but for the families, the children, it’s one weekend they can get away, and you see how happy it makes them.”

Since attending THON last year, Zavala, a sophomore from Perth Amboy, N.J., spent so much time helping to raise money for this year’s event that she was selected to dance, along with Bremy and sophomores Quanisha Smith of Boston and Sukanya Parasher of Trenton, N.J.

Although they haven’t been on the dance floor yet,  Zavala, Bremy, Smith and Parasher displayed stamina by helping a group at the Hazleton campus raise funds for THON. Students braved cold temperatures by holding cans to collect money outside local stores. “Freezing. The last three weekends – very cold,” said Smith, who spent 18 hours “canning,” as the students call it, in one weekend.

Penn State Hazleton students staged fund-raising tournaments in dodgeball, volleyball and ultimate Frisbee, held a raffle during Community Day on campus and even auctioned themselves off for dates, all to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund at the hospital. The fund pays for medical treatments not covered by insurance, supports the medical team and funds research on pediatric cancer.

Anyone can still donate online at www.THON.org, and can credit the gift to Penn State Hazleton.

“It’s the best cause I could have been part of. It’s so inspirational. It’s amazing seeing those smiles on the kids’ faces,” Parasher, a biology major, said.

Smith, who majors in energy business science, will be attending THON for the first time. “I just feel like THON is just an awesome organization, and it’s run by students who have really big hearts to change a child’s life,” she said.

To prepare themselves for non-stop dancing, the students have been going to the gym to build up their strength. They’re counting on good music to charge them up when their feet begin to drag. Zavala hopes to hear “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga. Smith will have friends text messages of encouragement to her every hour. Parasher and Bremy anticipate the line dance, a musical year in review to which the dancers learn the steps and perform hourly.

They all expect to draw more strength from their families, friends and fellow students who will journey to University Park to cheer them on. So many students from Hazleton want to attend that there is a waiting list for a seat on the bus to THON.

Last year, THON raised $7.8 million, with the Hazleton campus contributing $27,000.

Penn Staters have made THON the largest student-run philanthropy in the world and raised $69 million by continuing to dance for the past 38 years. Now that’s a marathon.

Three performances marking V-Day and benefitting the Victims Resource Center have been scheduled at Penn State Hazleton for 7 p.m., Feb. 17, 18 and 19, in the Black Box Theatre of the Slusser/Bayzick Building. V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, helps to raise funds and awareness through benefit productions of playwright and movement founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.

The Vagina Monologues will be performed at 7 p.m., Feb. 17 and 19. Hailed by The New York Times as "funny" and "poignant" and by the Daily News as "intelligent" and "courageous," The Vagina Monologues was first performed off Broadway by Eve Ensler and dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women’s experiences. Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world - from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem to Oklahoma City. Villard Books/Random House first published The Vagina Monologues, which includes a foreword by Gloria Steinem, in February 1998. A special edition was released in hard cover and paperback in February 2008 in honor of V-Day’s ten year anniversary. Admission is $10.

The performance of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls will take place at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18. Admission is $10 or free with a ticket stub from The Vagina Monologues. This is a groundbreaking collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights, edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle and commissioned by V-Day for the first V-Day: UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS festival, which took place June 2006 in New York City.

These diverse voices rise up in a collective roar to break open, expose, and examine the insidiousness of violence at all levels: brutality, neglect, a punch, even a put-down.

The volume features such authors and topics as: Edward Albee on S&M, Maya Angelou on women’s work, Michael Cunningham on self-mutilation, Dave Eggers on a Sudanese abduction, Edwidge Danticat on a border crossing, Carol Gilligan on a daughter witnessing her mother being hit, Susan Miller on raising a son as a single mother, Sharon Olds on a bra, Patricia Bosworth on her own physically abusive relationship, Jane Fonda on reclaiming our Mojo, and many more. Female students, faculty and staff will lend their voices and interpretations to the readings.

These writings are inspired, funny, angry, heartfelt, tragic, and beautiful. But above all, together they create a true and profound portrait of how violence against women affects every one of us.  The book includes information on how to organize V-Day events and readings of the book. A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, And A Prayer is a call to the world to demand an end to violence against women.

In 2010, over 5,400 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $75 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities," in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine's Top Ten Charities, and in 2010 was named as one of the Top-Rated organizations on GreatNonprofits. In twelve years, the V-Day movement has reached over 300 million people.

The next performance in the Arts and Music series will feature the moves of the step dancing group Soul Steps at 8 p.m., Mon., Feb. 14, in the Slusser/Bayzick Building at Penn State Hazleton. The event is free and open to the public.

Soul Steps has gone pro with the college phenomenon of step dancing. With their foot stomps, thigh slaps, hip twists, jumps and shouts they bring the beat of the city to widespread audiences.

