Johnson College has recently established a scholarship with the Jefferson Township Lions Club. The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to a non-traditional, first year student who is a resident of Jefferson Township or the greater North Pocono region. The Lions Club emphasized the importance of supporting non-traditional students who choose to attend the College despite challenges such as balancing a family, work, and bills.

In March, President of the Jefferson Township Lions Club, Mike Norvilas took a welding course at the College through the Center for Professional Development. He was very impressed with the continuing education offerings and opportunities for non-traditional students. His interest in the technical education that Johnson College provides inspired him to reach out about the scholarship.

“Over the years it has been harder and harder to get applicants for our scholarship who were finishing high school and pursuing a trade. So we decided we could create the scholarship through Johnson College and open it up to all students, not just those who were on their way right out of high school,” Norvilas said.  He also explained why an ideal candidate may be a non-traditional student. “When you make the decision to go back to school as an adult, it is a really big choice. You are putting yourself out there to learn and better yourself. Our scholarship could really be life changing for the student and their family,” he said.

The goal of the Lions Club is to have people put their talents to work to improve their community. Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with more than 1.3 million members in more than 45,000 clubs. The Jefferson township Lions Club supports many needs in the community and provides services including but not limited to sight, health, youth, elderly, the environment and disaster relief. Norvilas said they do not have a specific fundraiser that supports the scholarship but annually they are an active club that hosts a variety of fundraisers including a “chicken barbecue, pig roast, raffles, bake sales, fish dinners during the Lenten season, and coin drops.” He explained that often a Lions Club is a community’s best kept secret and year after year they continue to live up to the club’s motto which is “we serve.”

After working with the college advancement department to set up the new award, Norvilas said the process could not have been easier. He looks forward to awarding the scholarship in the fall and feels great about taking this new step toward community outreach with the College.

Johnson College is once again celebrating its students for hitting high marks by celebrating their inclusion into a major national honor society. 24 students were honored during a ceremony on Friday, May 13^th for the Alpha Beta Kappa National Honor Society.

Alpha Beta Kappa (ABK) is the premier national collegiate honor society for trades and essential occupations. The society honors excellence not only in the classroom, but also in shop, studio, and laboratory study. Students must also rank in the upper ten percent of their graduating class.

Our Architectural Drafting & Design program hosted the Annual ADDT Student Portfolio Competition on April 22nd in our new collaborative learning space in Woolworth Hall. Judges from the College as well as from the industry came to campus to evaluate the work of our students. Johnson College would like to congratulate our faulty as well as the competition participants and winners on a job well done.

Johnson College has chosen Jesse Ergott, President and CEO of NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania (NWNEPA) to give their 2016 commencement address to graduates on Saturday, May 14th, 2016 at 10 a.m.

Mr. Ergott has served in the community development field for over 15 years.  During this time, he has used his community planning background on many different types of initiatives, including environmental and conservation projects, educational programming, historic preservation efforts, and the promotion of tourism in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining NWNEPA, Jesse served as Chief Operations Officer for the Lackawanna Heritage Valley State and National Heritage Area where he was responsible for the administration and oversight of the organization’s programs, projects and day-to-day operations.

Mr. Ergott currently serves as the Vice-Chair for the National NeighborWorks Association, a national trade organization representing over 240 organizations across the United States. Ergott was previously selected as the National NeighborWorks Association’s National Emerging Leader of the Year and has also been named one of the Northeast Business Journal’s past “Top 20 Professionals Under 40”.

Mr. Ergott resides in Tunkhannock with his wife, Sara, and their two children.

Johnson College is proud to announce the promotion of Katie Leonard to Executive Vice President. Ms. Leonard began her tenure at the College in January of 2007 as the College’s Coordinator of Grants and Annual Fund. From there, she had continued success in the areas of fundraising and community outreach which led her to become the Director of Development, Director of Institutional Advancement, and then on to Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Senior Vice President of College Advancement. Over the last nine years, Ms. Leonard’s contributions to the College have been innumerable. In her time with the College, Ms. Leonard formed industry relationships, reestablished the alumni program, increased annual giving, and initiated the College’s rebranding in 2011. She executed the College’s first-ever capital campaign in 2013 which raised comprehensively $5.1 million to build the new Health Science Technology Center on campus, the largest building project to date.

Dr. Ann L. Pipinski, President and CEO of Johnson College commended Katie on her leadership abilities at the College. “Katie is flexible and agile, she is also proactive.” Dr. Pipinski also said “when you put a task in Katie’s hands, it always gets done. She does quality work while always keeping things fun and exciting.”

