Students travel to campus to explore energy careers

Published 09.22.2023

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Alex Holbrook, a PPL product manager for asset engineering, design and optimization, talks with students from four area schools during Friday's Pathways to Energy Management Careers event. (Photo provided)
Alex Holbrook, a PPL product manager for asset engineering, design and optimization, talks with students from four area schools during Friday's Pathways to Energy Management Careers event. (Photo provided)

Students from four area schools visited Penn College on Friday to explore their vocational future in a PPL-sponsored Pathways to Energy Management Careers program. The utility granted the college $5,000 last winter to introduce high schoolers to opportunities in building automation and the electrical industries. The day's program featured a keynote presentation, followed by rotating workshops on Programmable Logic Control, building automation and solar energy.

At the beginning of the first session, the students were given a quick assessment to see what they know about energy management. Then, at the end of the third session, they were retested to measure what they learned.

Participating students have until 9 p.m. Sept. 29 to complete an essay about the impact of energy management on their everyday lives and email it to Kevin Yokitis, assistant professor of electrical technology/occupations. Those essays will be evaluated during the week of Oct. 2, and the winning entrant will be rewarded with a $1,500 scholarship to Penn College.

Schools represented were Admiral Peary Area Vocational Technical School in Ebensburg, SUN Area Technical Institute in New Berlin, Wellsboro Area High School and Williamsport Area High School.