Western PA legislator, employers tour campus
Monday, August 25, 2025
photos by Alexandra Butler, photographer/photo editor
Penn College President Michael J. Reed (center) describes Penn College's educational model to State Rep. Mike Armanini (right) and others.
State Rep. Mike Armanini traveled from Pennsylvania's 75th Legislative District to visit several of Penn College’s state-of-the-art engineering technology labs on Monday.
Armanini is a 35-year veteran of the powdered metal manufacturing industry and brought two of his district’s largest employers to learn more about Penn College’s applied technology education model.
Alex Gasbarre, CEO of Gasbarre Products, headquartered in Dubois; and Eric Miller, president of Miller Fabrication Solutions, of Brookville, visited the college’s 55,000-square-foot Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center, where students in the college’s welding & metal fabrication majors learn; the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center; the Jean McMahon Soars Center for Additive Manufacturing; and the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing.
Inside the Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center, Brad Webb (left), the college's dean of engineering technologies, talks about the college's welding majors with Eric Miller (center), president of Miller Fabrication Solutions, and Alex Gasbarre, CEO of Gasbarre Products.
Talking shop: A student, describing his work on a student-designed-and-manufactured off-road vehicle – hands a precision-made part to Armanini.
Webb (left) discusses the precision manufacturing technologies that students master in the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing.