(Butler, PA) Visitors to Butler County Community College’s free public events next week can discuss topical research exhibits with presidential scholars, hear student authors read from their recently published works on a stage decorated in a coffeehouse setting, and view student creations during a show accompanied by live music.
The college’s presidential scholars’ poster presentations, FACETS Celebration of the Arts! and Portfolio and Art Show will be its first since 2019.
Presidential scholars’ poster presentations and FACETS Celebration of the Arts! will be held on BC3’s main campus, 107 College Drive, Butler Township, and Portfolio and Art Show at BC3 @ Cranberry, 250 Executive Drive, Cranberry Township.
BC3’s presidential scholars’ poster presentations are scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. Monday in the NexTier Bank Conference Room on the upper floor of the Heaton Family Learning Commons.
The college’s FACETS Celebration of the Arts! is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Succop Theater.
BC3’s Portfolio and Art Show is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday in the lobby and in the multi-purpose room of BC3 @ Cranberry.
“Talented students … a benefit to any employer”
Laurel Colonello, a Valencia musician and vocalist, will perform on acoustic guitar covers of 1970s hits and original material during BC3’s Portfolio and Art Show. Light refreshments will be available.
Fine arts students will display mostly pencil and charcoal drawings of still lifes and models, said Doug Eberhardt, a BC3 fine arts instructor.
Digital audio and video production, graphic design and photography students will exhibit their works from using, among other software programs, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and Premiere Pro, said Kristine Allen, a BC3 instructor.
Photography students will also showcase their black-and-white, and color, photographs on matted or framed prints, or in portfolios, Allen said.
“We’re very excited to showcase the sophisticated work that our students have done."
Employers who have an in-house art department and who seek to recruit adept visual communicators or freelance workers have been invited to BC3’s Portfolio and Art Show, Allen said.
Digital audio and video production, graphic design and photography are BC3 career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
Allen is coordinator of BC3’s digital audio and video production, graphic design and photography programs.
“We’re very excited to showcase the sophisticated work that our students have done,” Allen said. “We have many talented students who could easily transition from school to the workplace and would be a benefit to any employer seeking new talent.”
“Making me feel that way again”
BC3’s FACETS Celebration of the Arts! will be held on the stage of Succop Theater, said Jacqueline Kunkel, a BC3 English instructor and faculty advising editor of the college’s art and literary magazine. Light refreshments will be available.
An open-mic session will be held from 5:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., and spotlight readings from student authors published in the 2022 edition of FACETS from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Kunkel said.
Submissions to FACETS are limited to current or former BC3 credit or noncredit students, and faculty, staff and administrators.
BC3’s 2022 edition of FACETS is also its first since 2019. It includes poems, haiku, short stories, photographs, digital arts and more, Kunkel said.
The artwork is “beautiful,” Kunkel said, and the literary works evocative of a “fabulous” range of emotion.
“We start with some things that are very joyful,” Kunkel said. “We move into some things a little darker, and then end up with some things joyful as well. Whenever you are reading these pieces, you will feel certain emotions. They can hearken back to a memory for you. You may think, ‘Oh, this is making me feel that way again.’”
Copies of the 100-page 2022 edition will be available for purchase for $10 at the FACETS Celebration of the Arts!
FACETS has won first-place awards from the American Scholastic Press Association, College Point, N.Y., in categories such as outstanding story, art and photography; and the publication itself, first-place awards 22 times, most recently in 2019.
FACETS has also received most outstanding community college literary-art magazine recognition six times from the American Scholastic Press Association.
"Whenever you are reading these pieces, you will feel certain emotions."
Emmaline Henne, Lydia Seaton, Jess Sentgeorge and Dylan Sitterly will be among authors to read from their works published in the 2022 edition of FACETS from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Henne, a BC3 Nursing, R.N., student from Lyndora, will read her poems titled “Bittersweet Beekeeper” – an apiarist’s reflections about the death of the insects that create honey, and “Nephology” – about loneliness and inspiration drawn by morning clouds.
Seaton, of Emlenton, became the college’s first student to be recognized by the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia when she placed third in fall 2021 in its open-mic poetry competition.
Seaton, a BC3 English student, will read a poem written by Abigail Conaway and titled “Losing Yellow,” about moving beyond a sexual assault.
Sentgeorge, a BC3 English student from Butler, will read her short story titled “The True Witch of Salem” – commemorating victims wrongly tried for witchcraft, and her poem titled “Pentacle” – about spiritual practices of wiccans.
Sitterly, a BC3 secondary education-English option student from Mars, will read from his poems titled “Innocent, Incorrupt” and “Predestined.”
“See the great job that BC3 does”
Hope Miller and Daulton Roth are BC3 presidential scholars who will discuss their topical research exhibits with visitors to BC3 on Monday.
Miller, a biological science student from Butler, in 2021 was selected to attend a National Science Foundation-funded residential research program in visual neuroscience at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va. Her poster presentation is titled “Treatment for Adults with ADHD.”
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder “affects a decent number of people,” Miller said. “It’s important to know there are different treatments available. While most aren’t consistently used, the only one that is, for most people, is medication. There are other options that could be better long-term solutions. It’s important to understand more about those solutions rather than just medication.”
Roth is a business administration student from Cabot whose poster presentation is titled “Glutenase: Can It Treat Celiac Disease?”
Celiac is a disease that “is common,” Roth said, “and there is currently no cure for it. So this is a possible treatment that could be adapted in the future and that could help people.”
“You might have people who are interested in or affected by celiac disease or by ADHD and want to come and see what the current cutting-edge research is presenting.”
Poster presentations are a capstone project and “not designed for students to necessarily find the answer to something,” said Mike Dittman, a BC3 English professor and coordinator of BC3’s presidential scholars program. “It’s really an exploration about what they can learn more about in the future.”
Visitors to BC3 on Monday can discuss topical research exhibits with presidential scholars, Dittman said.
“You might have people who are interested in or affected by celiac disease or by ADHD and want to come and see what the current cutting-edge research is presenting,” Dittman said.
“It might also just be someone who wants to see the scholarship that exists within their community, someone who wants to see the great job that BC3 does in fostering these student scholars and supporting them.”
The presidential scholars program is in its sixth year at BC3. The full-tuition waiver is available to students in the Top 10 percent of their graduating class and who have achieved at least a 3.5 grade-point average at any of Butler County’s public high schools.
A cyber school student counted in those public schools’ graduating classes is also eligible. Students must also enroll at BC3 in the first semester following their high school graduation to be eligible for the scholarship, and are required to take scholars-only courses and maintain at least a 3.5 GPA at BC3.