While step blossomed in popularity with college dance teams of this generation, its roots go back more than a century to miners in South Africa who greeted one another by tapping their gum boots in subterranean waters. Now stepping is popular at churches and high schools as well as colleges.

Maxine Lyle, who founded Soul Steps five years ago, grew up stepping in Newark, New Jersey, where neighborhoods danced off against one another. While at Williams College, Lyle co-founded the step team. After graduation, she continued to advise step groups at colleges, schools and arts associations. Other alumni of college step teams join her in Soul Steps. They introduce stepping to different cultures and expand its place in the entertainment world.

Soul Steps has sold out shows at the New York Musical Theater Festival, played in Times Square and recorded the soundtrack for the radio play Waafrika on NPR.

The next performance in the series is scheduled for 8 p.m, Tues., March 15, with a performance in time for St. Patrick’s Day with the Broesler School of Irish Dance.    

The Greater Hazleton Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association and the Penn State Hazleton THON Committee are teaming up with the American Red Cross to sponsor a blood drive on Mon., Jan. 24, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Evelyn Graham Academic Building at Penn State Hazleton.

Joyce Bradbury, executive director, Hazleton Chapter of the American Red Cross, said, “We are grateful that so many students, faculty, staff and alumni at Penn State realize the importance of collecting blood for hospital patients. The THON Committee and Alumni Chapter volunteers, with our American Red Cross volunteers, do a great job and we certainly appreciate all their hard work. We encourage the community to come to Penn State Hazleton and donate as well.”

Alumni chapter board member Wister Yuhas said, “Penn State alumni in the Hazleton area are proud to continually support the efforts of the American Red Cross. In addition to monetary support for food and refreshments, we, along with the members of the THON Committee, will assist the American Red Cross volunteers at the blood drive.”

Penn State Hazleton THON Committee members will assist the American Red Cross with recruiting donors on campus prior to the bloodmobile and serve as donor escorts and snack table staff during the event.

All presenting donors will receive a $4 donation made in their honor to the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. This is the sixth year the Penn State Hazleton THON Committee has assisted with a blood drive at the campus to support their cause.

The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, or THON for short, is the world’s largest student run philanthropy, raising money for the families of children with pediatric cancer at the Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey. Last year, THON raised more than $7.8 million.

According to Bradbury, “Blood is a perishable commodity - red cells last only 42 days and platelets only 5 days - therefore the need for blood is ongoing.” 

Blood donors must meet three requirements: be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in general good health. Donating blood takes only about one hour. All donors must present identification prior to donating.

Donors may schedule an appointment online at www.redcrossblood.org or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS.

For more information contact the Hazleton Chapter of the American Red Cross at 455-9517.

Photo caption: Joyce Bradbury, second from left, executive director of the Hazleton Chapter, American Red Cross, accepts a $100 donation from Wister Yuhas, board member, Greater Hazleton Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, in support of the upcoming blood drive at Penn State Hazleton on Mon., Jan. 24. Also pictured are, from left, Danielle Zavala and Sukanya Parasher, THON public relations chairs, who will assist with the blood drive.

Penn State Hazleton's Office of Student Aid will conduct a financial aid workshop on Wed., Jan. 26, at 6:00 p.m. in room 115 of the Evelyn Graham Academic Building on the campus. This free session is open to parents and students planning to attend any college or university.

At the event, Sarah Walton, student aid coordinator, will provide information on applying for financial aid for college, required information and steps to complete the online Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and financial aid deadlines. She also will present details on financial aid sources available to students such as grants, loans, scholarships and federal work-study programs. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation. Financial aid materials will be available to attendees.

Parking for the seminar will be available in Lot F near the Physical Education Building. In case of inclement weather, the session will be held Wed., Feb. 2, at 6:00 p.m.

To register or for more information, please call the Financial Aid Office at 450-3163 or 800-279-8495, ext. 3163.

Insight/Outlook - Dec. 2010 (PDF)

Complete Stories:

Campus family mourns loss of two administrators:

• Dr. Monica Eve Gregory
• Marlene Guers

Engineering students design, build plane

Professor sharing knowledge here and abroad

Graduate spends two weeks helping in Haiti

Students from India studying at Penn State Hazleton 

Links of interest:

Alumni Information / Update Form

Alumni Organizations 

Alumni Forum/Blog - Connect with Penn State Hazleton alumni and friends across the years and around the world!

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Before traveling 8,700 miles from Mumbai, India to study at Penn State Hazleton, three students sampled American culture. They practiced English since childhood, listened to Linkin Park and Eminem, read books like the Da Vinci Code and watched more movies made in Hollywood than Bollywood. Since arriving for the first semester, however, they’ve encountered co-ed dorms, Taco Bell and football.