Joseph Durkin, P.E., Chairman of the Board of Directors at Johnson College also shared how Katie’s continued enthusiasm positively influences the College “Katie has demonstrated insight and ingenuity in leading the effort to implement what we call the ‘Four Board Directives’. These are broad directives which fundamentally reformulate how we deliver education to our students. Katie’s energy in managing these changes has been instrumental in the success of this process.”

Ms. Leonard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from York College, a Master of Arts degree from Mansfield University, and is pursuing her doctor of education through Rowan University. She held multiple positions working with government officials and non-profit organizations before bringing her talents to Johnson College. In York, she was the Executive Director of Downtown Inc., York’s Main Street Program. Ms. Leonard has also made great contributions to the community outside of her roles with Johnson College. She is on the board of directors of NeighborWorks of Northeastern Pennsylvania, The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce’s Rebranding Committee, and a board member of the Lackawanna Home Builders Association.

Ms. Leonard resides in Scranton with her husband Bill and daughter Sophie.

 

Johnson College had been interested in making online learning available to students for the past few years. During the 2015-16 academic year, the vision became a reality after forming a new Office of Online Learning and integrating a new learning management system, Desire 2 Learn (D2L) into existing curriculum.

The College is always looking to make its educational experience unique to students and started exploring online class options in the fall of 2012. A task force was assembled and tasked with researching learning management systems which would allow for collaboration between instructor and student, online. The task force first came to the table with about ten options, from those options, they narrowed down to three. Throughout the 2013-14 academic year, the three were tested and the task force decided to take D2L to the sandbox, or testing, stage. During the sandbox, faculty were able to begin using the functions with students for a year. Many students, especially in the business program, had the opportunity to work with D2L which gave great insight for instructors when considering the functionality. The sandbox test phase proved to be a success and in the fall of 2015, D2L went live for the entire College. Currently five courses are available completely online and many are available as hybrid classes. Hybrid classes allow for some class sessions to compliment an online curriculum.

Online learning has made a Johnson College education more attainable than ever. Although no programs are entirely online, the course offerings available are proving to be thorough and convenient for students. Online learning benefits the College’s students in two ways, through added flexibility and expanding capacity. With online classes, students are not required to be on campus, so it is easy for them to read class materials and complete assignments from home during a time that is best for them. Many students have jobs and families and online learning helps them stay enrolled in the required amount of classes and allows them to determine the days and times they can devote to schoolwork. As far as capacity, online learning frees up more classrooms on campus and thus, allows the College to have more students enrolled at one time since they are not all on campus at the same time.

Like many colleges, retention is an important factor when rolling out new education methods. To be sure that distance education will best serve the student, Johnson College has taken a few measures to prepare for student success. First, all freshmen are required to take Student Success Seminar in their first semester at the College. In this class, instructors begin to acclimate students to the functions of D2L and require that all assignments be submitted online. The freshmen begin to utilize uploading functions, discussion boards, and quizzes. After completing Student Success Seminar, students are given an option to complete a training which will qualify them to enroll in online classes. The training can be completed once a student has achieved 12 credits, has a minimum GPA of 2.0 and is granted permission from their advisor as a satisfactory candidate. The one-time, technical training takes approximately one hour and successful completion qualifies them to enroll in online courses. Johnson College has reported that since this vetting process has begun, they are seeing great success of online students.

The Automotive Technology program at Johnson College has received reaccreditation by NATEF and The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). Johnson College’s automotive program has been reaccredited in the following areas: Engine Repair; Automatic Transmission/Transaxle; Manual Transmission and Drive Axles; Suspension and Steering; Brakes; Electrical/Electronic Systems; Heating and Air Conditioning; Engine Performance.

To achieve this renewed recognition, the school’s automotive training program underwent rigorous evaluation by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF). Nationally accepted standards of excellence in areas such as instruction, facilities, and equipment were used.

“This is great news for automotive-minded young people and their parents,” said Donald Seyfer, former NATEF Chair. “Because this program increases cooperation between local education and industry leaders, it gives added assurance that Johnson College’s graduates will be employable as entry-level technicians. As a result of the quality education provided by Johnson College, the motoring public will benefit since better repair technicians will join the work force.” Upon completion of the evaluation, NATEF recommended that Johnson College be reaccredited by The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). ASE is a national non-profit organization which tests and certifies repair technicians, in addition to accrediting automotive training programs.

Mark Kozemko, Automotive Technology Instructor at Johnson College added, “During the past few months, we have worked closely with NATEF to make certain that our program would continue to meet strict industry standards, and now we are excited to remain among the ranks of the ASE accredited training programs. Students will be assured of a quality education, and shop owners will be assured of getting quality job applicants.”

