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“Reaching out” news briefs

AMP Foundation awards $35,000 to Penn State York The AMP Foundation awards a check for $35,000 to Penn State York for the purchase of a 44-ton injection molding machine for the campus’ plastics technology program. From left are Don Gogniat, Penn State York campus executive officer; Kathy Shank, director of molding, AMP Harrisburg; Rick Wilson, senior plastics manufacturing engineer, AMP, and a plastics technology instructor at Penn State York; Bill Ray, plant manager, AMP East Berlin; Gary Owens, plant manager, AMP Shrewsbury; Terry Riley, Penn State York director of continuing education; Diana Wills, manager, community relations and contributions, AMP Foundation; and Bob Laudeman, supervisor, AMP apprentice program, Harrisburg. Riley (third from the right) said Penn State York formed the South Central Pennsylvania Plastics Education Consortium with area plastics firms in October 1997 to address a pressing workforce education need. To help in the development of its new plastics technology program, Penn State York formed a partnership with Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, which has a renowned plastics technology program.		Lehigh Valley and PP&L support adult literacy   Penn State Lehigh Valley presented a program on Making Choices: Negotiating Differences to Build Community to PP&L employees in Allentown, Pa.   The three-day training program is offered to PP&L employees through a partnership involving Penn State Lehigh Valley, PP&L and the IBEW Local 1600 union.   The program enables individuals to learn more about themselves, resulting in an increased ability to help others more effectively, according to program facilitator Stan Nowak, associate professor emeritus of Spanish, humanities and social science.   “Learning to communicate openly, without prejudice or stereotypes, and to recognize differences as a resource instead of a liability are goals of the training,” he said.   After completing the program, the PP&L employees performed 40 hours of volunteer work with an adult literacy program. The training program is funded through the Pennsylvania Literacy Corps. Managers from Puerto Rico benefit from course   Penn State Berks–Lehigh Valley presented a course on Organization and Human Resource Development to 24 managers, human resource administrators and business leaders in Puerto Rico last June.   The Penn State Berks–Lehigh Valley Outreach and Continuing Education Office offered the course in partnership with IDEM, the executive training center of the Sales and Marketing Executives Association of San Juan, and Penn State Management Development Programs and Services. Topics included developing human resources, training and development, and leadership development.   Dr. J. Richard Zelonka, assistant professor of engineering at Penn State McKeesport, and Samuel C. DeWald, former director of Management Development Programs and Services and associate professor in The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration, were the instructors for Organization and Human Resource Development. The course is part of an eight-module 26-day certificate program offered by Management Development to business executives in Pennsylvania, the United States and around the world. Lancaster Center offers workshop for teachers   Teachers and other educators are facing increasing discipline problems in their classrooms today, as a result of such trends as teen pregnancy, violence and drug and alcohol abuse.   To prepare teachers and educators to handle increasingly difficult issues and behaviors in the classroom, the Lancaster Center presented a two-day workshop on the Self-Control Classroom: Understanding and Managing Disruptive Students.   Dr. James Levin, associate professor in the graduate school of education at Penn State, and Dr. John Shanken-Kay, a psychotherapist and educational consultant in private practice in Doylestown, Pa., were the instructors. They are co-authors of the book The Self-Control Classroom: Understanding and Managing the Disruptive Behavior of All Students, including Students with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).   In the workshop, they focused on providing teachers with tools and strategies to manage their classrooms and positively change the educational experience for their students and themselves. Continuing Education and Cooperative Extension offer nutrition program   A joint effort involving the Penn State York and Penn State Lancaster Center Continuing Education units and Penn State Cooperative Extension led to the creation of a nutrition program for child care providers.   Nearly 40 participants completed the three-hour training program, which focused on food facts and fantasies and food safety issues. Nancy Wiker, extension agent in Lancaster County, wrote the curriculum, which was approved by the College of Health and Human Development. Penn State video helps adults discover the power of literacy   A Penn State video shares the joy of learning by explaining five strategies for achieving adult literacy within the family, workplace and community.   “Strategies for Adult Literacy and Learning” provides examples of several successful programs that have helped adults acquire the knowledge and skills they need to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The program was developed as a result of the combined efforts of the Department of Education, Penn State’s Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy, Penn State Public Broadcasting’s WPSX-TV and WQED in Pittsburgh.   For more information, contact Penn State Media Sales at (800) 770-2111.