When asked to explain the game that draws crowds to Beaver Stadium, Priyanka Chawan and Adithi Shetty punted the question to Snehal Khandkar, who has watched football on television. “Everyone on the field stands around the ball, someone grabs it, and quarterback gets it and it’s touchdown,” Khandkar said. Although they’re just starting to understand football, the three young women already have an impressive knowledge of their major subject, Information Sciences and Technology or IST.

Chawan and Shetty earned degrees in IST from Thakur College of Science and Commerce at the University Mumbai, and Khandkar completed two of the three years needed to complete her degree at Thakur, where the trio met before coming to Hazleton.

With computers and telephones bridging the gap between East and West and American companies offering customer service from outposts in India, workers trained in English and IST are in demand. “It’s very basic, the most important field right now,” said Khandkar, who would like to find work as a Web designer or network tech. Shetty also fancies Web design or Internet security, while Chawan would like to be an IST project manager.

Although Chawan and Shetty have degrees from India and Khandkar would have earned hers in just one more year, they were willing to transfer as juniors to Penn State Hazleton. Shetty said Penn State Hazleton offered more management courses along with IST classes. Chawan said Penn State is a “known university.”

“That,” Khandkar added, “was the main reason why we actually enrolled,” Khandkar said.

Having a degree from an American university offers cache in India, Dr. Gary Lawler, the chancellor of Penn State Hazleton, said. “They go by a lot of the national rankings to find a university that is well ranked.”

Penn State offers that worldwide ranking, and Lawler went to India two years ago to help develop programs that allow Indian students to study at Penn State. Lawler traveled with Dr. Samir Shah, a native of India and an IST professor at Penn State York, who began an exchange program with Indian students at the York campus four years ago. The program expanded to other Penn State campuses this year.

Chawan, Shetty and Khandkar said they have visited with another Indian student studying at Penn State Schuylkill, and expect to get together will all eight students participating in the program now.

Lawler said agreements are being set with four or five other universities in India so that soon 10 to 15 students a year might arrive at Penn State Hazleton through the India Initiative.  “This has been a really good opportunity for us,” Lawler said.

Traveling to India with Shah, Lawler said, helped him to experience what colleges are like there. “The real purpose was for me to get a better sense of Indian culture and where these students were coming from,” he said.

Lawler noticed that students in India spend more time in class, sometimes from 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. five days a week, than they do at American universities. Women and men were kept apart. “They are very separate, or at least at the colleges I was at. The female dorm was on campus, the male dorm a mile away,” he said.

Students in India primarily take courses in their major, which is why they can earn a bachelor’s degree in three years in IST. Engineering is a four-year program in India.

To transfer from India after two years and complete a bachelor’s degree at Penn State, the students needed to add general education courses in arts, humanities and even physical education. “We’ve got that prescribed as part of the agreement,” Lawler said.

Chawan, Khandkar and Shetty, who typically were in class from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Thakur College said they increased their course loads to take classes like physics, economics, sociology, statistics and even yoga to meet requirements of Penn State. By their last semester at Thakur College, they were studying practically all day. “We were busier there definitely,” Shetty said.

This semester, each of the three students is taking elective courses in addition to their IST classes. Chawan, who said she never reads novels, just school texts and newspapers, said she likes aspects of the American legal system better than India’s now that she is taking a criminal justice course, but she doesn’t see the need for studying courses outside her major. Shetty told Chawan that she had a different view of electives. “In a way, it’s also good,” said Shetty, a fan of Dan Brown novels. This semester, she is studying world religion as an elective.

The three students have been following the news back home, including the cricket and soccer scores, by reading The Times of India and other Indian newspapers online. They read about President Obama’s trip to India in November, but said they are more interested in their studies than politics. “We basically run away from it. It’s not our thing,” Khandkar said.

Shetty said she would like to improve life in her native country, but apart from government. “I hope to bring about some change, but from the outside,” she said.

While studying at Thakur College, all three of the students lived at home, where they still could lean on their parents for help. “We have to do everything on our own,” Khandkar said.

Asked if they felt homesick, Khandkar, Chawan and Shetty responded with three yeses. Their homesickness subsided, they said, after their first two months in Hazleton. “The worst is we have to eat cafeteria food,” Khandkar said. Shetty said in Mumbai she and her friends ate pizza and hamburgers occasionally. “Now we are so tired of this food, we crave home food,” she said. They won’t taste home cooking soon.

“Indian students didn’t get to go home for Thanksgiving,” Lawler said. Finding places for international students to reside in the community during breaks from school was among the requirements that Penn State Hazleton met before becoming eligible to accept foreign students in April. In addition to Chawan, Khandkar and Shetty who arrived through the India initiative, seven other international students study at Penn State Hazleton this year, Lawler said.

Chawan, Khandkar and Shetty said they might not return to India during winter break, either. Roundtrip airfare is upwards of $1,700 during the holiday weeks, according to Expedia.com. To economize, the Indian students also might remain in Hazleton during the summer when they could take courses and trim the time needed to complete their bachelor’s degrees from two years to 1½ years.

