Tuesday, February 17, 2026
photos by Alexandra Butler, photographer/photo editor (except for badge photo)
Scouts on their way to a chemistry merit badge work together to test the pH of red cabbage during Merit Badge College at Penn College.
Penn College and the Scouting America Susquehanna Council teamed up on Saturday to offer 20 merit badges in the college’s state-of-the-art labs, with instruction from the college’s faculty experts.
Twenty-three Penn College employees supported the event, helping Scouts earn merit badges in American Labor, Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Chemistry, Composite Materials, Cybersecurity, Dentistry, Digital Technology, Electricity, Electronics, Fingerprinting, Graphic Arts, Landscape Architecture, Metalwork, Plumbing, Programming, Search & Rescue, Soil & Water Conservation, Sustainability, and Welding.
Each of the 184 Scouts in attendance also received the event’s patch, designed by Anna E. Reed, a Penn College graphic design student from Fawn Grove. Her work features the Penn College paw print, with the four "fingers" designed to represent merit badges offered during the event: forensics, coding, graphic design and computer science.
The event's badge, designed by graphic design student Anna E. Reed.
The attendees included 118 Scouts from the Susquehanna Council (representing Clinton, Lycoming, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties) and 77 from outside the region, including Scouts from Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
Information technology faculty member John M. Maize leads a group toward their cybersecurity badges.
Learning about search & rescue operations in the college's emergency management and homeland security facilities.
Scouts await instruction in a chemistry lab ...
... before the hands-on fun begins.
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