Girl Scout recruitment,
registration night slated
Registrations for Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania for girls in the South Williamsport area will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, at Central Elementary School, West Mountain Avenue, South Williamsport.
The recruitment and registration night is for girls in grades kindergarten through 12.
For more information, call Dianne Larson, service unit manager for South Williamsport, at 326-0034.
Lewisburg nursing student
earns Nightingale Award
DANVILLE - Jefferson School of Nursing student Tracey Hepner, of Lewisburg, a student at the Danville campus, received the Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania's scholarship.
She will be honored, along with six other recipients, at the Nightingale Award's 23rd annual gala Oct. 26.
"It is one of the greatest honors and most humbling experiences to be recognized by the Nightingale Association," Hepner said.
The Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recruiting and retaining nursing professionals. Scholarships are given only to Pennsylvania residents who show exceptional dedication for nursing through a competitive academic record. The Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania has provided almost $200,000 in scholarships since 1991.
Area preschool
still has openings
WATSONTOWN - Openings still are available at Happy Harbor Preschool, located at the Watsontown United Methodist Church.
Happy Harbor Preschool focuses on pre-math, pre-reading, science, language development, social skills, biblical teachings, fine and gross motor skills and more. Classes are available for children who are 3 and 4 years of age by Sept. 1.
For more information or to enroll, contact Camy at 538-3094.
Bucknell University will change
ID cards so students can vote
LEWISBURG - While the legal debate continues over Pennsylvania's new voter ID law, which requires voters to show a valid photo ID before casting their ballots in the Nov. 6 election, Bucknell University is continuing with its plans to ensure students can use their Bucknell ID when they head to the polls.
The new law allows students to use their university ID cards, but only if the cards include expiration dates. Some higher ed institutions, including Bucknell, do not currently print expiration dates on their ID cards.
In response to the new requirements, Bucknell will provide expiration stickers that students can affix to their IDs, which is an option allowed under the law. Bucknell will begin distributing those stickers in September. They'll expire in fall of 2013. The university also is considering printing expiration dates on all new student ID cards starting in 2013.
Team leader-supervisor
program slated at college
Workforce Development & Continuing Education at Pennsylvania College of Technology will present the first series in its Team Leader-Supervisor program beginning Sept. 19.
Leaders must master the competencies required to drive an organization to achieve competitive advantage. The noncredit program assists team leaders-supervisors to effectively employ each skill in a business environment.
Each series in the Team Leader-Supervisor program consists of four half-days of training. Series I comprises The Changing Role of the Leader, Developing Your Leadership Style, Fostering Effective Communications, and Solving Problems and Making Decisions.
The four-hour sessions will run on Sept. 19 and 26 and Oct. 3 and 10 and will be held at the Center for Business & Workforce Development on the college's main campus in Williamsport. The training can also be delivered at company locations for groups of employees.
Participants may choose to continue their training with Level II sessions, beginning Oct. 25; Level III sessions, beginning Nov. 27; and Level IV sessions, to be offered in Spring 2013.
To register, call 327-4775.
Project provides career-college
resource for school counselors
Pennsylvania College of Technology's Outreach for K-12 Office is coordinating a notebook that will put information at high school counselors' fingertips when they talk with students about careers and colleges.
The project is funded by a $10,102 grant from the U.S. Department of Education through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
The notebook, titled "Getting Them There," will be provided to counselors at the 27 high schools participating in PHEAA's Creating Access to Postsecondary program. It will provide counselors with checklists, handouts and quick resources as they help students think about their futures.
The Outreach for K-12 Office is additionally modifying the information from the notebooks to produce a "Getting Them There" website that would be available for use by all school counselors.
Lycoming College recognized
as 'best' by Princeton Review
Lycoming College has been recognized as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the Northeast according to The Princeton Review.
The education services company selected Lycoming as one of 220 institutions it profiles in the "Best in the Northeast" section of its 2013 Best Colleges: Region by Region feature available at www.PrincetonReview.com.
The Princeton review applauds Lycoming College for being "surprisingly rich in opportunity" for a school of its size, acknowledging its great resources and quality facilities.
Lycoming students surveyed for the review said: "The classroom is very interactive" and "professors are animated and fun." "Classes are small enough that professors get to know you," and "faculty is relatively easy to contact outside the classroom." "Not only do the professors want you to succeed, but so do the workers in the mail room and the coffee shop."