Shetty, Chawan and Khandkar, though, are learning to feel comfortable in Hazleton. They talk to their parents every day using Skype, an Internet site that allows free conversations. They share a dorm room. “We have each other,” Shetty said. Khandkar added:  “We are like a family.”

Other students befriend them and have been surprised by how well they speak English. “It has really been a great experience,” Chawan said.

Shetty said the American students she met aren’t as worried about their studies as students were in India. “They have other things on their mind,” she said.

Students and teachers are more informal with each other in Hazleton than India, where Khandkar said she called her professors “ma’am” or “sir.” “Here, they go by name. We still can’t do that,” she said.

All three students developed a bond with their faculty adviser, Senior Instructor in IST Barbara Brazon. “She’s the most amazing person,” Khandkar said. “So understanding,” added Shetty. “We see her every day,” Khandkar said.

After leaving a city of about 14 million, or about 10,000 people for each student on campus, Khandkar, Shetty and Chawan haven’t minded staying outside of Hazleton, which has a population of 23,000. “The city we come from is very loud,” said Khandkar, while Shetty said she liked the “calm and peace” of Hazleton.

Most days, they work out at the gym on campus. There’s no television in their room, and they don’t watch much TV in the lounges. But they have gone to movies and been to Wilkes-Barre, so far. Khandkar took a bus trip to Pittsburgh, where she ate at an India restaurant. She would like to visit Florida and see the Harry Potter theme park dedicated to the main character in the series of novels of which she is a fan.

All of the young women want to see more of America. They mentioned New York as a possible stop. Penn State can help. Trips to New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are scheduled to leave from campus this year, Dwayne Hilton, the director of students and engagement services, said. “These trips are open to all students, but we encourage international students to attend,” said Hilton, who introduced Khandkar, Shetty and Chawan to a family from India that lives in the Hazleton area.

 All three of the students discovered that the spices of Mexican food remind them of the zing of Indian food. “We never tried tacos. They were delicious,” Shetty said. Khandkar added, “We love Taco Bell.”

And they’ve been shopping at malls, which they say aren’t much different from those in Mumbai. They bought different clothing, however, while getting ready for winter. “Lots of coats, gloves, scarves,” said Shetty, who had never seen snow fall. Compared to Hazleton’s climate, “Mumbai is totally opposite,” Khandkar said. In Mumbai, temperatures range from 61 degrees to about 90 degrees and about three times more rain falls yearly than in Hazleton, where temperatures can swing from 0 degrees to 90 degrees.

To be admitted to college in Hazleton, the three students needed good grades in India, where students start kindergarten at 3 and graduate from high school at 16. They took two years of junior college before attending Thakur College, where students receive percentage grades rather than letter grades. “We had to get all the credits. We (couldn’t) have any drop outs,” Chawan said.

She, Khandkar and Shetty also had to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language or TOEFL and demonstrate that they had financing to attend Penn State Hazleton.

All three students said that their parents are making sacrifices to send them to Hazleton, and Shetty also is taking a loan so they feel an obligation to make good on the opportunity that their parents provided to them. “They just expect me to study,” Shetty said. Chawan said her parents remind her to study during their conversations. “You have to focus on that,” they tell her. Khandkar said she doesn’t feel as much pressure from her parents. “They want me to be kind of cool, but study as well,” she said.

While all three of them believe they will return to India, they would enjoy working in the United States for a few years after finishing their degrees in Hazleton. “Since I just got here, I would like to live here,” said Shetty, although if asked the question in five years – when the students’ visas expire – she said she might answer differently. “Right now, I actually want to stay,” Khandkar said.

Chawan said definitely plans to return to her homeland. “I want to take some experience from there to India,” she said. “I just want to be a good person and grab hold of the possibilities.”

Karen Helfrich helped six times more amputees during two weeks in Haiti this summer than she had treated in her whole career as a physical therapy student. Helfrich, who graduated from Penn State Hazleton two years ago as a physical therapy assistant and is now studying for her master’s degree, volunteered at a clinic still packed with patients maimed by Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

The quake on Jan. 12 killed 230,000, left one in nine people homeless and gave others crushing injuries. Arms and legs pinned beneath rubble became infected in Haiti’s fetid climate. Between 2,000 and 6,000 Haitians had limbs or digits amputated, Handicapped International estimated.

Helfrich met the amputees when she arrived on June 14 in Deschapelles, a farming community far enough from the epicenter to have escaped damage from the earthquake. Refugees from the ruined capital of Port-au-Prince needed three hours to travel the 60 miles to Deschapelles and its Hospital Albert Schweitzer – one of few hospitals that continued to operate without interruption in Haiti. The hospital has 85 beds, but treated more than 500 patients at a time after the earthquake when the demand for care depleted medical supplies.

