Chuck Crews: Early Hands-On Experiences

00:00:00 Sumer Beatty: Welcome to Tomorrow Makers, where we explore how we learn live, work, and play now and in the future. I'm Sumer Beatty. 00:00:11 Carlos Ramos: And I'm Carlos Ramos. You promise to throw me off this time, so I was ready for anything. 00:00:16 Sumer Beatty: Well, that was a long time ago. I can try again. I'm sure I can. I can successfully throw you off. 00:00:24 Carlos Ramos: We're good. 00:00:25 Sumer Beatty: I think last time I was like. This is Sumer Beatty, and so I'm Sumer Beatty. Okay. It's all the same. Here we are. Semester's coming to a close 00:00:34 Carlos Ramos: So fast. 00:00:34 Sumer Beatty: How about it? I said, that went so fast, and you're like, well, I don't know if our students think that, but either way, the sun's shining and it feels like we're getting closer to those summer days. 00:00:46 Carlos Ramos: And I'm sure the students are ready to get out. I know. I know. The ones I work with are. 00:00:51 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, I get that vibe too, for sure. Well, we've got a fun one today. We have Chuck Crews with us. 00:00:57 Carlos Ramos: Who's Chuck Crews. 00:00:58 Sumer Beatty: Oh, if you are here on campus, you know Chuck. So he's the guy that's directing our secondary partners around for campus tours and he's out and about and he's such a friendly guy. So he is the Assistant Director for Secondary Partnerships. 00:01:12 Carlos Ramos: All right, so that means getting into the high schools. Is it the high schools or is he really just focused on CTCs? 00:01:19 Sumer Beatty: He does both. Yeah. If you're not familiar with the dual enrollment program, that's the program where high school students can take college classes in their classroom at their high schools for college credit at Penn College. So. 00:01:31 Carlos Ramos: And we've had some really amazing students come through here and do that. I don't know if Nate did that when we had Nate Lyon on here kicking off this season. 00:01:38 Sumer Beatty: I'm not sure. But people do take advantage of it, and it's a really nice way to come in with some credits under your belt and get a sense of, you know, what college is really about. 00:01:47 Carlos Ramos: All right, well let's hear Chuck talk all about it. 00:01:49 Sumer Beatty: Okay. Let's do it. So we're here today with Chuck Crews. He is the Assistant Director of Secondary Partnerships here at Penn College. 00:02:05 Chuck Crews: Good morning. Good morning. Thank you guys for having me. It's. a pleasure to be with two of my most favorite people on campus. 00:02:11 Carlos Ramos: Aww. 00:02:11 Sumer Beatty: He says that to everyone. He does. 00:02:13 Chuck Crews: I do not. No, I do not. It's a slight variation for everyone. 00:02:16 Sumer Beatty: Okay. I feel it. That's authentic. We'll take it. 00:02:19 Chuck Crews: There you go. You got no choice. 00:02:21 Sumer Beatty: So I think a good place to start might be knowing your Assistant Director for Academic Partnerships. Talk to us about how secondary partnerships play a role. In Penn College, like why do we, what's our connection to these secondary partnerships? 00:02:37 Chuck Crews: What secondary partnerships, targets are CTC students or CTE students across the state. Because that's our wheelhouse. So we like to look at ourselves as the tip of the spear as far as students and their first interactions with Penn College. So along with Laura Machakk, we coordinate the Dual Enrollment program, which allows high school students to take Penn College courses while still in the comfort of their own high school setting so that they can experience some success at completing college level work, while still in a safe environment and at no cost to them. So it's a win-win for the students. You get to figure out whether or not you can handle college level courses, and it doesn't cost you anything to figure that out. 00:03:26 Carlos Ramos: So that's high school and CTE, career technical education. 00:03:30 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:03:30 Carlos Ramos: Which is a, is a component or is it sit separate from high school? Can you explain that dynamic? 00:03:36 Chuck Crews: A CTE is, would be career and technical education, and you'll see that, in what we call comprehensive high schools. So locally, for example, Williamsport. At Williamsport, they have a career and technical education component, but there is still just a regular public high school. So you can go there and take your gyms, you know, your English, math, science, whatever the case may be. But because they are comprehensive, you can also do automotive. You can do construction. They have engineering, so they are what we call A CTE. A CTC is a career and technical center. Where they are 100% devoted to the career, to the technical education side. So it would be a rarity for you to find an English course or any general ed there. That's where you'll find your diesels, your, your engineering, your mechatronics allied health, you know, whether it be anything in the nursing field, your biomedical. So A CTC is just 100% devoted to career and technical education where a comprehensive CTE has a component of career and technical education, but their number one job or business is just being a regular public high school. 00:04:48 Carlos Ramos: Got it. And so a student that is attending CTE, that's pretty easy. They, they flip back and forth between the classes that they're doing for their career technical education and their, their general education or what they would, you know need to graduate in, you know, the math and the, and the science and all that. How does that work for a student that's a attending a CTC? Like I'm thinking Sun Area VO Tech. East Lycoming, is that also... 00:05:12 Chuck Crews: Lyco CTC. 00:05:13 Carlos Ramos: Lyco CTC. 00:05:14 Chuck Crews: Mm-hmm. 00:05:14 Carlos Ramos: Do those students split their day? Do they get all of the math and science outta the way in like 10th grade and then do one year at the CTC, or is it kinda mixed? 