Penn State Lehigh Valley coalition receives funding for training program   Penn State Lehigh Valley’s Department of Continuing Education and the Hispanic American Organization, a Service Education Redevelopment Affiliate in Allentown, Pa., have been awarded several multiyear contracts totaling nearly $1 million by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. The funds are supporting intensive welfare-to-work programs in Lehigh, Northampton and Berks counties.   Penn State and the Hispanic American Organization are working on the project in collaboration with local community colleges and the Lehigh Valley Vocational-Technical School. This public education coalition will provide training in the fields of certified nurse assistants, customer service, retail, receptionist and hospitality. Penn State will offer courses at the Hispanic American Organization’s new facility in Bethlehem, its Allentown facility and other community-based locations.   Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension, through Management Development Programs and Services, is partnering with the Hispanic American Organization to implement a new assessment center as part of the program. Screening and testing will cover academic levels, attitudes, aptitudes and interests. Individualized counseling also will be provided.   Penn State Lehigh Valley and the Hispanic American Organization anticipate 470 welfare recipients annually will progress into productive jobs, allowing them to become economically self-sufficient.   Sandy Litzenberger and Lothar Gumberich, Penn State Berks–Lehigh Valley College staff members, are directing the program. Urban Gardening program flourishes in Philadelphia   Philadelphia County Cooperative Extension’s Urban Gardening program is flourishing, with nearly 3,000 city families working in about 450 community gardens.   “These gardens are beautiful and practical,” Terry Mushovic, director of the Urban Gardening program, said. “But they are much more than that. They bring people together in incredible ways; they are sources of accomplishment and pride and community; they teach self-reliance and give pleasure. This program is so very important to the people of Philadelphia and their quality of life.”   Philadelphia’s program is one of the largest Urban Gardening programs in the nation. Cooperative Extension’s Urban Gardening advisers help residents in community gardens across the city and also offer a variety of free environmental and gardening programs to school-age children. Popular programs include hydroponics, terrariums, worm farming and grow labs.

Conference for woodland owners   Nearly 200 woodland owners and others attended the Northcentral Pennsylvania Woodland Owners Conference last March at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.   Attendance was the highest ever for this conference, according to Dr. Robert S. Hansen, an extension agent with Bradford County Cooperative Extension. He said the conference illustrated the successful partnership between Penn State Cooperative Extension and Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension in developing this outreach program for Pennsylvanians.   The conference focused on many issues involved in owning and caring for woodlands, including managing white-tail deer, determining timber value and marketing timber, pond management (construction, stocking and weed control), landowner liability issues related to recreation, conservation easements, forest products (such as veneers) and wildlife habitat improvement.   There were speakers from lumber companies, a law firm, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Penn State School of Forest Resources, the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.   The conference was an outreach program of Penn State Cooperative Extension, Penn State Continuing Education and Penn College, in cooperation with Keystone Veneers Inc., Lauchle Lumber, Lycoming County Conservation District, Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy, Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, Pennsylvania Forestry Association, Lycoming County Woodland Owners Association, Woodland Owners of Centre County, Central Susquehanna Woodland Owners Association, Bradford–Sullivan Forest Landowners Association and Clinton County Forest Landowners Association.		Integrated Pest Management focus groups   The Outreach Office of Marketing Research in Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension conducted a focus group study for the College of Agricultural Sciences during the 1998 Pennsylvania Farm Show. Groups participating included grocers, growers, food processors, faculty, extension personnel and representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The goal was to identify major issues related to integrated pest management. The information has been used over the last 12 months to build consumer education programming.