Six months later, Helfrich still noticed patients staying six to a room and relying on relatives for food, baths and help getting to the bathroom. Pain-relieving medicines were scarce. Helfrich saw Motrin handed to patients who probably would have received morphine intravenously in the United States. “One patient had pain. She said ‘It’s very bad. If I wasn’t Haitian, I wouldn’t be able to handle it,”’ Helfrich said.

At the hospital, the Hanger Orthopedic Group, a worldwide provider of services to prosthetic patients, created a clinic to fit amputees with new legs and arms. In the first three months, the Hanger Clinic provided artificial limbs for 300 patients.

During her stint at the clinic, Helfrich cared for about 60 patients. The youngest, a girl about 5, lost her right leg above the knee. A leg wound prevented her from wearing a prosthetic leg while Helfrich was with her, but the girl danced and sang and walked around the clinic with one leg and crutches. “She would sneak up on you and throw her arms around you and give you a big hug as she said ‘boo,’” Helfrich said in an e-mail.

Another girl, 12, lost more than her leg. Both her parents died in the earthquake, and she couldn’t find any other relatives. “We don’t know how she came to us. We’re happy she did,” said Helfrich, who remembers the girl whom she calls Nadia to protect her identity admiring her new, artificial leg as she rocked between parallel bars.
“She was excited to have the leg,” Helfrich said. “She turned out to be such a great walker.” Nadia went from crutches to a cane to walking on her new leg without other assistance.

Coping with her other losses was not so easy. Nadia spoke softly when Helfrich met her, but in time she joked and sang. After emerging from her first counseling session, however, Nadia cried herself to sleep. As the sessions proceeded, she seemed less upset.

“One afternoon I sat around with Nadia and a few other girls and we traded English and Creole words and then quizzed each other. We laughed as we stumbled through pronouncing the words. I think the friendships she made with other patients and the staff helped keep her going.”

Getting patients going, emotionally and physically, was the job of Helfrich and other volunteers. The international cast of health workers rotating through the clinic included two physical therapists from California and an instructor from Misericordia University, where Helfrich is earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physical therapy through a collaborative program with Penn State.

Helfrich coached patients on parallel bars and ramps that are standard equipment for therapy sessions in the United States. Also, she tailored exercises to the tasks that people planned to perform with their new legs. Some walked bumpy trails like those that they would travel after they left the hospital. Others carried heavy baskets on their heads to practice for daily chores. Still others climbed trees to be sure that, even with artificial legs, they could continue to pick fruit for their families.

Prior to coming to Haiti, Helfrich had worked with about 10 amputees while training in clinical settings, such as Hazleton General Hospital. During training, her patients tended to be older, overweight and diabetic – factors that slowed their therapy. They took months to adapt to artificial limbs.

In contrast, the Haitians seemed young and strong. At the Hanger Clinic, patients spent one to two weeks in therapy for amputations below the knee, two to three weeks for amputations above the knee and a month or more if they lost both legs.

“Yes, they were sad about losing a limb. They didn’t really focus on that,” Helfrich said. “They were excited about being able to bring water to their family, to be functional again.”

In Haitian cities such as Port-au-Prince, streets are crowded enough to make walking and avoiding collisions with motorbikes difficult. The prosthetics that people received at the clinic will help them negotiate the crowds and subsist in the hemisphere’s poorest economy.

Helfrich found herself thinking that some of her patients could have starred in the Special Olympics if they had access to regular care and more specialized prosthetics. At the Hanger Clinic, technicians made legs more often than artificial arms, which are more complex to build and fit. The employees of the Hanger Group and its charitable branch, the Hanger Ivan R. Sabel Foundation, developed the clinic to be self-sustaining. They trained Haitians as prosthetic technicians and physical therapy assistants.

The earthquake leveled two businesses in the country that made artificial limbs, and Helfrich was told that Haiti had only 16 physical therapists. Patients at the Hanger Clinic helped one another perform the exercises that they had been taught while waiting for their next sessions with a physical therapist, Helfrich said. “Patients we see were able to do so much with a very basic prosthetic,” she said. “One man … lost both of his legs above the knee. He was able to get up without using his hands.”

While 95 percent of the patients lost limbs due to the earthquake, Helfrich was with a man who lost both legs to diabetes about six months before he came to the clinic. First, he received short legs about 18 inches long called stubbies. After he learned to balance on stubbies with his feet backwards and forward and spent five days walking between parallel bars, on a walker and then with longer legs, the man was ready for knees.

“The way a knee works, the knee would lock and unlock depending on the weight. It takes a lot of energy to control,” Helfrich said. After coaching the man for 15 minutes, she left so he could recuperate. She returned, surprised to see him not resting but walking with a walker. His progress delighted Helfrich, who became absorbed in her work.

“In Haiti it is 100 plus (degrees) every day. Incredible humidity. It didn’t seem to bother me,” Helfrich said. “I was so drawn to the people down there and the work down there. I would have stayed there longer if I could.”

When Helfrich offered to extend her stay, a group called Physicians for Peace paid the cost of rescheduling her return flight to a later date. She remained at the clinic through July 1.

After she left, the people around Deschapelles who had been spared during the earthquake ran out of luck when flooding struck. Medical workers from Hospital Albert Schweitzer took the lead in restoring clean water and sanitary latrines to ward off the outbreak of disease as the waters retreated.

Helfrich hopes to return to the clinic during her break from classes this winter and wants to keep volunteering internationally. “The limiting factor is college debt,” said Helfrich, who is scheduled to graduate next year from Misericorida University.

The chance to help in Haiti came along early enough in Helfrich’s career that she could spare the time to volunteer after already gaining enough experience to be useful, due to the hands-on training that she received, starting at Penn State Hazleton. “The biggest thing was just being in the program and getting the skills,” she said. “They wouldn’t have taken me unless I had.”

Before she left, friends worried for her safety. When she returned to her home in Souderton, Montgomery County, friends expressed interest in taking on similar volunteer missions. People also asked her how they can help Haiti from the United States. “That’s a very challenging question,” Helfrich said. “People are saying ‘We’re giving all this aid and nothing happened.’"

But she said the donations of medical supplies allowed the hospital to provide better care and the clinic to provide more people with new arms and legs. “I was able to experience firsthand that things are being done with it.”

Crystals. They’re everywhere as Mamoun Bader leads a tour through the laboratories at Penn State Hazleton.

Orange granules in a dish – they’re for a cancer research project, he said. Another sample, the same shade of yellow green as a highway worker’s T-shirt, glows still brighter when Bader sticks it beneath ultraviolet light. “In solution, it is extremely fluorescent. We use it for bio stain.”

A green crystal, perhaps an inch long, glistens like the sprinkles on a Christmas cookie. “Shiny means lot of electrons,” he said.

Bader and his students know crystals. They grow them. They fill pages with calculations to describe them. They sketch them, plot their structure with X-ray precision and spread them in thin films for semi-conductors. And they publish scientific papers about them.

Bader, an associate professor of chemistry who has authored more than 30 academic publications, lets students join his research projects when they arrive at campus as freshmen. They gain an opportunity to have their names listed in academic publications and in the proceedings of scientific conferences “right out of high school,” Bader said. By comparison, he first published in the academic world when he was a “fourth year Ph.D. student.”

Some of his students have gone on to do their own doctoral work at leading institutions. Two budding scientists, once lab partners in Bader’s classes, now are husband and wife and work together for a pharmaceutical company. “They invited me to the wedding,” Bader said.

The research program that Bader started for freshmen and sophomores in Hazleton has spread beyond science and engineering to social sciences and the humanities. In the past 12 years, 380 students have presented their original work at the annual research fair on campus.

Training undergraduates at Hazleton to conduct research is an undertaking. When freshmen enter the lab, they are unsure how to follow simple procedures such as filling a beaker with a measured amount of water. “They’re shaking,” Bader said. “You teach them skills.”

For the gung-ho students, Bader holds boot camp. Right after finals, he leads them through three weeks of training for which they receive stipends and guidance for spending the rest of the summer in research program at the University of Minnesota. Bader did post-doctoral studies at Minnesota and maintains connections there. At boot camp, he teaches safety regimens and covers basics, such as how to order supplies or operate equipment.

“Sometimes, I intentionally make a glitch in an instrument,” Bader said. He monitors how the students trouble shoot the problem by telephoning helplines or checking for guidance online.

“I watch them struggle, which is fine. They really learn how to solve problems. They become independent,” he said. Solving the puzzles of research taught perseverance to Basant R. Nassar, who studied with Bader the past two years.

“He taught me about life and the ‘real world.’ Science, like anything else, requires patience, commitment and dedication. It doesn’t always go your way and a lot of times you fail. But it is in those failures that we learn and grow stronger,” Nassar wrote in an e-mail.

Nassar credits Bader with helping open up research opportunities that Nassar accepted at the University of Virginia last summer and the University of Minnesota the year before.

Penn State Hazleton students heading to Minnesota often begin their experiments during Bader’s boot camp. They ship samples to Minnesota before traveling there with Bader, who remains their instructor. During the summer, the students receive training in scientific ethics, hear guest lectures and present their own research. They also attend Minnesota Twins games, Mississippi River cruises and pizza parties with students attending the program from universities across the country.

While instructing in Minnesota, Bader pays for part of his expenses and spends much of the summer away from his family. “I fee like I made an impact on someone’s life,” Bader said when asked what he gets out of directing students in research.

