(Butler, PA) Annabel Schaffner will not be able to answer questions and lead tours of Butler County Community College as a student ambassador during BC3’s Pioneer Night on April 16.
Schaffner, 21, is a student in BC3’s rare measurement science-metrology technology career program.
The Butler resident and other students in one of only three associate degree programs in the field in the nation will themselves be touring the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., on April 16, and examine how the U.S. Department of Commerce agency works to ensure the accuracy of measurements across the country.
“Metrology at the highest level in the United States,” Schaffner said. “It will be cool to see exactly how everything that we’ve learned in theory and in labs is put into practice.”
Prospective students have the opportunity to explore BC3’s associate degrees in career and transfer programs and its one-year certificate programs during Pioneer Night from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. April 16 on the college’s main campus in Butler Township.
BC3 will waive its $25 application fee for prospective students who apply for admission at Pioneer Night. Prospective students can RSVP at bc3.edu/pioneer-night
“I am a little disappointed to miss Pioneer Night. Giving tours to large groups of (prospective) students is an opportunity to meet a lot of them at once.”
Pioneer Night offers “a kind of conference schedule”
Prospective students and current applicants can attend sessions about BC3’s academic programs; the college’s affordability, financial aid and scholarships; steps after completing an application; student life and athletics; and high school programming.
“Guests really do have a kind of conference schedule they can pick and choose from throughout the evening,” said Morgan Rizzardi, BC3’s director of admissions. “If their goal is only to apply and save the $25 and take a campus tour, they can do that or they can take advantage of all the sessions. Pioneer Night really does have a nice menu of opportunities.”
Student ambassadors will answer questions and lead tours of BC3’s main campus for prospective students and their families.
“I am a little disappointed to miss Pioneer Night,” Schaffner said. “Giving tours to large groups of (prospective) students is an opportunity to meet a lot of them at once.”
Schaffner “has made the most of every opportunity that BC3 has afforded her. The fact that she has been able to balance all this and be so successful is a testament to her character.”
“Get a job right after graduation”
Schaffner enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in marketing at a private four-year university near Pittsburgh following her graduation in 2021 from Butler Senior High School.
“I think I paid $2,000 out of pocket after scholarships in my first semester,” Schaffner said. “I started looking at my finances for the next semester. It was looking like $10,000, I did not have $10,000, and I did not want to go into debt. I started to look for a program that was practical, where I could get a job right after graduation.”
She transferred to BC3 in spring 2022, and became one of the 25 percent of female students enrolled in the 62-credit measurement science-metrology technology program in his 15 years as coordinator, according to Kevin Ruediger, a professor in the college’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics division.
Schaffner has made the college’s president’s list three times and expects to graduate debt-free in May.
She also works an average of eight hours each week at a Butler County precision manufacturer as an intern “who helps in the lab to calibrate different hand tools, things like micrometers, calipers and gauge blocks.”
Schaffner “has made the most of every opportunity that BC3 has afforded her,” Rizzardi said. “The fact that she has been able to balance all this and be so successful is a testament to her character.”
“If you come to BC3, there is a large chance that you are going to have zero debt.”
BC3’s affordability, and financial aid and scholarships, allowed 75 percent of the college’s Class of 2023 to graduate debt-free.
“If you come to BC3, there is a large chance that you are going to have zero debt,” Schaffner said. “You can go into the workforce if you want and start saving for things like cars, apartments, houses, without having that baggage of student-loan debt on your back. For a large majority of my generation, and the generation before me, student-loan debt has been normalized. And I think that’s really sad.”
Butler County residents attending BC3 this spring are paying $187 per credit in tuition and fees for an in-person course. They would pay at least $437.23 per credit in tuition and fees at a regional public four-year university or $582 at a regional state-related institution’s branch campus this spring.
Financially eligible Butler County residents attending BC3 could also receive a maximum of $7,395 in a federal Pell grant and of $2,568 in a Pennsylvania state grant in the 2023-2024 academic year, said Juli Louttit, the college’s director of financial aid.
Measuring skills “very practical”
The BC3 Education Foundation in the 2023-2024 academic year had available a record 155 scholarships that ranged in amounts from $300 to $5,000, according to Bobbi Jo Cornetti, the foundation’s development coordinator.
Students enrolled in a BC3 associate degree, certificate or workplace certificate program and who meet scholarship criteria are eligible to receive a financial award. Students attending any of the college’s six locations, enrolled in online courses or in BC3’s virtual programs can apply for a scholarship, Cornetti said.
Students registered for fall 2024 academic courses can apply online for a scholarship from the BC3 Education Foundation beginning April 15.
The BC3 Education Foundation in fall 2024 will have 11 named scholarships available from benefactors whose preferences include a student enrolled in BC3’s measurement science-metrology technology program, which has more than 200 tools and emphasizes the traceability of measurements, instrument calibration and precise laboratory procedures.
Schaffner has received from the BC3 Education Foundation the $2,810 Frank W. & Jane E. Preston Memorial Scholarship and the $600 National Conference of Standards Laboratories International Metrology-Precision Measurement Scholarship in 2022-2023; and the $1,250 Frank W. & Jane E. Preston Memorial Renewal Scholarship in 2023-2024.
Students in BC3’s career programs can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. Graduates of the college’s measurement science-metrology technology program can find employment in research and calibration laboratories, government agencies or private industries.
“Companies are looking to employ people who have measuring skills because it’s very practical, and a lot of people don’t know how to do it,” Schaffner said. “They may have to teach them on the job, which is a whole other thing. Those skills are very much needed in the workforce.”
Central Georgia Technical College, Macon, Ga., and Monroe County Community College, Monroe, Mich., also offer associate degrees in the field, as previously reported by callabmag.com, the international journal of metrology.
BC3’s credits can be applied toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
Students named to BC3’s president’s list have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.75 or higher in a semester.
BC3 has been ranked as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania nine times since 2015, most recently for 2024 by BestColleges.com.
The college’s summer session begins May 13 and its fall semester, Aug. 26.
