(Manor Township, PA) Faculty member Karlee Holmes’ midterm exam asked a question about cellular respiration.
Then, about k-selected species and r-selected species.
Austin Kennedy printed letters in the designated spaces with his yellow wooden pencil.
Sadie Jageman printed letters in the designated spaces with her pink mechanical pencil.
BC3 @ Armstrong students this March 2 afternoon were answering the environmental biology questions at the site of Butler County Community College’s additional location in Manor Township, Armstrong County.
Outside Conference Room 114, in the hallway of the NexTier Adult Learning Center that BC3 @ Armstrong shares with other educational occupants, where only three BC3 classes are able to be held simultaneously, were 22 filled cardboard boxes of various sizes.
Black marker summarized the contents of each.
Near those cardboard boxes stood a March “countdown to the move!” calendar that within hours would have its final X crisscross a date.
The environmental biology course March 2 was the last of 364 to be instructed at the site of the additional location BC3 established in 2015 to serve a Pennsylvania county under-represented by higher education.
Following spring break – days this week highlighted in yellow on that March hallway calendar – students will relocate March 13, highlighted in green, to the $6.5 million BC3 @ Armstrong facility in Ford City and in which the college will be the sole occupant.
“It’ll be something of our own,” Jageman said.
“Thinking about the new beginning”
Kennedy and Jageman on March 2 were nearly the last of what have been in the past 7½ years 684 BC3 @ Armstrong students from 95 ZIP codes to exit the NexTier Adult Learning Center on what Karen Zapp called a “nostalgic” day.
“I’m feeling that way because of all the nice memories that we have had here in this building, and all the students who have passed through here on their educational journey in this unique setting of coziness,” Zapp, BC3 @ Armstrong’s director, said near her office containing 21 more filled cardboard boxes.
“Those will be my memories, of the students I got to know here, and then, thinking about the new beginning.”
As part of that new beginning, a carpenter at BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City on March 2 was preparing a natural science laboratory whose presence will end the need for college representatives to transport any one of 18 bins of owl pellets, dissection probes and lichen to Lenape Technical School in advance of BC3 students’ inspection.
“It will be nice to have our own lab and to be able to have students go just from one room to the next,” Holmes said.
“Help everyone in town”
Hours before Holmes’ midterm exam in a windowless room, Nate Stipetich, that carpenter at BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City, was perfecting trim on laboratory windows permeating study spaces with natural light. Blocks away, restaurant workers were building hoagies for a walkup lunchtime queue that may lengthen with the return of an educational facility.
BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City is located on the site of the former Ford City Junior-Senior High School, which closed in 2015 and was demolished in 2018.
“When the high school was here, we had a lot of traffic with parents and kids being in here for different things,” said Tammy Dowling, co-owner of Miller’s Hoagies. “Most businesses were a lot busier because of that. So getting a school back is going to help everyone in town.”
The college was recognized in 2018 with an Economic Development Impact Award from the Lawrence County Regional Chamber of Commerce and Lawrence County Economic Development Corp. for BC3’s additional location in New Castle. It also received in 2011 a Phoenix Award for Growth in a Large Industry from the Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce for BC3’s additional location in Hermitage, Mercer County.
BC3 announced plans to relocate BC3 @ Armstrong to Ford City in October 2019. The college held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility in September 2021 and site preparation began in January 2022.
The state-of-the-art BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City will encompass 15,000 square feet – 13,000 more than BC3’s dedicated space in Manor Township, according to Brian Opitz, the college’s executive director of operations. The Nonprofit Development Corp., Butler, owns the building, Opitz said.
“So many cool things”
BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City includes, among other areas, up to six classroom spaces, the natural science laboratory and student meeting space, and incorporates in its lobby the 1908 sandstone keystone of the former junior-senior high school.
“So many cool things,” Zapp said.
“It’s really very modern and lovely. The blues and the grays are beautiful. There’s the keystone. The memories from the Ford City school. And the student area where they can meet will be awesome.”
Students “are going to be impressed,” said Kenny Houser Jr., of DiMarco Construction, Clairton, and the site superintendent of BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City. “The design team did a fantastic job on this building.”
DPH Architecture, Canfield, Ohio, designed the building.
Holmes, and Armstrong Junior-Senior High School graduates Kennedy and Jageman, said they have driven the 1.7 miles from Manor Township specifically to view the exterior of BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City.
“It’s super-modern,” Holmes said. “It looks great. It draws your attention. … I think it is going to really push a lot more students to want to go there to continue their education.”
Said Kennedy, 19, of Kittanning, who expects to graduate debt-free with an associate degree in history from BC3 in May: “Definitely a modern-looking facility. It’s exciting to be the first ones into that new building.”
And, he said, “You’re keeping education where it was. Not just ripping down a building and having housing or creating a park. It’s opening up opportunities for higher education. And it’s close to home.”
Jageman, 20, of Kittanning, expects to graduate debt-free with an associate degree in secondary education-English option from BC3 in December.
“A lot of the friends who I went to high school with, and my new friends, we all love that BC3 is so close,” Jageman said. “We are very family-oriented and we like to spend our time and money at a place that appreciates us.”
BC3 will announce this month plans for a community grand opening of BC3 @ Armstrong, 1100 Fourth Ave., Ford City.
“We are the exciting news in the community,” Holmes said. “I am looking forward to what this brings to the town of Ford City.”
