(Brockway, PA) Microphone in hand, 20-year-old student Jordan Miller turned from the former state senator, the business executive, the president of Butler County Community College and others seated under a canopy tent and glanced over his left shoulder toward the complex housing BC3’s additional location in Brockway.
“I love this campus,” Miller said. “It’s beautiful. It’s small. It’s a 25-minute drive from where I am. And the counselors here, and everyone here was so accommodating. … BC3 @ Brockway, I cannot put into words how it has changed my life.
“It’s truly, truly amazing.”
The associate degree in business management that the 20-year-old DuBois resident intends to earn in August will benefit his goal to advance at the Martin’s Food Store where he works 40 hours a week.
Miller and others Tuesday gathered at an outdoor celebration marking the 10th anniversary of BC3 @ Brockway, created to serve Pennsylvania counties under-represented by higher education, and the fifth of its registered nursing program, established to address a regional shortage in the high-priority occupation.
Business management and Nursing, R.N., are among BC3 @ Brockway’s two-year career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
“Our vision as the northwestern-most community college was … that imaginary county lines should not interfere with our delivery of high-quality, accessible education throughout the northwestern Pennsylvania region."
Opportunities for rural Pennsylvanians
Brockway residents Joseph Scarnati, former president pro tempore of the state Senate, and Peter C. Varischetti, president of Varischetti Holdings, were instrumental in helping BC3 to create an additional location in Brockway, said Dr. Nick Neupauer, BC3’s president since 2007.
“Various sectors of higher education stayed in their own lanes” when BC3 was considering expansion in 2011, Neupauer said.
“Our vision as the northwestern-most community college was … that imaginary county lines should not interfere with our delivery of high-quality, accessible education throughout the northwestern Pennsylvania region.
“We heard of Joe’s and Peter’s vision. Each time we walked away from our meetings in Brockway feeling more confident. … But we needed state support. Senator Scarnati saw to that funding.”
Scarnati for nearly two decades served a 25th senatorial district that included Elk and Jefferson counties, and a portion of Clearfield County.
“The only path to economic certainty is through some higher education. And (BC3 @ Brockway) provides it. We have a much higher degree of education levels in this area and that’s because of BC3.”
BC3 @ Brockway has received funding through Scarnati’s tenure as an elected official and later through his work with Allegheny Strategy Partners, a consulting firm that lobbies on behalf of clients about issues of importance to the state Legislature.
Rural Pennsylvania, Scarnati said, “really struggled, really struggled, with low-cost, high-quality higher education north of Interstate 80. Didn’t exist. Did not exist. So why should the 255,000 people I represented, and others represented north of Interstate 80, not have that opportunity?
“The only path to economic certainty is through some higher education. And (BC3 @ Brockway) provides it. We have a much higher degree of education levels in this area and that’s because of BC3.”
BC3 @ Brockway upon its creation was the only community college location north of Interstate 80 in the 268 miles between BC3 @ LindenPointe in Hermitage, Mercer County, and Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke.
“What BC3 does different than a lot of other educational institutions is that BC3 provides programs that are truly, desperately needed in the area. They take the time to find out what the region needs, and that’s what they put forward."
Like Scarnati, Varischetti praised the impact BC3 @ Brockway has had in its first 10 years of providing higher education to students in Clarion, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties.
“What BC3 does different than a lot of other educational institutions is that BC3 provides programs that are truly, desperately needed in the area,” Varischetti said. “They take the time to find out what the region needs, and that’s what they put forward. It’s not just simply education to BC3. It’s education with job placement.”
Varischetti Holdings owns the former Brockway Glass administration building that once housed 550 employees and today, as the Parkside Complex, accommodates BC3 @ Brockway.
The Frank Varischetti Foundation established the Varischetti Family Scholarship with the BC3 Education Foundation in 2014 to recruit students to and retain students at BC3 @ Brockway.
Nearly $190,000 in Varischetti Family Scholarships have been awarded to 509 BC3 @ Brockway students since 2015, according to Bobbi Jo Cornetti, development coordinator with the BC3 Education Foundation.
Students from 116 ZIP codes have attended BC3 @ Brockway, according to Sharla Anke, BC3’s assistant dean of institutional research and planning. Enrollment has increased 454 percent since fall 2013, from 28 students to 155 in spring 2023.
“Every day has been incredible, exciting, rewarding and enjoyable,” said Dr. Jill Martin Rend, BC3 @ Brockway director. “We just love being here … and helping our students be successful and part of the community.”
“An excellent nursing program”
BC3 @ Brockway in 2018 became the only BC3 additional location to offer the 70-credit Nursing, R.N., program and in response to a high-priority occupation in the six-county North Central Workforce Development area.
The Nursing, R.N., program saves students from an otherwise 160-mile round trip from the Jefferson County location to BC3’s main campus.
Forty-eight students have graduated from the program, including five in 2023 who participated in a tuition assistance program established in 2022 and sponsored in BC3 @ Brockway’s service area by Penn Highlands Healthcare, DuBois.
“I cannot overemphasize that BC3 @ Brockway offers an excellent nursing program that effectively prepares students to transition from the classroom to the clinical setting.”
Penn Highlands Healthcare in the past year has hired more than 30 nurses who graduated from BC3, said Heather Franci, the organization’s chief nursing officer.
“I cannot overemphasize,” Franci said, “that BC3 @ Brockway offers an excellent nursing program that effectively prepares students to transition from the classroom to the clinical setting.”
BC3 @ Brockway offers associate degrees in five transfer and in four career programs. Its students have ranged in age from 17 to 65, according to Anke. Its Class of 2023 in Nursing, R.N., was its most senior with an average age of 35.8.
“Here we are in this small community and we are putting out well-educated, pristine nurses that are ready to accomplish the world,” said Tracey McAllister, a 54-year-old mother of five who graduated from BC3 @ Brockway’s Nursing, R.N., program in May.
“It gives you an education beyond anything that I ever thought you would find in a small community like Brockway. … When you graduate from our nursing program, you have a solid foundation to advance in the nursing field.”
“The amazing prices”
Students who attend a community college for their first two years can save an estimated $20,000 on the cost of higher education, according to the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges.
The most recent tuition and fees at regional public four-year universities started at $437.23 per credit for Pennsylvania residents for an in-person course, and started at $374.20 for an online course.
The most recent tuition and fees for Pennsylvania residents attending regional state-related institutions’ branch campuses cost between $582 and $734 per credit for an in-person course, and started at $620 for an online course.
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.
Miller, the 20-year-old who glanced over his left shoulder toward the complex housing BC3’s additional location in Brockway, received a Varischetti Family Scholarship and expects to graduate debt-free from BC3 @ Brockway because of the Varischetti award, “financial aid and the amazing prices,” he said.
“If I were to go to a typical four-year university, I would be paying triple, quadruple what I am paying here.”
Applications for a fall 2024 start in BC3 @ Brockway’s Nursing, R.N., program will be accepted beginning Aug. 1. BC3 @ Brockway’s fall semester starts Aug. 21.