He considers research an integral part of teaching as students learn to think for themselves and hatch the ideas that are at the root of every good experiment. “My philosophy is: use what is available. With it you come up with some good ideas,” Bader said.

To expose students to ideas, Bader invites scientists from other universities to Penn State Hazleton. He also travels to other universities, delivering guest lectures.

This summer, he will spent six weeks at Al Ain University for Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates where he taught for four years prior to joining the faculty at Penn State Hazleton. He also will be at the University of Technology in Malaysia, which first welcomed him as a lecturer last winter.

Through his travels, he wants to organize student and faculty exchanges. “Hopefully it will bring some international dimension. Our students stand to benefit,” Bader said.

The exchanges help students understand that scientists form a community. “We learn from each other,” Bader said. “It’s an opportunity to see the world differently and learn to work with others.”

Bader grew up in a different part of the world, earning his bachelor’s degree at the Qatar University in Doha, Qatar. He gained his doctorate at the University of Southern California and then worked two years as a researcher for Hitachi’s laboratories in Japan before returning to academia.

His own research delves into the optical and electronic traits of organic materials such as contrast dyes and semi-conductors. He designs optical power limiters that protect eyes from lasers, a safeguard that interests the military. For medical research, he experiments with material that warms while absorbing photons and might be a way to put the heat to cancer.

Bader becomes animated when talking about his ideas, such as his curiosity about what would happen if he hooked a compound that donates electrons to the ends of an electron acceptor. “The molecule is confused,” Bader said, raising one palm and lowering another like a scale reaching balance. Will the molecule accept electrons or donate them? “The molecule says, ‘Hey, I can do both,’” as Bader discovered when he built the molecule in the lab.

Research published on the molecule is now one of the most-cited of Bader’s articles in scientific literature.

Nassar said Bader teaches that research doesn’t have to be high tech. Basic research, she said, can have an impact on science and the world. Nassar worked with organic molecules useful in solar cells, molecular wires and other devices that could be made cheaply and at low temperatures.

The research led to a publication last year in “Crystal Growth and Design” of a paper by Nassar, Bader, another Penn State Hazleton student Hui Lin and other authors. Their topic: extended 7,7,8,8-tetracyano-p-quinodimethane-based acceptors.

Before examining molecules as complex as their names imply, students delve into the scientific literature when beginning a research project. They search for chemicals that exist in theory but haven’t been produced. “No one in the world made it. You are going to be the first to make it,” Bader tells his students. “We’re going to make it, map it.”

Using X-ray diffraction, they depict the structure of the crystal and notice how the molecules are arrayed. Bader and his students seek to arrange, or pack, the molecules in ways that enhance their electrical and optical properties.

Then the objective of their research becomes clear. Like crystal.

The airplane parked on the machine shop floor hasn’t taken its first flight yet, but already it has transported students at Penn State Hazleton toward careers in engineering.

Professor Wes Grebski wanted students to design the plane so they could see a practical application of their course work. Too often freshmen and sophomores view each class as a separate exercise. “They don’t get the big picture – how the knowledge can link together,” said Grebski, an associate professor of engineering.

Working on a project like the airplane requires students to draw upon what they’ve learned about materials, physical forces, mechanics and electricity. Plus it never hurts if the project sparks their interest, said Grebski, who previously helped students design and build a solar car.

“He’s very enthusiastic when he’s involved in something,” Kenneth Kirk, an educational consultant at the West Side Career and Technology Center, said of Grebski. “What an idea person.”

Two and a half years ago, Grebski approached Kirk with the idea for building an airplane. Kirk helped the plan get off the ground at West Side, a career and technical center in Kingston that attracts students from five high schools.

West Side had the facilities – the machine and automotive shops – necessary to build the plane, which is powered by a Subaru car engine and runs on gasoline. Penn State students and Grebski supplied the know-how. “Engineering students acted as mentors to high school students,” Grebski said.

When designing the plane, Grebski and his Penn State students decided to build with wood. “Very often people are surprised. ‘How come wood?’” Grebski said. But most airplanes from the Wright Brothers to World War II, including the reliable Piper Cup and Howard Hughes’ famed Spruce Goose, were made of wood. Wood keeps the plane light – it weighs about 300 pounds – and airiness is a prime attribute for aircraft.

Grebski’s students drew up the specifications for the project. They produced the working drawings, built three-dimensional models and studied manufacturing processes. To ensure that their plane would be safe, students calculated the stress that rushing air would exert on the wooden wings, truss and frame. They designed everything to withstand extra force as a safety factor.

They also completed equations necessary to know the plane’s tolerances – the steepest climb it could fly, the top air speed, which is about 110 mph, and distance – about 150 miles – it can travel on a full tank.

“I can give them a textbook problem (but) … I find they’re much more motivated if they do something they can see,” Grebski said.