Johnson College’s Automotive Technology program is an Associate of Applied Science degree program that prepares students as entry-level technicians in the automobile and diesel industries. Graduates can work for employers in the career fields of automotive, truck, farm and earthmoving equipment dealerships; truck, power generation and construction companies; automotive service centers; engine repair/machine shops; automotive equipment distributors; independent service garages; automotive parts manufacturers; sales representation; as well as auto insurance companies.   Graduates may work with brake systems, transmissions, alignments and repairs; be representatives in claim, sales and service, or become truck/fleet maintenance technicians.

To learn more about the Automotive Technology program, check out the program webpage.

Dr. Ann L. Pipinski, President & CEO of Johnson College, has announced the President’s List of students who have completed the Fall 2015 semester with a grade point average of 3.90 or higher. Congratulations to all of our students who earned this academic recognition.

Frank Polumbo, Hughestown, Computer Information Technology
Dustin Schroeter, Scranton, Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Justin Hull, Archbald, Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Brian Romancheck, Drums, Diesel Truck Technology
Andrew Hart, Scranton, Electrical Construction & Maintenance Technology
Justin Roche, Dupont, Computer Information Technology
Patrick Munley, Dickson City, Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Mon Basnet, Scranton, Computer Information Technology
Robert Kulick, Springbrook Twp., Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Ashley  Custard-Allen, Lake Ariel, Computer Information Technology
Jennifer Page, Clarks Summit, Physical Therapist Assistant
Bettina Dorow, Dunmore, Architectural Drafting & Design Technology
Mitesh Patel, Scranton, Computer Information Technology
Jenna   Lehman, Dallas, Radiologic Technology
Kristina Kornova, Forty-Fort, Veterinary Technology
Michael Zangardi, Dickson City, Computer Information Technology
Jeffrey Arnold, Waymart, Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
John Decker, Moscow, Business Management Technology
Jonathon Beckage, Olyphant, Electronic Technology
Anthony Brogna, Pittston, Computer Information Technology
Shauna Fahad, Scranton, Computer Information Technology
Nicholas Hojnacki, Scranton, Business Management Technology
Jonathan Maxwell, Bear Creek, Business Management Technology
Christina Belko, Old Forge, Physical Therapist Assistant
Nicole  Bartell, Tafton, Veterinary Technology
Adam   Brooks, Rome, Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Matthew Burke, S. Abington Township, Biomedical Equipment Technology

As the open house season gains momentum to fill college classrooms for the fall, Johnson College is celebrating exceeding their spring goal for 2016. Johnson College places a high priority on retaining students from year to year, while also continuing on its growth trajectory by attracting new students. This demonstrates how the type of education Johnson provides is setting students up for success.

This fall, the College accomplished record-setting freshman enrollment. Johnson College’s fall freshman enrollment reached 108% of the goal with over 300 students enrolled. This was the largest freshman class for the two-year technical college. Additionally, the College has surpassed its spring goal, by enrolling 34 students that make up 113% of the 30 student goal set. Total enrollment this year is 471, accounting for the most students on campus in the College’s history.

This spring, Johnson College is more appealing to students than ever before. It has more course offerings in the evening and provides spring start students the opportunity to take at least one of their core courses in their first semester which in the past was not possible because of a mod-based schedule system. Rita Lapera, Director of Enrollment at the College said the revised spring offerings, especially the core course offerings for 2016 “get new students engaged right from the start.”

Lapera also credited the type of education offered at Johnson which is in constant demand by people in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She said the 90% job placement rate is a key reason students choose to attend the college in North Scranton, “All of our technology-driven programs offered at Johnson College prepare students for in-demand family sustaining careers in as little as two years with significantly less debt than four year institutions.” Additionally, between 94% and 97% of Johnson College students receive some type of financial aid.

After celebrating the first winter commencement just a few weeks ago, the College now has more options than ever for students to attain their degree in a timely fashion so they can get right out into their high-demand careers. The College provides a type of education that suits many types of people. With new flexibility initiatives and dual-enrollment, the College is seeing an influx of transfer students, nontraditional students, and veterans seeking hands-on training through degree programs and continuing education offerings. “One in every three students at Johnson College is a transfer student,” said Lapera. She also mentioned that the graduation rate for transfer students is 5% higher than the College’s average. The spring semester has brought an additional 13 transfer students onto the Johnson College campus to begin degrees.

The Spring Open House  will take place on February 27th beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Moffat Student Center. There will also be a Financial Aid Workshop on the same day at 8 a.m.