00:05:26 Chuck Crews: So each CTC will have regular high schools that they call their sending schools or their feeder schools. So at Lyco you have students from Benton that could go there, Montoursville students could go there. Loyalsock students. So they have regular high schools that send them students, and it depends on whether or not they go half a day, the entire year, or usually the sophomore, junior and senior year, or if you're at SUN where it's just a senior year program. So at SUN Tech, the kids stay at their sending schools up until they complete their junior year, and then they will go to SUN to focus completely on their career and technical education just for their senior year. The beauty of this is, is that the state now, PDE, has really gotten behind career and technical education. They've adjusted the graduation requirements to make it easier for students to participate in career and technical education and still meet the standards to graduate and receive their diploma. They're pouring a boatload of money into career and technical education, which is allowing the CTCs and the CTEs to purchase the equipment that they would need, so that their students can be prepared to come to our campus and hit the ground running. So it's a win-win. So shots out to Governor Shapiro and the state of Pennsylvania, the legislators for continuing to pour money into career in technical education. 00:06:50 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. And this is decades that this has been happening. What's the driver, you know, we hear STEM, I'm assuming STEM Is part of this and the focus on STEM and industry, but what's your perspective on that? 00:07:03 Chuck Crews: Well, how controversial do you want me to be? 00:07:06 Carlos Ramos: There's always an edit button. 00:07:08 Chuck Crews: Okay. Very good. All right. I honestly believe that this push came post covid. We were unable to get. Some of the things, the products that we need, because everything was being manufactured overseas and then imported. Then we sat back and realized like, Hey, we used to be the number one in X, Y, and Z, and now we are no longer. We need to get that back. 00:07:35 Sumer Beatty: I do like how you said earlier about how the government's investing in those CTCs because by default then it just elevates the importance of them at the collegiate level too. So it's like, you know, it gives, not that we needed additional credibility at all, but like we for sure, we know these students, you know, that we have graduating are in demand and in those fields that, you know, elevating what they've learned in the CTCs and CTEs. 00:08:02 Chuck Crews: For sure. Now, the other step that the state has done is that countywide and each individual county, they have a list of what they call h ps or high priority occupations. So each county has a set of occupations that they're really targeting, that they think that they're going to need as we move further into the 21st century. And we want to make sure that we're preparing students to be successful in those occupations because that's what those counties, that's what the state, that's what the country has deemed important to allow us to not only stay ahead of the curve, but then begin to set trends again. You see that also with the push for. Internet and rural areas. We have to become more connected and the internet is the way for all of us to become connected. You know, going are the days where you knew where your friends were, just by the number of bikes that you saw outside of somebody's house, you know? The street lights came on. It was time to go home. No. Now your parents are sending texts, and that was another thing when I was a classroom teacher. You'd be in the middle of a lesson and a kid pulls out his phone and he is like, oh, Mr. Crews, that's my mom. I'm like, no, it's not your my mom. Then they would show me the phone. It's like, Hey, don't forget to pick up your little brother. 00:09:17 Sumer Beatty: Ah. 00:09:19 Chuck Crews: Okay. I get you. 00:09:20 Sumer Beatty: I'm glad you brought that up, because I, we always like to ask our guests where, how they ended up at Penn College and what your path was. So you were a teacher before you 00:09:29 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:09:30 Sumer Beatty: Came to Penn College? 00:09:30 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:09:31 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:09:31 Chuck Crews: I spent over 20 years in the classroom as a history teacher and football coach. I cut my teeth in the eastern part of the state in Philadelphia and Delaware County, shouts out to Chester Upland, school district. Then for the last nine years I finished up here at Williamsport. While teaching was and interacting with students, it's kind of, it always came natural to me. It's what I'm good at. If I can, you know, pat myself on the back, like I'd never had any problems in the classroom. But it was football that brought me here, chasing that dream. I applied to be the head football coach and that's how I left the eastern part of the state to come here to the beautiful center of the state. And I'm so thankful that it brought me here because now it's led me here to Penn College, and my eyes have just been opened to a whole bunch of things that I would've never even dreamt about had I stayed locally in the Philadelphia area. Which is what we tend to do, you know. We're very parochial in the sense that, hey, this is where I was born. I'm going to die here. Or, well, I might move 20 minutes away from where I was born, you know? And here I am three and a half hours away, give or take, depending on who's driving. 00:10:48 Sumer Beatty: So when you moved from a, so you were teaching in Williamsport before, immediately, before you came to Penn College. 00:10:54 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:10:54 Sumer Beatty: So, knowing we have a great relationship with Williamsport School District, so you probably were somewhat familiar with Penn College before coming here. My question is what, when you came here, what were you most surprised about? You said your eyes were opened. Was there something in particular that you were like, I had no idea they were doing this? 00:11:14 Chuck Crews: I had no idea of the equipment and the modern technology that's hidden behind these just seemingly regular buildings. You walk into the MTC and your mind gets blown away, and the electrical, the ETC, you know, I love walking into the LEC and the BTC 'cause it reminds me of Home Depot or Lowe's. You walk in there, you just smell lumber in it. Yeah. You know, I mean, you just, it just is something about it. 00:11:43 Sumer Beatty: Building Trades Center. 00:11:44 Chuck Crews: Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. then you take a few more steps and you get KDR and that's a whole different set of smells. 00:11:50 Sumer Beatty: There's a lot of acronyms packed into that whole spiel there. So. 00:11:54 Carlos Ramos: We'll put 'em in the show notes. 