PennDOT secretary gets acquainted with Penn College

Michael Carroll, Pennsylvania’s secretary of transportation, and staff toured Penn College on Thursday, diving in to topics such as electric vehicles and aviation maintenance. The tour coincided with a recruiting event by the department: PennDOT hosted a “pop-up” information table in College Avenue Labs.

“Quite a lot of graduates from this institution are working for PennDOT, and we’d like to have a lot more,” the secretary told students he met in the college’s Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center, adding that they are lucky to have found a college that is providing them with skills for a long career in a field they love.

The group’s main campus stops also included the Center for Career Design, the Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center, the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing, automotive restoration and collision repair labs, and the Electric Vehicle Lab, where the visitors learned about the college’s three-credit Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology course.

It is the only college course like it in Pennsylvania.

“Students are learning to safely work around a hybrid system,” explained Charles F. Probst, assistant professor of automotive. The high voltage delivered by the vehicles (more than that coming into a home) requires safety measures and protective equipment, including 1,000-volt-rated gloves. “Not many people in industry have training in EVs, so we’re trying to prepare our students to work with them.”

Probst and Christopher J. Holley, assistant professor of automotive, were two of the first 100 individuals worldwide to attain EV Pro+ industry certification in 2023.

Carroll anticipates increasing demand for the Penn College graduates’ EV skills, noting that Pennsylvania is a leader in vehicle charging stations and plans to add more in the coming months, so that there will be no gaps greater than 50 miles throughout the interstate system in Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is poised to be an electric charging bevy of opportunity,” Carroll said.

In the afternoon, the contingent toured the college’s Lumley Aviation Center, led by aviation maintenance technology students Jocelin I. Kinsey, of State College, and Braydon C. Wise, of York.

The PennDOT representatives comprised Carroll; Corey Pellington, deputy secretary for administration; Marcie Carr, special assistant to the deputy secretary for administration; Jodi Nolt, workforce optimization manager; Eric High, PennDOT District 3 executive; Gerald Wertz , assistant district executive – design for District 3 (and a 2002 Penn College civil engineering technology graduate); Kenneth Bair, assistant district executive – maintenance for District 3; and Kelley Pearl, field human resource officer for District 3. Also joining the tours were state Rep. Jamie Flick and his district office manager, Carrie Pauling; state Rep. Joe Hamm; and state Sen. Gene Yaw, who is chairman of the Penn College Board of Directors.