Using special wood and glue ordered from websites catering to aviation enthusiasts, the students started to piece together the frame at Penn State Hazleton. The whole plane cost about $3,000 to build, Grebski said.

Students still in junior high school took part in the effort during summer engineering camp at Penn State Hazleton. “Summer camps promote engineering (and) show them how exciting engineering can be,” Grebski said.

The plane also stirred interest at West Side after Grebski delivered it. “We never had a plane in school before. Probably every student came down to look at it at one time or another,” said Michael Galanda, an instructor at West Side and a student pilot.

Folks gathered round at open houses. “It’s great to know you’re a part of something that people come to see,” Patrick Shields, a West Side senior who worked on the plane for two years, said.

Nate Wilson was in eighth grade when he first saw the plane, bereft of motor or skin. Now a junior, he, too, has worked on the aircraft for two years.

With the frame set up in the machine shop overseen by Galanda, students overhauled an engine from a wrecked Subaru and began building airplane components. They fashioned landing gear, motor mounts and carburetor parts.

Although the plane couldn’t fly yet, it got a taxi ride back to Penn State where students draped the frame in a vinyl skin and “kind of shrink wrapped it,” Grebski said. “Touch the skin with an iron and it shrinks.”

When the plane took a return trip to West Side, students in the automotive shops stepped in. “They did the wiring, gauges, the lights … I was working with them,” Grebski said. The automotive students also coated the skin with epoxy paint in the Penn State color scheme of blue and white.

Building the plane helped West Side’s students experience the synergy of collaborating with different organizations. The students also broadened their views of what’s possible for their futures.

“In gaining a better understanding of the aviation field, students were able to see how the skills they acquire in their programs of study can transfer to opportunities in different industries,” Lorri Vandermark, West Side’s director of recruiting and marking, said in an e-mail.

Grebski said his first- and second-year students at Penn State gained experience, no matter what branch of engineering they enter, from working on the plane.

The plane has two seats, one in front of the other. Dual controls let the pilot fly from either chair. Under aviation rules, the plane fits in the experimental category for one-of-a-kind aircraft rather than planes that are mass produced, Grebski said.

Restrictions prevent experimental planes from flying at night. Instead, pilots have to fly during days when skies are clear enough that they can see where they are going. They hop between airports the size of those in Hazleton and Forty Fort rather than the airports like Avoca that provide control towers for jumbo jets.

The plane passed one inspection and requires two more before being certified as air-ready. Grebski said liability issues might prevent him from ever taking off in the plane, although he wants to. “Absolutely. I do have the urge to fly that,” he said before adding: “For us the process of building the plane is more important than the final product.”

Already he has in mind another project to interest students in engineering – a house that draws all its power from sun and wind rather than the electrical grid – a timely project with the addition of campus’ newest program, a bachelor’s degree in engineering with an alternative energy and power generation track.

The gymnasium will be named in honor of long-time Penn State Hazleton athletic director, men’s basketball coach and assistant professor of kinesiology Dr. Thomas M. Caccese. Caccese retired as the men’s coach in 2009 after 33 years of service and continues to serve as the athletic director and professor.

Participating in the ceremony will be Penn State Hazleton Chancellor Gary Lawler and Marty Ogle, athletic director at Penn State Mont Alto representing Penn State Athletics.
All alumni and friends are invited to attend the event which is free. A reception will be held in the gymnasium immediately following the game.

For more information, contact the Office of Development at 570-450-3180.

Penn State Hazleton's next installment in the Arts & Music Series takes place on Thurs., Jan. 27 with Michael Karn and Manhattan Jazz performing at 8 p.m. in the Slusser/Bayzick Building at the campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Jazzman Michael Karn brings a sound to Penn State Hazleton that he has perfected in legendary venues. A tenor saxophonist, Karn has played The Blue Note, The Hollywood Bowl, Wolftrap, Lincoln Center, the Grand Ole Opry, the Kennedy Center and the Newport Jazz Festival.

He toured two years with the Ray Charles Orchestra in the United States, Europe and Japan and spent five years crossing the States and Canada with the big band of Harry Connick Jr.

Versatility is a hallmark for Karn, who can put down the sax and pluck the bass. As a headliner, Karn made two albums on the Cross Cross label: “In Focus” in 1999 and 1998’s “Head to Head” that he led with another Connick band member, Jerry Weldon. As a studio musician, Karn has played on the soundtrack for ESPN’s documentary “Black Magic,” accompanied jazz greats and even rappers Run-DMC.

With his group and as a sideman, Karn performs in clubs in the New York City area, where he lives, graduated from New York University and teaches at the New School University.

The next performance in the series, scheduled for 8 p.m, Wed., Feb. 2, will feature the high energy dance group "Soul Steps."   

For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (570) 450-3180.