00:11:55 Chuck Crews: Listen, if you know, you know, and if you wanna know, get on the website and apply. We're looking for folks to come on and join the Penn College team. 00:12:03 Carlos Ramos: That's what I love about you, Chuck. You, you are not shy about making that pitch about that College. 00:12:08 Chuck Crews: Closed mouths have never gotten fit, and I am a 100% proponent of that. You have to advocate for yourself and what you believe in, so I have no problems. We have visitors on campus. I'll let the kids know, yes, we want you to come here and I guarantee that you're going to see something that's going to make you want to come here. Now what's up to you to figure out how you're going to pay for that? Oh, one of the ways you could do that is why don't you, you know take some of these dual enrollment courses that your school has. But you don't sign up for because you don't pay attention and listen. So it is my job to get these kids to see the relevance of taking these courses while you're still in high school and how it helps them to save money in the long run. 00:12:50 Carlos Ramos: Do you have an example of, without naming the student, obviously an example or two of students who've come through with, yeah. X number of credits with the $2,000 CTC scholarship, other scholarships that might be applicable, that have really made a difference for a student who might otherwise not have been able to come here. 00:13:11 Chuck Crews: There was a young man last year at Keystone Central CTC. Because of his due diligence, he had over 25, I wanna say 25, 26 Penn College dual enrollment credits because. Keystone Central was comprehensive. They offered gen eds and tech courses, so he had Chem 100 knocked out. He had English 111 knocked out. He had Math 123 knocked out along with some other networking courses that they offered. So he not only had pretty much two semesters worth of credits under his belt, he had the $2,000 CTC scholarship. And because he was shrewd and crafty enough, he applied for the Penn College Dual Enrollment scholarship, which is completely separate from the over 350 that are on our website. That young man ended up having those two semesters worth of credits, that $2,000 CTC scholarship, and he won an additional $4,000 Penn College dual enrollment scholarship. That's how you play the game. 00:14:20 Carlos Ramos: So just right there, aside from, you know, knocking a year off of what was needed to be done, just doing the math real quickly in my head, and I came up with 21,000, just over $21,000. Just by doing what he needed to do in high school. 00:14:35 Chuck Crews: And it's just that simple. And it costs him nothing. It costs him nothing. Now, since we're going to talk numbers, let me put something in perspective for you. I came slightly prepared because I don't trust Sumer. I knew she didn't want to throw me a curve ball. 00:14:49 Carlos Ramos: Now I'm the. I'm the curve ball. 00:14:50 Chuck Crews: Okay? 00:14:50 Sumer Beatty: Oh yeah. I usually stick to the questions. 00:14:52 Chuck Crews: Okay, 00:14:52 Carlos Ramos: Well, Sumer's like I've only gotten one question asked so far. 00:14:55 Sumer Beatty: It's okay. This is great. 00:14:56 Chuck Crews: She was the one, she's like, I don't know. Ya mean, so she planted that seed of doubt. Okay. So. 00:15:01 Sumer Beatty: No, no one was doubting you. I never once doubted you. 00:15:04 Chuck Crews: No, no, no. Not doubting me, but like, I don't know what's going on here. Listen, we're amongst friends here. Don't worry. So just to put in perspective, 00:15:11 Sumer Beatty: I like the note paper though. 00:15:12 Chuck Crews: Oh yes. 00:15:12 Sumer Beatty: I'm really into that. I can't wait to hear it. 00:15:14 Chuck Crews: Oh, like we, we recycle and reuse. You take a a sheet and you cut it in fours. Now I have four. 00:15:19 Carlos Ramos: What I like is the efficiency. This is, this is a four by five inch piece of paper and we've had some other guests that came in... 00:15:26 Sumer Beatty: and it's got a couple... 00:15:27 Carlos Ramos: with full notebooks. 00:15:27 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, it's been chewed on. 00:15:29 Chuck Crews: Yeah. 00:15:30 Sumer Beatty: The corner has it. 00:15:32 Carlos Ramos: Well, that happened about five minutes ago. 00:15:34 Chuck Crews: Yeah. 00:15:34 Sumer Beatty: Oh, did it? I missed that. 00:15:35 Chuck Crews: Sometimes I get hungry. Okay. I, I made the, critical interview mistake. I had gum and you know, you that... 00:15:42 Sumer Beatty: Oh, yeah, yeah, I did catch that. Okay. That's where the gum, okay. 00:15:44 Chuck Crews: Yes. Or it might be under Carlos desk. I don't know. 00:15:48 Sumer Beatty: Under the desk? 00:15:50 Chuck Crews: Did I mentioned I spent 20 years in a public school setting. You never look under desk, ladies and gentlemen. 00:15:55 Sumer Beatty: Oh, no. 00:15:56 Chuck Crews: That's, there's no telling what you may find under there. For the 23-24 school year, we had 2,057 students attempt Penn College dual enrollment credits. 1,933 were actually successful in earning 7,218 credits. Which equates to how much you thinking tuition savings for 'em? 00:16:19 Carlos Ramos: I was doing division, I didn't realize I needed to be doing multiplication. 00:16:23 Chuck Crews: 7,000. 00:16:23 Sumer Beatty: I'm trying to see what's on your paper. 00:16:26 Chuck Crews: No. No peeking. 00:16:26 Sumer Beatty: There's public math. 00:16:27 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, I'm gonna say like $4.5 million 00:16:30 Chuck Crews: close. Do you have a guess, Sumer? 00:16:33 Sumer Beatty: I, I don't do the math. 00:16:34 Chuck Crews: You gotta, come on, you gotta guess. It's like, you know what I mean? The Price is Right. 00:16:37 Sumer Beatty: Okay. $4 million. 00:16:38 Chuck Crews: Okay. You win because Carlos went over, all right, it was four. 00:16:42 Sumer Beatty: What do I win? 00:16:43 Chuck Crews: A continuation of this podcast. 00:16:47 Sumer Beatty: Alright. Was I gonna get thrown out otherwise? 