(Brockway, PA) Tiffany Logan, a 35-year-old working mother of three, became a college student for the first time in 13 years last fall and discovered BC3 @ Brockway’s faculty and staff “really care about their students.
“They are always there to help you,” said Logan, among the 10 percent of BC3 students this fall between the ages of 30 and 39. “They make the time for you. Some professors even give you their cell phone number so you can text them and ask questions.”
Prospective students can meet BC3 @ Brockway’s faculty and staff, learn about its associate degrees in career and transfer programs, and about its affordability, financial aid opportunities and support services during an open house Oct. 10.
The open house will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 1200 Wood St., Suite D, Brockway.
A separate information session is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Room 112, where prospective students can learn about BC3 @ Brockway’s career program in Nursing, R.N., and about Penn Highlands Healthcare’s tuition assistance program.
BC3 @ Brockway will waive its $25 application fee for prospective students who apply for admission at the open house. Prospective students can RSVP to attend the open house at BC3.edu/open-house
“If I do well, and I tell other people, ‘BC3 helped me. You should go there,’ that is going to help them out, and it is going to help our community because we are all going to get jobs around this area.”
Logan pursued an associate degree in veterinary technology from Alfred State College of Technology upon graduating from Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School in 2006.
“But,” the Brockport resident said, “I never finished.”
While delivering her children in 2010, 2013 and 2020 at a hospital in DuBois, “every nurse that I had in the maternity ward was just wonderful,” Logan said, “and I decided I would like to do that.”
Logan began as a health care science student last fall at BC3 @ Brockway and earned a 4.0 grade-point average. She achieved a second 4.0 grade-point average this spring.
“I was very surprised,” she said. “In high school I wasn’t like that. It was kind of shocking that I still have that in me, that I could do something like that.”
Logan worked seven years at a restaurant and the past two as a certified nursing assistant. She is enrolled this fall in BC3 @ Brockway’s Nursing, R.N., program and intends to seek a position in a maternity ward with a regional health care provider upon her graduation in May 2025.
Students in BC3 @ Brockway’s career programs such as Nursing, R.N., can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
“The faculty and staff want us to do well, get a good job and help our community,” Logan said. “If I do well, and I tell other people, ‘BC3 helped me. You should go there,’ that is going to help them out, and it is going to help our community because we are all going to get jobs around this area.”
“I want the quality education”
The BC3 Education Foundation in 2022-2023 awarded a record $281,000 in scholarships to BC3 students and this year has a record 155 named financial awards available.
Logan this fall received the $485 William J. Hrabosky Book Scholarship, awarded to students who are at least 24 years old and who have achieved a grade-point average of at least 3.25. She also received a $400 Varischetti Family Scholarship in the spring semester.
She plans to graduate debt-free from BC3 @ Brockway.
“I want the quality education,” she said. “And it is nice that I am able to afford the education. If I couldn’t afford it, I probably wouldn’t be going to school right now. I might remain a certified nursing assistant or go back to waitressing.”
Prospective students who attend BC3 @ Brockway’s open house can learn about the Varischetti Family Scholarship, established by the Frank Varischetti Foundation with the BC3 Education Foundation in 2014 to recruit students to and retain students at BC3 @ Brockway.
They can also learn about BC3 having been ranked as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania nine times since 2015, most recently by BestColleges.com; and about BC3’s new virtual associate degree, certificate and workplace certificate programs that are instructed by BC3 faculty.
Tuition and fees this fall for students attending BC3 @ Brockway cost $290 per credit for an in-person course and $315 for an online course.
Tuition and fees this fall at regional public four-year universities start at $437.23 per credit for Pennsylvania residents for an in-person course, and at $374.20 for an online course.
Tuition and fees this fall for Pennsylvania residents attending regional state-related institutions’ branch campuses cost between $582 and $734 per credit for an in-person course, and start at $620 for an online course.
BC3’s affordability, and financial aid and scholarships, allowed 75 percent of its Class of 2023 to graduate debt-free.
“I am so happy that I went to BC3. I feel like I am thriving. I really didn’t think I was going to do as well as I have. I worked hard for my grades and it’s making me feel good as a student and as a person."
Logan has twice been named to BC3’s president’s list for having attained a grade-point average of at least 3.75.
“I am so happy that I went to BC3,” Logan said. “I feel like I am thriving. I really didn’t think I was going to do as well as I have. I worked hard for my grades and it’s making me feel good as a student and as a person.
“I hadn’t been in school for a very long time. I knew it was going to be difficult with three children, a husband and a job. But I am doing very well. I’m putting the work in.”
Prospective students can apply for admission to BC3 @ Brockway’s Nursing, R.N., program through March 1 for fall 2024 consideration as a general applicant. Licensed practical nurses can apply for admission to the program beginning March 1 with priority consideration given to those who meet requirements by May 10.
Prospective students can also email questions to jill.martin-rend@bc3.edu or call 814-265-1813.
