A multidisciplinary project that began a year ago – fabricating a logo for the Wildcat Den esports room – has borne fruit on the second floor of Penn College's Madigan Library.
During the Fall 2019 semester, welding instructor Timothy S. Turnbach showed some of his students a smaller example and suggested that it be upscaled to 3 feet. He mentored Joe Getgen, of State College, a welding and fabrication engineering technology student, and Gavin P. Mowery, from Cambridge, Maryland, who has since graduated from the same major, in cutting out and welding the pieces together, and readying the logo for paint.The project was then passed on to instructor Roy H. Klinger, who tasked then-students (and new automotive restoration technology alumni) Nicolas W. Soracco, of Oakwood, Georgia, and Lee A. Douglas, of Annville, with prepping and masking the emblem to duplicate Penn College's Wildcat Athletics logo.
"I looked up the head on the school's website and started using special line tape to mark off the different colored areas," explained Soracco, who got to work painting the mascot in Spring 2020 after college President Davie Jane Gilmour granted permission to use the official colors. After a week of work and making the mascot look as good as possible, Soracco said, he turned the logo over to Joshua D. Young, esports coach.
"We had Spring Break right after that, and then COVID hit, so I never got to see it hung up in the gaming room."Young, who also serves as learning systems administrator in the Office of Instructional Technology, said the collaboration is a #penncollegeproud moment for welding, automotive restoration and athletics.
“This is what makes us stand out as a college," he said. "We have amazing instructors who take interest in all aspects of college life. They have noticed esports interest growing among their students and put our hands-on education to work. We now have an unique sign adorning the Wildcat Den, with a great story to tell about the talented faculty and students we have on campus."
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Young's photos were taken earlier this year, before social distancing/masking protocols were instituted on campus.)