Penn College News

Tis the season for treats (and a few tricks)

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

The anticipation of Halloween brought out frights and delights across campus. From attending the Penn College Music Makers’ “Doom Fest” music festival to painting pumpkins, and from enjoying Penn College Theatrics’ “Addams Family” dinner theater to braving the “Arc Asylum” haunted welding lab, students found a dozen ways to celebrate the sweet and spooky season.

Here’s a fun-sized sample, captured by photographers Alexandra Butler (photo editor), Anna E. Reed (student photographer), Rob Hinkal (social media specialist) and Steven M. Ault (manager of strategic marketing for the Journey Bank Community Arts Center).

Trick-or-treat at The Village

Residents of The Village at Penn College were joined by student organizations to provide a trick-or-treat venue for the children of Penn College students and alumni. The event is a decades-old tradition.

Village residents prepare a frightully sweet experience.

A student wearing a shark costume and holding a bowl of candy stands next to an inflatable hard decoration that looks like a haunted tree with a ghost flying out of it. Two students sit on chairs outside of their student apartment holding bowls of candy. Five studetns pose for a photo outside the door of their student apartment. One is wearing a minions hat, another is wearing a penguine costume and holding a bowl of candy and a third is wearing a furry headband. In front of a student apartment door, a student sits on a plush dinosaur seat while another holds a basket of lollipops. Next to them is a carved pumpkin. Two children dressed as Jessie from "Toy Story" and a pink dinosaur skeleton pose for a photo.Behind them, Adults take chlidren trick-or-treating at Penn College's The Village at Penn College. Three people show off a table filled with Tootsie Pops and other candy.

Families make their way through the sweet event.

Five students sit at a table filled with candy, stickers and other prizes. A sign hanging on the front of the table says "Black Student Union." Five costumed students sit behind a candy-filled table that has a "Penn College Lacrosse" banner. Three students are dressed as oompa loompas, one is dressed as a banana, and another is dressed as Lightning McQueen from the "Cars" animated movie. Eight students wearing "Penn College Hockey Club" jerseys pose behind a table that has a hockey helmet, hockey sticks, a bucket of candy and a Penn College Hockey Club banner. Four students wearing brightly colored T-shirts with "m's" on them to look like M&M's candy sit on the front porch of their residence hall at The Village at Penn College during a trick-or-treat event for the children on Penn College students and employees.

Movie Watch Party

Student Engagement hosted a bring-your-own-blanket drive-in-inspired movie in the Field House, featuring "Scream," which celebrated its 30th anniversary – and its seventh sequel – in 2026.

Doom Fest

Penn College Music Makers hosted its first Doom Fest, featuring live, "extremes-pushing" music in Rose Street Commons. 

Virtual pumpkin carving

On Oct. 30, the engineering design department held its annual SolidWorks Virtual Pumpkin Carving Contest in both sections of the first-semester Technical Drawing and Detailing classes.

First-place winners, by Cooper Goldring, of Boca Raton, Florida (Section 01), and Kaylyn M. Anderson, of Boyertown (Section 02):

Digital rendering shows a ship carved into a pumpkin, with a stormy sea in the background. Digital rendering shows carousel horses carved into a pumpkin.

Second place went to Gavin R. Early, of Selinsgrove, in Section 01, and Brian L.R. Swanson, of Philipsburg, in Section 02. Owen N. Hatch, of Milford, New Jersey (Section 01), and Aubree E. Evans, of Brookville (Section 02), garnered third-place honors.

Digital rendering of a pumpkin with a "Gremlin" painted on it. Digital rendering of a pumpkin with a Poseiden-like figure carved into it and glowing water splashing around it. Digital rendering of a glowing jack-o-lantern sitting on dark steps. Digital rendering of a pumpkin with an insect carved into it and a crowbar sitting on the ground in front of it. Digital rendering of a cartoon character holding a green-glowing jack-o-lantern. A UFO and green sprialing ligths glow in the sky in the background. Digital rendering shows a jack-o-lantern with three eyes being picked up inside a claw machine game. Small three-eyed alien toys from the "Toy Story" movie franchise watch in wonder. Digital rendering of a jack-o-lantern carved in a pixelated Minecraft style. Digital rendering of a pumpkin carved with a fish jumping out of the water. It is shown sitting in a small fishing boat on a lake. Digital rendering of a carved pumpkin with figures running inside of it. Digital rendering of a pumpkin carved with a scene of a cowbow walking down a street. It appears to be sitting in the street of a Western ghost town.

Self-Care Isn't Scary (With Therapy Dogs)

Students mingle with dogs in the lobby of Penn College's Bush Campus Center.

A yellow dog on a leash looks up at the camera. Students pet a large, long-haired dog that is lying on a tiled floor in the Bush Campus Center lobby.

Downtown Trick-or-Treat

The college's Sigma Pi fraternity joined the staff of the college's Journey Bank Community Arts Center to help pass out candy to kids trick-or-treating downtown.

Sigma Pi brothers (from left): Nick S. DeNadai, of West Chester (engineering design technology); AJ Zerrenner, of Doylestown (residential construction technology & management); John B. Mera, of Lake Katrine, New York (heating, ventilation & air conditioning technology); Jay Richardson; the Wildcat; Nate Fimple, of Broomall (on-site power generation technology); and Dante M. Lo Sasso, of Drexel Hill (construction management). Also helping was Michael J. DiNapoli, of Trafford (residential construction technology & management).

Journey Bank Community Arts Center staff pose for their album cover. From left: Tom Bressler, coordinator of guest services; Brian D. Walton, interim dean of business, arts and sciences; Brooke S. Styborski, director of operations; and Steven M. Ault, manager of strategic marketing.

Halloween Boofet

Dining Services’ annual Halloween Boofet in the Capitol Eatery teased the taste buds with eerie entrees, scary sides, and hauntingly delicious desserts.

Zombie decorations sit near a dessert tin that has an icing spiderweb over its contents. Two women pose. One is wearing a Pumpkin Spice apron and jack-o-lantern face paint, and the other is wearing an elf aprion and a Santa hat.

Children's Learning Center trick-or-treat

Children from the Dunham Children's Learning Center, dressed to represent books in the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" book series, brought smiles to the campus – in return for a few treats – as they paraded to the Davie Jane Gilmour Center.

Children representing the "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" book greet their fans as they leave the Hager Lifelong Education Center.

Toddlers wearing hand-decorated cookie headbands and necklaces are pushed in a cart on a sidewalk outside Penn College's Carl Building Technologies Center by a teacher wearing mouse ears and a mouse nose. Students in scrubs watch from either side of the sidewalk. Children wearing paper bear headbands and donut necklaces parade down the sidewalk. Children wearing paper moose antlers and muffin necklaces parade down a sidewalk. Three women dressed to represent Dr. Seuss books pose. One is wearing an inflatable elephant costume with a "Horton" nametag. One is wearing a red T-shirt that says "Thing 1," and the other is wearing a red T-shirt that says "Thing 2." Children look toward adults (unseen in photo) standing behind a table of coloring books.

The cutest piglets ever represent the "If you Give a Pig a Pancake" book.

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