Dr. Michael Bartolacci, Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State Berks, loves to cook, so it seemed only natural for him to share meals with the other faculty and staff members in the Gaige Technology and Business Innovation Building at Penn State Berks. Another faculty member in the same building, Tom Gavigan, Assistant Professor of Engineering, wanted to start a collection to reimburse Bartolacci for his expenses, but Bartolacci would not hear of it.
The Penn State Berks third annual Alternative Spring Break will take a group of 20 Penn State Berks students, along with Chancellor R. Keith Hillkirk and his wife, Suzanne Hillkirk, to Belize where they will spend the week of March 1-8, 2013, helping to complete the St. Benedict Primary School in the Toledo District of Belize. The group will join ProWorld Service in the revitalization project.
On March 2, 2013, approximately 150 middle school students from Berks County will show off their knowledge of chemistry concepts, important discoveries, and chemical safety awareness at the local level of a national chemistry competition. The students will compete against one another in the You Be The Chemist Challenge®-an academic question and answer competition created by the Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF).
College Pre-Service Teachers Benefit from Practical Experience
Fourth-grade students in the Glenside Elementary School gymnasium are seated on their yoga mats. Although they may not realize it, they are learning more than martial arts maneuvers in the Yoga and Taekwondo after-school program. The program, developed by Penn State Berks faculty members Valerie Cholet, Instructor in Kinesiology, and Dr.
Dr. Jennifer Hillman, Professor of Psychology at Penn State Berks, recently published a book titled "Sexuality and Aging: Clinical Perspectives" by Springer Publishing. According to Hillman, "There are two primary stereotypes of sexuality and aging. One is found in the prowling cougars and elder Romeos of TV and film. The other is lonely, ill, depressed, and above all, sexless. The truth mainly lies between these extremes, reflecting a diversity of experience and behaviors to match a growing and dynamic senior population."
Students in the Penn State Berks Health Communication course, a service learning class, are creating public service announcements for Family Promise of Berks County, a nonprofit organization that services the needs of Reading's homeless population.
The class will meet with Family Promise on Friday, March 1, 2013, at 11 a.m. in room 157 of the Franco Building to discuss their progress on the PSAs.
"The Gay Marriage Debate" will appear at Penn State Berks on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. The debate features advocate Zach Wahls, the University of Iowa student and son of two lesbian mothers, who gained Internet fame in 2011 after video of his testimony before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee went viral, and opponent John H. Rogers, who is currently serving his ninth term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Penn State Berks students in the Entrepreneurship Club and Minor will hold two workshops for middle and high school Reading School District students in the Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) on Thursday, March 14, and Thursday, April 18, 2013. The PEPP students will learn about entrepreneurship, self-assessment, and starting a business plan. The workshops will first focus on what it means to be an entrepreneur.
As part of the Global Studies degree program's African Film Series, Penn
State Berks will present four films this spring: Festival in the Desert on Wednesday, March 20 and The Battle for Souls on Wednesday, March
27, both at 1:00 p.m. in room 308 of the Gaige Building; The Devil Came on Horseback on Wednesday, March 27, at 6:00 p.m. in
room 101 of the Franco Building; and Children
of War on Wednesday, April 3, at 1:00 p.m. in room 308 of the Gaige
Building. All four films are free and open to the public.
The next Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS)
Colloquium event, which includes presentations by Dr. Mahsa Kazempour , Assistant Professor of
Science Education, Dr. Jayne Leh, Assistant
Professor of Special Education, Dr. Dave
Bender, Associate Professor of Education, and Dr. John Guiseppe , Economics Instructor, will be held on
Friday, March 22, from 1:00-2:15 p.m. in room 104 of the Franco Building.