00:16:50 Chuck Crews: Yeah, probably. So. Geez, I hope President Reed doesn't hear this one. $4.4 million in tuition savings. So that's a 94% success rate. And for just for 23/24, we had 51 of our 72 partners actually participate. You're talking about that's a... 00:17:12 Carlos Ramos: Some partners need to, get on. 00:17:14 Chuck Crews: Well, it's not their fault sometimes. Career and technical education, they marro their faculty like you would not believe, Hey, so and so, CTC just, you know, hired this CTCs Precision machining instructor. So now their machining pro, program dies because they can't find an instructor. And now this one's they raid each other. It's like a bunch of, you know, corporate takeovers left and right. So it's difficult if you lose an instructor then your program goes on life support. Because it is tough to find those instructors because as we see from our job fairs, if you have these skills, industry wants you, and the higher end ,you know, the potential to make that money in industry kind of outweighs the benefits of your summer off, as a teacher. So I think a lot of what you see are people who start in industry and then end up back to career and technical education, once their body starts to break down or their family dynamics change and they wanna spend time with their family and coach their kid's soccer team, or be able to spend more time with the family. And teaching is the perfect profession for that. 00:18:32 Carlos Ramos: I gotta say that the, they have so much to share. 00:18:36 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:18:36 Carlos Ramos: And to be able to pass that on to the next generation, I mean, that's where our faculty come from as well as industry. And I'm sure we're doing our, our own, version of raiding the coffers of the CTEs from their pool as well. We won't 00:18:50 Chuck Crews: talk about that. Check that website, ladies and gentlemen. 00:18:58 Sumer Beatty: So if somebody is listening, parent or student, and they're interested in knowing, because I, I only mentioned this, I was talking to a parent who didn't realize their school offered Penn College Dual Enrollment. You'd think that our wonderful children are re relaying all of the information they're getting in the announcements and their emails and their teachers are trying to tell them. But surprise, we don't always hear it. So. If you want to know, you can go, is it, it's on your website? indeed, pct.edu/dual to go to the dual enrollment, website page. And there's a list of partners on there. 00:19:34 Carlos Ramos: Yes. 00:19:34 Sumer Beatty: Okay. So if you're listening and you're unsure, does my school have this? Does my child's school have this. Does my school have this program? You can see if your school's listed there and learn more. 00:19:46 Chuck Crews: For sure. Or you can just cold call us here. You know, it doesn't matter. We receive those as well. Email us at secondarypartnerships@pct.edu. One of us will get back to you and let you know one way or the other. Because we want to live in that wheelhouse of career and technical education, we are not like a lot of other dual enrollment programs. So there aren't anything, aren't any courses offered online and we don't just partner with anyone. You have to have that career and technical education piece for us to even consider partnering with you for dual enrollment. 00:20:25 Carlos Ramos: Now, for a parent that's listening to this is like, I, this is the whole dual enrollment thing. I've never heard of this before. What does this look like? Are, are you coming to Penn College to take classes and getting credit in both places or what's happening? 00:20:39 Chuck Crews: No. The beauty of ours is that you get to stay in your same classroom. So how it works. 00:20:46 Carlos Ramos: At your high school or your CTE? 00:20:48 Chuck Crews: Yes. How it works for us is essentially your high school teacher who teaches math, for example, they become adjunct faculty for us, and they are teaching our math content under the supervision of our faculty, of our math faculty. And the requirements are whatever assignments that our faculty deem that you should take be the homeworks or the tests, every student in Penn College, dual enrollment takes our final, our midterms and finals. So that's standard. That's a non-negotiable. But because we are a semester base, high schools need four marking period worth of grades. So there's additional content that the high school teachers are allowed to provide and Share with their students so that they can have their four marking periods worth of grades. But your Penn College dual enrollment grade only consists of the Penn College assignments provided to that high school teacher by our faculty. So in theory one could fail the high school course, but pass the Penn College dual enrollment course. 00:21:55 Carlos Ramos: Interesting. 00:21:56 Chuck Crews: Yeah. Now it usually happens the other way around. 00:22:00 Carlos Ramos: Well, not according to the numbers you gave us earlier. 00:22:02 Chuck Crews: Well, 94% is not 100%. You know what I mean? Now also, that also accounts for withdrawal, so sometimes the student will leave so that all those numbers get factored in. So it's not like that 6% failed. Sometimes they go to a different school or that instructor left and in the middle of the school year we just getting, oh, Mr. Ramos was going, oh, well have Beatty do it. Nah, it doesn't work that way. We are very selective. You don't become the best by just letting anybody teach your content. So there is a certain standard that we set for ourselves and we expect our partners to maintain that same standard. Because no, I, I think that's another thing we have to be a tad bit arrogant at times about what we do on campus and why we are doing so well. And that's because we do have standards. You know, we are allowed to be able to be selective with who we partner with because we've done such a good job of establishing industry relations and our graduates going out here and being the flag bearers for what Penn College education can do for you and your company. So. 00:23:15 Sumer Beatty: We do offer dual enrollment classes at high schools that don't have a CTC or CTE? 00:23:23 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:23:23 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:23:23 Chuck Crews: Yes. A lot of times, you know, when people think career and technical education, they think dirty fingernails or thinking mechanics or thinking construction, things of that nature. But for us it also incorporates, you know, the networking side of thing. 00:23:38 Sumer Beatty: Healthcare. 00:23:39 Chuck Crews: Right, exactly. So we consider those technical courses. So we require a one-to-one relationship so your school can't just come on and want to offer all of our general ed courses. It has to be a one-to-one technical to general ed for it to be, you know, a reciprocal type of relationship. We want your kids who are also taking automotive to be taking Penn College Math and taking Penn College English, they gotta take 'em when they come to campus, so why not allow them that opportunity to knock it out? So we wanna make sure that we are catering to the students who might eventually matriculate to us and not just give this away. 00:24:17 Carlos Ramos: Now, a few years ago, I had a student, one of my marketing classes who came from high school, was, was actually going to high school, but came in to take one of my courses. How does that fit in the model of what you're talking about? Is that not even dual enrollment, that's something else completely different. 