NEW FACES HIGHLIGHT ICTC's NEW YEAR

(October 10, 2008)...  As a new year begins at the Indiana County Technology Center many new exciting events are taking place. This year there is a very hardworking team of students that will be doing their best to report the news to keep you informed. Eager and excited about writing this year, the reporters begin their first column by telling you a little bit about themselves.

Haley Lichtenfels, a senior United student, is a returning student reporter. She is enrolled at the ICTC in the Graphics and Electronic Media program. Along with being an ICTC reporter, Haley is also a member of the ICTC Key Club. She is involved in her school’s yearbook, a twirler for the United Majorettes, and is a second year mentor for Outdoor Odyssey. Among all of these activities, Haley enjoys spending some of her free time hanging out with friends and family, playing fetch with her puppy, and writing short stories and poems. Haley’s future plans are to attend college and to major in Social Work.

Kayla King is a sophomore from Saltsburg High School and is enrolled in the Health Occupations Technology program. Kayla is a member of the basketball team at Saltsburg High School. During her spare time she enjoys hanging out with her friends, reading, and listening to music. Her future plans consist of graduating high school, attending college, and becoming a registered nurse.

The ICTC is beginning the new school year with many new faces in the program areas. Along with new students, the ICTC has four new instructional assistants who work directly with students to enhance their technical and academic skills.

Mr. Nick Rescenete is one of our new additions to the Collision Repair Technology program. Before coming to the ICTC, Mr. Rescenete spent the last 11 years self employed at Ron’s Machine Shop. When Haley sat down with Mr. Rescenete, he told her that “ICTC was a very pleasant place and that it is something that was well needed in the community.” Collision Repair is a very bustling program and there are lots of projects going on, Mr. Rescenete tells that some of his goals are to be able to get caught up to speed but for now he is learning everything he can to help the students. Some of the best things that Mr. Rescenete said about the ICTC, “it is very hands on which helps the students to learn and get the experience that they are going to need in their career field.” Outside of the ICTC, Mr. Rescenete loves to go fishing.

Along with a new instructional assistant in Collision Repair, Carpentry is sharing the same excitement while welcoming Ms. Darlene McNeil. Before coming to ICTC, Ms. McNeil worked at a Community Guidance Center as a program Psycho Therapist. Ms. McNeil has a “wonderful” impression of ICTC and says that the “students have a lot of opportunities here.” Ms. McNeil’s has a Bachelor of Science in Education and an Associate of Science in Occupational Therapy and has worked in several schools in Indiana County as a substitute teacher. A few things that she likes best about ICTC are that, “the students are great and they show a lot of passion toward their work.” Ms. McNeil also shares some hobbies of sewing, walking and reading in her spare time.

In addition to these two programs the two sister programs (GEM and DMT) at ICTC both received new Instructional Assistants to help out. In Graphics and Electronic Media, Ms. Cheryl Fleming, has come to help out Mr. Krecota, as a former student of ICTC from Digital Media Technology (DMT), Ms. Fleming has graduated from Dubois Business College. Ms. Fleming’s impression of ICTC is that “it helps the students with college and in their specific program area.” She also enjoys that she gets to work with the many students. Some of Ms. Fleming’s interests and hobbies are a variety of different sports, drawing, and movies.

Mr. Dane Mergen is another new face in Digital Media Technology. Mr. Mergen is another former student of DMT and he is “glad to be back”, and believes “ICTC helps students to prepare for college and for their specific careers”. Mr. Mergen is a very busy person. He not only works at ICTC but works part-time as a Game Associate at Game Stop and he continues his IUP studies as a Senior Student in Communications Media. Mr. Mergen loves photography, video editing, video games, as well as playing baseball, softball, and hanging with his family. We would like to welcome everyone and to wish a successful year to all.

On September 30 th the students of the ICTC were once again invited to participate in “The Challenge Program” which is meant to motivate students to be the best that they can be. The students will be awarded in four significant categories that will in some way represent their success and ambition in school.

The awards that the students will be receiving consist of 12 money awards of $250. These awards will be given in each of the following categories: Best Attendance, Most Improved, Best Overall Grade Point Average and Community Service. Students of the sophomore, junior and senior classes will each have a chance to win $250 in each category.

The ultimate goal of The Challenge Program is to give our students a reason to want to do well in school. The Program does so by giving the students money just for coming to school everyday, keeping their grades up and helping out in the community.

The Challenge Program over the years has come all the way from one (1) school in 2003-2004 to 93 schools by the 2007-2008 school year. The Program has been introduced in 17 counties throughout Delaware and Pennsylvania. It was also introduced as a pilot program in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

This Program has awarded over $350,000 in awards to students so far. The Challenge promoters are looking forward to the program excelling a cumulative total of over $1,000,000 to be given out to the deserving students in the 2008-2009 school year. The Challenge Program has a total of nine businesses and individuals that support the program as major corporate sponsors.

As a result of The Challenge Program schools that are involved with the Program have continued to outscore the other comparison schools on PSSA scores. Also, the school leaders have indicated that the amount of community service hours has increased significantly each year. The Program has majorly affected senior high school students. Katelyn Beatty, a winner of one of last year’s cash prizes, had this to say about The Challenge Program, “It was just an extra incentive for the community service I was already doing. It has influenced me to continue doing the services.”

The students now have the rest of the school year to work to get these prizes. As for those students, remember, this is your money and you can spend it however you choose. Good Luck!

###