(Butler, PA) Butler County Community College this month will introduce job seekers to recruiting county employers, fiction enthusiasts to a rising Kittanning novelist and business professionals to advising cybersecurity experts.
The Butler County Career & Resource Fair, Northern Appalachia Reading Series event and the Defend Your Data: Cybersecurity Awareness Conference are free, open to the public and will be held on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township.
Those seeking to change positions or careers can meet with and be interviewed by administrators from nearly 65 employers representing education, health care, manufacturing and other industries at the Butler County Career & Resource Fair, said Anna Fabrizzi, BC3’s career planning specialist.
The fair, sponsored by BC3, the Butler County Health Care Consortium and Butler Collaborative for Families, is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 10 in Founders Hall.
“How long would it take to complete applications and post resumes online to reach about 65 companies? Having them all in one place makes it more efficient because now you can reach up to 65 employers in one day.”
Paul Weifenbaugh, assistant director, Tri-County Workforce Investment Board
Those who seek to be interviewed should dress professionally and bring a current resume, Fabrizzi said.
Health care and social assistance, and manufacturing are the top two industries in Butler County as of April, according to the state Department of Labor & Industries’ Center for Workforce Information & Analysis. Educational services employs the fifth-highest number of employees.
Jobs in educational services, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing are among 2023 high-priority occupations in the Tri-County Workforce Development Area, which includes Armstrong and Butler counties.
“We are seeing a huge need to fill these jobs,” Fabrizzi said. “If you are a community member and satisfied in your job right now, but want to see what the job market looks like, see what is being offered, what the job titles are, and what kind of skills and education are needed, this is a good opportunity.
“If you are looking to switch jobs, obviously this is a great opportunity.”
The Butler County Career & Resource Fair will be convenient for job seekers, said Paul Weifenbaugh, assistant director of the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board.
“How long would it take to complete applications and post resumes online to reach about 65 companies?” he said. “Having them all in one place makes it more efficient because now you can reach up to 65 employers in one day. All might not be in the industry you are looking for, but it is an opportunity.”
The fair will also include representatives from social service organizations such as the Center for Community Resources and the Victim Outreach Intervention Center, Fabrizzi said, and from PA CareerLink. All are located in Butler.
“Sidle Creek” author to read at Northern Appalachia Reading Series event
Jolene McIlwain is a lifelong resident of Kittanning whose “Sidle Creek” was among NPR’s Books of the Year in 2023 in short stories, essays and poetry.
“One of the most important things that we try to do with the reading series is to bring in voices from our region, the northern Appalachia region, that maybe people may not have heard before,” said Mike Dittman, a professor in BC3’s liberal arts division and an author.
“The wide variety of voices really represents the whole community and gives those who attend a chance to see themselves portrayed in writing in a way that maybe they haven’t before.”
McIlwain will read from her debut collection of 22 short stories at BC3’s Northern Appalachia Reading Series event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 11 in the Heaton Family Learning Commons.
Penguin Random House published “Sidle Creek,” which, McIlwain said, “is a collection of short stories that all take place in the same surrounding area, a rural, fictional landscape in western Pennsylvania. … The environment is very much like that which I experienced growing up. The people are dealing with types of themes and issues that people all over the world are dealing with. Grief, connection, neighboring, love and betrayal, and sometimes violence.
“The stories take a really close look at, and interrogate stereotypes that we typically know about in this area, and look into the internal worlds of the men and women who are mostly working-class.”
“Sidle Creek” was also named a Library Journal Best Books of 2023.
The Northern Appalachia Reading Series event will feature the return of poet Angel Rosen, a Worthington resident and 2014 BC3 graduate who read from her “Aurelia” and “Blake” in April 2022.
The event will begin with an open-mic session for community members and BC3 students at 6 p.m., and be followed by readings from McIlwain and Rosen, a question-and-answer session, sales and signings of their books, and light refreshments.
The Northern Appalachia Reading Series event is the fifth at BC3 since 2021.
Dr. Mitch James, of Mentor, Ohio, read from his novel, “Seldom Seen: A Miner’s Tale,” in October 2023; Dittman, of Butler, read from his horror-thriller “Who Holds the Devil” in October 2022; Rosen; and Dr. Damian Dressick, of Slippery Rock, read from his novel “40 Patchtown” and from his collection “Fables of the Deconstruction” in November 2021.
“We want to remind businesses that they need to be training their employees regularly about what to do and what not to do. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, many breaches are caused by nontechnical employees doing things that are seemingly very simple.”
Kimberly Fish, professor, BC3’s business and information technology division
4 experts to advise businesses about cybersecurity risks, measures
“Compliance and controls are not enough,” Manoj Tandon said. “Cybersecurity is a business problem and not an (information technology) problem. The business problem of cybersecurity begins with understanding risk and the user behaviors that can impact that risk by making vulnerabilities exploitable.”
Tandon is responsible for creating cybersecurity measures for small and medium-sized businesses as chief operating officer and equity partner at Dark Rhiino Security, Pittsburgh and Dublin, Ohio.
He is among four speakers from whom technical and nontechnical business professionals can discover how to reduce cybersecurity threats and how to educate their employees about their role in decreasing risk at BC3’s Defend Your Data: Cybersecurity Awareness Conference.
“We want to remind businesses that they need to be training their employees regularly about what to do and what not to do,” said Kimberly Fish, a professor in BC3’s business and information technology division.
“Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, many breaches are caused by nontechnical employees doing things that are seemingly very simple,” Fish said. “They have, perhaps, a poor password. They click on a link in a phishing email believing that the email is from their boss or otherwise looks legitimate.”
The conference will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 17 in Founders Hall and include breakfast snacks and lunch.
Tandon will discuss individual responsibilities in protecting personal and business data.
Joshua Pribanic, president and co-founder of LastLine Cyber, Pittsburgh, will illustrate how quality information security controls have thwarted cyberattacks and how poor cybersecurity maturity has led to catastrophic scenarios for unprepared organizations. He will also discuss how to build sustainable cybersecurity programs for organizations of any size.
Duc Nguyen, co-founder and partner of N&N Forensics, Latrobe and Houston, will speak about digital forensics’ role in security, and Les Graves, an associate professor in BC3’s business and information technology division and coordinator of the college’s associate degree career program in networking and cybersecurity, will discuss best practices for every employee.
Doors open for the Defend Your Data: Cybersecurity Awareness Conference at 9:30 a.m. Registration is required, and seating is limited. Guests can RSVP by April 10 at bc3.edu/cyber-conference
The conference is presented by the Pennsylvania Community College Consortium Cooperative Agreement through a U.S. Department of Defense STEM grant. BC3 is a PC4A partner.