00:24:33 Chuck Crews: That is not our model of dual enrollment. That student came in and applied through admissions as a non-degree. I was about to throw out another acronym. An NDS student. 00:24:44 Sumer Beatty: Non-degree seeking. 00:24:45 Chuck Crews: That's right. and that's not. We don't consider that our dual enrollment, but that is possible. But for that, you're kind of limited, you know, that's your Montoursville, your Loyalsock, your Williamsport, your South Side kids who can, you know, Jersey Shore, who can actually get here and come to the class. Doesn't account if you're at Venango CTC or Susquehanna CTC or, or Eastern Center for the Arts, and you're, you know, multiple hours away, that doesn't work for you. So, but if you're somewhere local, then you can come and, and do that. And that depends on what your schedule is like in your high school and whether or not it allows you that time to come and sit in class for an hour on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or whatever the case may be. But we don't consider that our dual enrollment. 00:25:34 Carlos Ramos: Okay, great. Thanks for that clarification. 00:25:35 Chuck Crews: Oh, you're welcome. 00:25:37 Sumer Beatty: You talked about your journey to Penn College. What made you wanna teach? If I remember correctly, you're a first generation college student. Is that correct? 00:25:48 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:25:48 Sumer Beatty: Okay. So what, what made you decide I want to go into teaching? 00:25:53 Chuck Crews: I don't think that I ever really wanted to go into teaching, I wanted to make a difference. You know, I never wanted to feel like what I was doing wasn't impactful in some way. I considered politics for a hot minute and then figured I'd have to sell my soul to somebody. So I, you know, backed away from that. And then I kind of stumbled into education and I realized that I loved it. From my first day of student teaching, I knew that this was for me. I've never had a problem with classroom management because I value the relationships. And that's where it all starts with. If a student feels like you have their best interests at heart, you don't have any issues from that student that can't be fixed. You have a lot of problems laid at your feet. You lose a lot of lunch periods because everybody, oh, can we come eat lunch with you? I'm like, kid, I got 35 minutes of peace. Can I eat my PB and J by myself? You know, but you can't, you know? When you establish those relationships, because a lot of times they are looking for positive male role models and positive female role models. Being a minority male, that's a whole nother thing. You know, it was almost like a, a moth to a flame with me and these students, and I, I loved it and I found that if you give them a little bit. And allow them to come to their own conclusions, you know, so to speak. Because history is, is a very difficult subject to teach. If you think back to your own classroom experiences, you either had somebody who wanted you to memorize dates and names and be able to regurgitate them back to you. Or they had a particular passion and they wanted their passion to be your passion. I had a, a teacher in high school who spent a week on the P 51 Mustang. He was a big World War II guy, and certainly a big airplane guy. And oh my gosh, he had life size or not life side, but he had these models of P 51 Mustangs and he's, you know, dog fighting, you know, in the classroom, like, geez, and he had this all for a day, but after, you know, day nine, it's like, let me guess the P 51. Pretty sure that wasn't the curriculum, approved curriculum. No, no. He's kind of doing his thing. Can't do that now. Well, I grew up in an era with teachers smoking, drank in school. You know, you welcome to the teachers out and a cloud of, you know, I mean. Camels and Kools just, you know, wafted out before you could get anything done, you know? and you never opened the bottom left hand drawer at their desk because you never knew what you would find. 00:28:39 Carlos Ramos: I also came into the tail end of that era. But you gave the two scenarios of the type of instruction you would get in history. 00:28:46 Chuck Crews: Mm-hmm. 00:28:46 Carlos Ramos: I didn't know that second group ever existed 00:28:49 Chuck Crews: Really. 00:28:50 Carlos Ramos: It was all, here are the dates, here's the rote memorization. 00:28:54 Chuck Crews: Right? 00:28:54 Carlos Ramos: And my gosh, I, I didn't, I didn't have an appreciation for history because of that. 00:28:59 Chuck Crews: No, that's not learning. And the fact of the matter is, none of us were there. How do we really know what the truth is? 00:29:05 Carlos Ramos: It's storytelling. 00:29:06 Chuck Crews: Right? 00:29:06 Carlos Ramos: Hopefully, hopefully with really good facts behind it. 00:29:09 Chuck Crews: Hopefully. So I would give what I thought were the facts and allow the students to create their own conclusion. Because you, if you boil it down, wars happen for the same reasons that a fight breaks out into the cafeteria. You know, Hey, you sat in my seat. This is my plot of land. You say it's yours, we're gonna go to war for it. Oh, this is my girlfriend. No, it's my girlfriend. And the war breaks out so you don't know. But if you allow the kid the opportunity to put their own spin on it, and as long as they can back it up with factual information or at least common sense, and they can piece it together, Hey, this happened because of this, it happened 'cause of that, which led to that, then that's learning. And that then incentivizes that student to go on and do more research on their own. It's not me making you believe as I believe, or trying to make your passion or my passion, your passion. No. Your passion is your passion. Why don't you make your passion, my passion? And let's see. That's mastery of something. That's how you learn. And then you go out and before you know it, you're writing a book and you're doing a TED Talk. Or 00:30:19 Carlos Ramos: There you go. Bringing purpose into it then too. 00:30:21 Chuck Crews: Nah, I'm sorry. 00:30:22 Carlos Ramos: There was none of that in my education either. 