		Regional director visits Bosnia and Herzegovina Harold Ott (second from right, left photo), regional director for the South Central Region of Penn State Cooperative Extension and Outreach, traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina in May as a member of a delegation organized by Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha. The congressman’s goal was to show the people of the city of Brcko in Bosnia and Herzegovina how an ethnically diverse American city, Johnstown, overcame adversity in the form of floods and the loss of a major employer (the steel industry) not only to rebuild, but also to celebrate its ethnic diversity with an annual folk festival. The five-member Pennsylvania delegation spent a week meeting with Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians to gain a better understanding of the political and cultural environment and the peoples’ humanitarian needs. “We were looking for nonmilitary ways the United States can assist the people of this war-ravaged region,” Ott said. The top photo shows the remains of a Muslim family’s home in Brcko. The bottom photo shows another Bosniac family that was able to return and rebuild its home. While in Brcko, Ott (far right in right photo) focused his attention on the agricultural situation. Farmers there face significant problems in restoring their farms, including the danger of land mines. A de-mining effort is under way, but in the meantime, it’s not safe to farm in much of the region. The presence of United Nations peace-keeping troops is helping to bring stability to the region. The troops arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in December 1995. The Pennsylvania delegates have submitted a report on their observations and recommendations to Murtha. They also hosted a Brcko delegation during September. Ott showed the delegates Penn State’s agricultural facilities and the State College area, and he continues to correspond with them.

Christmas tree growers meet   More than 450 Christmas tree growers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey met at the Old Homestead Tree Farm in Trachsville, Pa., last summer during the two states’ joint Christmas tree convention.   Hosts Earl and Sue Beers prepared eight different learning stations for participants during the two-day on-site part of the program. Participants spent a third day in Tannersville, Pa., reviewing what they had learned.   The Beers chose the theme “The Family Farm—The Way We Do It” for the on-site visit. The event included not only the tree growers and their families, but also exhibitors, trades- people and vendors.   Learning stations included: choose-and-cut, with topics ranging from tree control and shaking trees clean to ball-ing tree roots and crowd control; herbicide test plot, a one-half acre plot started in 1997 (Dr. Larry Kuhns, Penn State professor of ornamental horticulture, shared his expertise with participants); site preparation, hand planting and grading and pruning of transplants before planting; grading of mature trees using the U.S. Grading Standard; construction of grass waterways (Carbon County Extension agent Paul Shealer presented information on why such waterways are needed and how to construct them, as well as protecting trees from drowning); comparison of old plantation layout and new block layout for tree planting; and a balling and burlapping shed that allows sunshine and rain to reach the balled trees, yet provides shelter and water when needed, which also allows the trees’ roots to be kept at a constant 55 degrees.		PENNTAP aids gourd producer   A Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP) engineer teamed up with a hard-shell gourd producer to study the feasibility of automating some of the hand labor involved in growing and harvesting this type of gourd. The partnership evolved from the producer’s relationship with a Cooperative Extension agent who was helping the producer solve an ongoing pollination problem in the gourd fields. The extension agent referred the producer to PENNTAP for assistance in solving some machinery problems. Dairy farmers surveyed on education needs   The Outreach Office of Marketing Research in Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension distributed a survey to 900 dairy farmers in northeastern Pennsylvania last spring to learn about the issues and education needs of this group. Their responses will guide Cooperative Extension’s planning of educational programming for dairy farmers. County commissioners meet at Team Decision Center   Members of the Pennsylvania County Commissioner’s Association used Continuing Education’s Team Decision Center at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel to begin a strategic planning process for local communities. The one-day program on Sustaining Communities was facilitated by outreach technology experts. It was developed in collaboration with Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Two fifth-graders from Mosser Elementary School work with a student tutor (center) to learn how to navigate the World Wide Web during the Cyber Sisters program held at Penn State Lehigh Valley.	Fifth-grade girls learn about World Wide Web   Fifteen fifth-grade girls from Mosser Elementary School in the Allentown School District learned to navigate the World Wide Web and create their own Web pages during a program conducted by Penn State Lehigh Valley.   The students, nicknamed the “Cyber Sisters,” met on seven Thursdays after school in the state-of-the-art CoLab, outfitted with multimedia laptop computers, Internet connections and modular furniture. The Cyber Sisters homepage is at www.lv.psu.edu/jkl1/sisters.   Judy Lichtman, reference librarian at Penn State Lehigh Valley, created the Cyber Sisters concept as a way to interest young women in technology.   “The Internet offers ways to use technology that appeal to many girls, like social interaction via chat rooms and E-mail or the creative activity of designing a Web page,” she said.   The Cyber Sisters Club is part of Youth Enrichment Partnership 2000, a program designed to encourage the development of reading, writing and critical thinking skills in inner-city youth.