Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Matthew D. Bradford (D-Norristown) visited Pennsylvania College of Technology on Saturday, enjoying a main campus tour prior to taking in the U.S. championship game at the Little League Baseball World Series with his family.
President Michael J. Reed; Loni N. Kline, senior vice president for college relations; and Patrick Marty, chief government and international relations officer, guided Bradford to a selection of Penn College academic labs and student support offices, which gave administrators the opportunity to showcase how the additional state support that Penn College received for 2024-25 is already paying dividends – such as rising enrollments and outcomes reflecting a 97.7% placement rate, all buoyed by the college’s 3,000 unique corporate relationships in Pennsylvania.
The group visited the newly named Michael J. Hudock Sr. Center for Academic Excellence which not only offers guidance on time management, study skills and test-taking strategies, but also is an essential part of the student-support scaffolds that includes veteran and military services, tutoring services, international support, and student advocacy, and is helping to improve student retention at Penn College.
During the academic program stops, Bradford also had the opportunity to see the high-performing physician assistant program, with its recently renovated Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine and Women’s Health labs. In the Baja Room adjoining the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center, Bradford met members of Penn College’s Baja SAE Club and their faculty advisor, John G. Upcraft, who were busy working on their car in anticipation of the Baja SAE Michigan competition in mid-September. He also took in the college’s welding facility, the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing and the Automotive Restoration Lab.
Earlier in the week, Penn College hosted two other special guests from Harrisburg: House Education Committee Chairmen Rep. Peter G. Schweyer (D-Allentown) and Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford). Visits by legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle are a testament to the college’s success across an array of essential workforce sectors and the additional investments made during the last two state appropriation cycles, which allowed the college to hold tuition flat and demonstrate a recognition by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that applied technology education is a vital but expensive endeavor.