00:30:24 Chuck Crews: No, no, no. Well, on the other side of that, you probably, you know, your history teacher was probably a, a football coach who just wanted to go back to doing football stuff. So he figured if he wrote enough notes on the board and let you copy it, you know, he could spend... 00:30:37 Sumer Beatty: So funny because my son's teacher is, his history teacher is a football coach too. 00:30:42 Chuck Crews: Yeah. 00:30:43 Sumer Beatty: But I don't, I feel like he's more like you were. We got some great, had some great conversation with him. So there are more out there. 00:30:52 Chuck Crews: There you go. 00:30:53 Sumer Beatty: He's doing a, a fantastic job. 00:30:55 Chuck Crews: Right. 00:30:55 Sumer Beatty: Making those kids think. 00:30:56 Chuck Crews: See, yeah, there you go. And that's what you want, you want your kids to think for themselves because the fact of the matter is that we won't always be there. And we can try to protect them as much as we like, but we need to be preparing them to, you know, fend for themselves when we can't or we're no longer here. 00:31:16 Sumer Beatty: So you had said before you chose teaching because you wanted to make a difference. 00:31:21 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:31:21 Sumer Beatty: And now that you're at Penn College, are you still fueling that fire of wanting to make a difference? And how are you doing that in your every day? 00:31:29 Chuck Crews: It, it, it looks different now. I'm making a difference. In my role now is primarily in making sure that paperwork is correct and along with Laura, and shout out to Laura because secondary partnerships, Dual Enrollment does not work without Laura Machak. She is the glue, she is the engine, she is the brain, she is the beauty, she is everything that makes secondary partnerships and the dual enrollment experience for these high school kids work. And it's my job just to, you know, be the enforcer, so to speak. So I am the bearer of bad news or I am the one who brings a little levity to the situation, to try to make sure that we are still working toward getting these kids to achieve their goal. But hey, we need to do it this way. And if I talk about you in the process and make you smile, then it kind of makes you feel better about yourself. And you kind of question whether or not, did he really mean to insult me or was he just being... 00:32:32 Sumer Beatty: No, you're not insulting anyone. I've seen you around our... 00:32:36 Chuck Crews: Oh, of course. You know. 00:32:37 Sumer Beatty: No, I think you're great around people. I was curious. When you have, you often host, students on campus. 00:32:44 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:32:44 Sumer Beatty: Right. So have you yet had the experience where you have these students, you're hosting 'em on campus, you're having those one-on-one conversations with them, and then you see them here as a student? 00:32:54 Chuck Crews: Not yet. 00:32:56 Sumer Beatty: It's been too, not enough times passed. 00:32:58 Chuck Crews: Not enough time. 00:32:58 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:32:59 Chuck Crews: But I have seen a lot of Williamsport students, that I had in class on campus where that's bittersweet because they always look for me then when they're selling something. Yeah. I've got strong arm in the buying hoodies that barely, you know what I mean? And it was a great hoodie, but I'm a big guy. I'm like, Hey, get another X and now we got something. But, I've had a, a student that I had who was a great student, in, psych and sociology for me, and one day she came into my office. She just stumbled in. She ended up taking a nap after she cried her eyes out because she didn't know if she was going to make it into the nursing program. I'm like, look, I got a meeting in 15 minutes, so you go ahead and do what you gotta do. But, No, it, it's, it's, it's good that I still am able to interact with the former Williamsport students. But I love, what this job does is it allows me to meet students from all across the state and not, and I thought that I've interacted with students who my, did my student teaching in Downingtown, which is, an affluent community in Chester County. I spent the bulk of my teacher and career in Chester Upland, which is, you know, probably about 80% free and reduced lunch. And I coached at Catholic schools, you know, so I thought I saw, especially then when I came to Williamsport, where I taught farm kids, I taught rich kids, I taught suburban kids. Like to me, Williamsport is probably the best school to learn how to teach because you see everything in the Williamsport Area School District. I had kids who had to get up in the morning to feed livestock sitting next to kids who couldn't wait. To, you know, vacation at Jackson Hole during Christmas break, you know, and not just a weekend, you know, we were spending two weeks at, I'm like, you're going to miss school. And they looked at me like, Hey, well, I'm going to be at Jackson Hole. Oh, okay. And I had to Google Jackson Hole, you and I. Oh. I'm not a skier, you know, so... 00:35:00 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, they're going skiing. 00:35:01 Chuck Crews: Yeah, right. So I'm like, Jack, I'm like, oh, you going fishing? It's kind of cold. The ice fishing. Yeah. I didn't know. But, so that's what Williamsport provided. But what the CTC experience and interaction with those students provide is it allows me to see kids from the smallest, most homogenous communities in the state come to Penn College and see their eyes just get wide. Wide at what they see in our labs, but then also wide at, Hey, what's in the world is on Penn College's campus, and that's sometimes a shock to them 'cause they think that the diesel students that they're coming with from their local CTC are the same diesel students at Penn College. No. We have, they're so it's different and for everybody and every place, but the big hook for us is Capitol. They get to the dining hall and then it's just, oh, I'm coming here, and they're walking and they... 00:36:04 Sumer Beatty: Really? 