The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students to rate their own schools on several issues -from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food - and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life.
Local graduate student-teaching
in East Lycoming School District
Misericordia University teacher education majors recently received their fall student teaching assignments during an orientation program.
Eleven student teachers from Misericordia University participated in the program, which prepares the undergraduates for classroom observation and instruction in several regional school districts and outside the region.
The Teacher Education Department at Misericordia University requires student teachers to observe student instruction for 14 weeks in two different classrooms as part of their educational and professional experience.
Students spend the school day in their assigned classrooms at first observing and then gradually teaching classes.
Among the students is Caressa Crownover of Hughesville, who is assigned to the Dallas and East Lycoming school districts.
Bucknell's Bertrand Library
to host peace exhibit, events
LEWISBURG - The Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library at Bucknell University will host the exhibit, "A Peace of My Mind," by award-winning photographer and author John Noltner through Oct. 13. The exhibit may be viewed on the second floor of the library during library hours.
The library also will offer lectures and events focusing on international peace, all of which are free and open to the public.
Noltner will give a talk about the exhibit on Friday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m. in the Traditional Reading Room, located on the second floor of the library. The lecture will be accompanied by local band Rocky's Revival, featuring guitarists Bill Flack, associate professor of psychology at Bucknell, and Joe DeChristopher, a 1970 Bucknell alumnus and guitarist with the '70s band Fred; and Steve Catania, mandolin player and founder of Catania Folk Instruments.
In early 2009, Noltner set out to explore the common humanity that connects people through asking the simple question, "What does peace mean to you?" The interviews were recorded digitally and combined with a black-and-white portrait.
"A Peace of My Mind" began out of the belief that if a single voice can make a small difference, then together, many voices can make a tremendous impact. The exhibit explores the meaning of peace through the portraits and personal stories of 52 diverse subjects. Each subject is showcased on a 24-inch by 36-inch canvas gallery wrap that includes their name, a short biography, a portrait, and a 250-word excerpt from their interview about what peace means to them.
According to the artist, the subjects are ordinary people, with extraordinary stories. Those profiled include Holocaust survivors and the homeless, a Somali refugee and a military chaplain, a pottery instructor and an oil company executive, as well as artists, volunteers, politicians and business leaders.
"They speak of spiritual peace, political peace and inner peace. They describe what peace means to them, how they work toward it in their lives and some of the obstacles they encounter along the way. Through their diverse experiences, we find a wealth of wisdom that sheds new light on the meaning of peace, and in the end we recognize that each of us, at our core, shares the same hopes and dreams," said Noltner.
Bucknell adopts recycling system
LEWISBURG - Recycling just got easier at Bucknell University. In July, the University adopted a new single-stream recycling system that aims to significantly improve campus recycling and decrease waste going to landfills.
"In three months we predict going from a 20- to 60-percent recycle rate at no cost," said Merritt Pedrick, associate director for facilities operations.
Single-stream recycling is a system in which all recyclable material - fiber (newspaper, cardboard, mixed paper, catalogs, magazines and junk mail) and containers (glass, steel, aluminum and plastic) - is placed, unsorted, in one recycling bin. The material is transported to a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), where it is sorted by state-of-the-art processing equipment.
Past recycling efforts on campus were cumbersome, with restrictive and sometimes confusing rules. Multiple steps were required to handle recoverable materials. University waste audits showed that, with the previous system, many recyclables were going to trash.
"Single-stream recycling has been around a long time," said Pedrick, "but it has not been a viable option until now. Advancements in technology have been improving the quality of the sorted recovered materials in MRFs, more MRFs have been constructed, and waste hauling traffic near the University has made it the right choice for Bucknell."
With single-stream, recyclables can go in one container, and many items that were considered "not recyclable" are now considered "recyclable." Basically, everything is acceptable for recycling except organics (food and animal waste), foil and plastic wrap. Minimal food residue on items is also acceptable.
People who are used to sorting recyclables before tossing them may have questions, but Pedrick takes a relaxed approach. "Single-stream recycling is more forgiving," he explained. "If an error is made and trash gets into recycling, the MRF will sort it out." Trash at the MRF is incinerated and waste heat is used to offset energy at the plant.
"It's a major change in how we handle waste," added Pedrick. "The Facilities team has worked hard this summer making it a reality in time for the students' return. Cans, dumpsters and collection methods all needed to be changed."