00:36:04 Chuck Crews: ...for, oh my goodness, Capitol Eatery. And shout out to Mark Leo and his staff and Dining Services because they do such a good job. These kids come. I swear if you could see it, every tour starts the same. When we take 'em to lunch, they get in the Capitol and they become overwhelmed as, oh my God. So their instinct tells them pizza, so they all go, so you'll have 30 kids just make a run on pizza. And then it's like, okay, I. Hey, what else can we get? And I start telling 'em, Hey, well we got this here, we got that there, you got that there. And we can have all that, you know, they acid sheepishly. And then before you know it, you know, they had, I'll have a, a chicken breast with, cheese and bacon and could you lightly toast a bun? And I'll have... When you walked in, all you wanted was pizza. Now you're like, what's the soup for today? You know, you know, and I think Capitol Eatery has closed more deals for us, as far as dual enrollment, secondary partnership than, you know, the Gene Hass lab. Capitol is the real deal. Sealer. Yo. It's a nice, a nice balance. Yes, it is. Yeah. Yes, it is. And like I said, the folks are great and our students are great because they'll see us. They, they've kind of gotten conditioned when they see me. Okay, here comes a group of kids who are going to be in the way. So y'all, they see me coming. They try to scurry in front so they can go and, and get their order because the visitors don't know how things go and they end up just slowing the process down. So, but yeah, I, I can't speak highly enough about our faculty and our students and our staff that when we are entertaining these kids, everybody knows that, Hey, I used to be like that and I know why this is happening, and everybody just falls right in line and everybody has a great time. 00:37:56 Carlos Ramos: You mentioned coaching a couple times... 00:37:58 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:37:59 Carlos Ramos: ...so far. Can you talk about your coaching experience? Did that come before teaching? After teaching? And how has that informed where you are today? 00:38:07 Chuck Crews: It's been kind of intermingled. Like I said earlier. I wanted to make a difference. Also, I have a love of sports and I wanted to stay connected. So originally my first semester in college at Westchester, I was going to be a biology major because I wanted to be a athletic trainer because I wanted to stay close to sports. Then I realized that math and science was not my strong suit, and after a semester on academic probation, I figured I had to pivot, which led me into history and then education. But you know, ever since I was done playing, I started. I graduated Westchester in 96. I went back and I volunteer coach at my, high school in the fall of 96. Fall of 97. I was a graduate assistant coach at Temple, for two years working on my master's degree. So that was a great experience. A lot of losing, but I got a chance to see a lot of, the storied stadiums and, and coaches that I had dreamed about, you know, got a chance to see the Orange Bowl down in Miami. It is not as, luxurious as they make it seem on television when you see the palm trees in the background. It was not that spectacular. They also, I think, beat us by like 50, the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. That is not a friendly place. That was another bad afternoon for the Temple house there. My apologies in advance any West Virginia University fans, but that was the worst experience ever at WVU. Oh my gosh. They were just mean to us. They knew they were going to, you know, beat us pretty bad. Which they did, and they were, they were not hospitable about it. So I, I've seen a lot of coaching and I knew then that I did not want to do the college side. So high school was my wheelhouse and I loved it. At high school is the, in my opinion, the purest level of football because one, all the players are there because they want to be. There's no financial incentives there. There's nothing, I'm doing this because it's going to get me anything now. No, it's not. Everybody's there 'cause they wanna be, and certainly from the coaching side of things, you know, you might as well be picking fruit. You know, you make more money doing that than the time you put in and what they pay you as far as a stipend. And as far as schemes, you know, the X's and O's of offense and defense, the kids are smart enough to where they can pick up on so you can get elaborate and your schemes. So, and it's, it's poetry in motion. I, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I still have a great connection with many of the players. It's one of those things where they're now out there and professional, they're husbands and fathers and some of 'em coaches themselves and you know, they look at me and I'm still coach and, but I can't see that player anymore. I see, you know, a man, you know, I. This one kid, I could, you know, pick up with one hand. Now he could probably, you know, me, knock me out. I'm like, geez, what happened to you? Like, you're grown. Like, it's a beautiful thing. It's, it's like having a bunch of children that you're not financially responsible for, but you get to reap a lot of the benefits when they do well. So, 00:41:28 Sumer Beatty: So no coaching right now? 00:41:30 Chuck Crews: No, no, no. 00:41:31 Sumer Beatty: No plans to. 00:41:32 Chuck Crews: No, no. I, it takes a lot of time. It's, it's a full year job. We would really have off from the last game of the year, which you hope was, you know, the state championship, which, just occurred last Friday. You would take off to the beginning of the new year, then you're back in the weight room. I'd never had the pleasure of playing or coaching in a state championship game, so usually my seasons was over, were over early in November. One time I had a chance to practice post Thanksgiving, but then Pittsburgh Central Catholic sent me home. You spent so much time with other people's kids and everybody loves a Friday night, but when it's a cold February, Thursday evening and you are in the weight room. Where's all the critics at then? So, and, you have to enjoy it to still want to do that. And when that's no longer fun, you know, it's time. It's, it's time to hang up the old whistle there., 00:42:29 Sumer Beatty: And that's fair. So what's next? What do you have your sight set on? Anything in particular you're working towards or you're excited about in the coming year? 00:42:38 Chuck Crews: Well, we wanna continue to grow. I will say this, I'm not gonna give the number, but the number that we have. that we're on pace to hit for 24/25, already exceeds 23/24. So we're always looking to grow. 'cause the more students that we can get involved in dual enrollment, the greater opportunity for matriculation to campus. We can't let admissions, you know what I mean, get all the hype. 00:43:07 Sumer Beatty: You said the other day that you're part-time admissions. 00:43:09 Chuck Crews: Yes, I am. 00:43:10 Sumer Beatty: What do you, how's that work? 00:43:11 Chuck Crews: Well. We essentially do what they do on a lesser scale. They cater to everyone. We just cater to our partners. So with the tours and the applications, we like to be able to transition them from the Dual Enrollment to Admissions, so that way it's a win-win for the entire college campus. Plus I, I like to walk over there and just bother them from time to time. They work so hard over there, along with our faculty. That's the other thing I don't think people understand. There are a lot of faculty who are putting a lot of miles on their vehicles across, you know, hitting these CTCs and establishing relationships with these high school instructors that are really creating strong bridges for those students to not only come here, but want to come here. But it's still a phenomenal job. I feel like you guys pay me to say this good stuff. 00:44:05 Carlos Ramos: Well, and we see that we bear out in the numbers. I mean, we have electrical, which waitlisted for fall 2025. In three days after applications open, if I have my facts right. 00:44:17 Sumer Beatty: That sounds right. Yeah. 00:44:17 Carlos Ramos: And for the, if I they're wrong, I apologize. 00:44:20 Chuck Crews: That's all right. We'll roll with it. 00:44:22 Carlos Ramos: You know, and I don't think a lot of that would've happened without, well, definitely would've happened without faculty in those programs going out and building those relationships with those schools. but then having a program like yours in Dual Enrollment and everything that you and Laura are doing to make sure that those students are able to come in with those extra credits. 00:44:41 Chuck Crews: We would like to scale Dual Enrollment, possibly to out-of-state partners. 'Cause right now we're landlocked to the state of Pennsylvania. We need to take a look at how and what that would look like for out state partners and some of the asks that we make of partners per the MOU. And also, cyber, you know, cyber is growing big time. It is an option that a lot of parents are choosing for their students, and we don't want to miss out on those students having the chance to get that tip of the spear experience with Penn College through Dual Enrollment. So we need to figure out how to best scale our model to make it work for. Cyber students as well. So if you're out there, if you're outta state, we haven't forgotten about you. If you're a cyber student, hold on, we're working on something. You too will have a chance to participate in Penn College Dual Enrollment, hopefully. 00:45:34 Carlos Ramos: For the K 12 faculty or administrator that's out there, or even for the parent or the student, do you have any words of wisdom for them? 00:45:42 Chuck Crews: Listen to your student. I think a lot of times parents and faculty, they try to force things on the students. The biggest misconception we make is that we think teenagers aren't savvy and smart enough to know what they want. And to a certain degree, that's true, but they know what they don't like, so we can't force them to do things that they don't want to do or they don't feel comfortable with because we are not comfortable with the options that they have in their life and their generation that we did not have. So work together, you know, don't try to force 'em into something that you think is right for them that may not be right for them. Sit down and talk with your child. Give them enough respect to know that they do have an opinion. But then, you know, have enough common sense to steer them in the right direction when you know that they're going to make a bad decision or that they're heading down the wrong path. Until they actually declare that, give them a chance to figure out. You know, if they want to go in a culinary, fine. If they want to try to be an influencer, fine. You know, they have more options that we have. The only influence I'd had growing up was to influence my sisters not to tell on me when I did something wrong so I didn't get a beating. 00:47:02 Sumer Beatty: And Open House is a great way to experience to, to just kind of get a sense of what each program's about. 00:47:09 Chuck Crews: Yes. 00:47:09 Sumer Beatty: See the labs and. Meet faculty, meet students. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. This was good. 00:47:16 Chuck Crews: Thank you guys for having me. 00:47:16 Sumer Beatty: It was wonderful. Thank you. 00:47:17 Chuck Crews: But listen, this, I don't see the value in this, but I certainly... 00:47:20 Sumer Beatty: Stop that. Redo that. 00:47:22 Chuck Crews: No, I, I, I, no, the value, 'cause I, I don't see myself as that. I'm just a worker. And I enjoy the people that I work with in the Hudock Center for Academic Excellence. I just enjoy it. You know. So this is refreshing to me to be able to put your feet on the floor in the morning outta bed and not be like, oh, I gotta go into work and be like, all right, I'm headed into work. So I, I'm just, you know, amused by this, that you guys think that what we're doing and what I'm doing is worthy of this conversation. 'Cause I'm going to do it regardless, you know? 'cause. I do a for the kids. 00:47:57 Sumer Beatty: That's why you're doing a great job. 00:47:58 Chuck Crews: Yes. Oh, stop it. Yes. Carlos, did you pay her to say that? 00:48:02 Sumer Beatty: No. Thank you so much for coming on the show. 00:48:03 Chuck Crews: No, thank you guys for having me. 00:48:08 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 00:48:10 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you'd listen to your podcasts. 00:48:14 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mention in today's episode. 00:48:20 Carlos Ramos: You can also find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones at pct.edu/podcast. 00:48:27 Sumer Beatty: And of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. So send those over at podcast@pct.edu. 00:48:36 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 00:48:37 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time. 00:48:41 Carlos Ramos: See? Look at this. We're, we're not even five seconds in. 00:48:44 Chuck Crews: Oh. 00:48:45 Carlos Ramos: And I've already learned something about you I didn't know. So what'd you, what did you play? 00:48:48 Chuck Crews: Yeah, I was an aspiring rapper in the early two 2000s. 00:48:52 Sumer Beatty: Oh, hit us up. 00:48:53 Chuck Crews: No, I can't. 00:48:54 Sumer Beatty: No, you don't have a little ditty? What do they call 'em? They're not, ditties. 00:48:58 Chuck Crews: Please, please don't call me Diddy. 00:48:59 Sumer Beatty: No, no, no.