The City of Harrisburg has asked for our club's help to ensure the success of "Ice in the Burg."
The annual "Ice and Fire Festival" has been modified and spread across the city in order to keep crowd sizes down and encourage safe celebrating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our job is to monitor the lights display at the MLK City Government Center, across from the Hilton (and the Rotary Ice Sculpture.) We just need 2 individuals to be present and ensure that curious observers do not touch the lights.
Shifts will be from 12:00-2:00, 2:00-4:30, 4:30-7:00, and 7:00-9:00.
Do you miss conversations with your fellow club members? We're welcoming members and friends of the Rotary Club of Harrisburg to a "Coffee and Conversations", hosted by Addeline.
On a snowy February morning, the warm-hearted Harrisburg Rotary Club assembled via Zoom. President James Good kicked off the meeting at 12:00pm and Tom Johnston followed by providing a wonderful invocation. The meeting song was “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and the group followed the inspirational song with the “Pledge of Allegiance.” James led the Club in reciting our Four Way Test and then made a couple of announcements including sharing that the Virtual Coffee Hour was held and enjoyed by participants. Next, the Club was separated into breakout rooms where there was social interaction using the topic of what we look forward to in Spring. Coming out of the breakout rooms, James announced that the Central PA Food Bank volunteering event had to be cancelled due to weather. Next, it was shared that the meeting’s lunch funding will be sent to Bethesda Mission. A request was made to the Club for support through volunteering at the Ice in the Burg event on Saturday, March 6th and also through overnight support at homeless shelters. Steve Swartz gave background on the men’s overnight location at Full Gospel Fellowship Church and the women’s location at Grace United Methodist Church. 1 volunteer is needed each night (March 8, 15, 29) and volunteers will need to go through some training. The Meet the Board Member presenter was Mike Jaeger whose introductory music and theme was from the movie, Rocky.
Ski took to audio to introduce our distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Laurie Carter, President of Shippensburg University. Ski provided some personal and professional background about Dr. Carter before handing over the audio to her. As the 17th president of Ship, Laurie has done a wonderful job of furthering the University through increased retention, programming, and renovation as well as other initiatives on campus and within town. She was recognized by Diverse and Higher Education magazine as one of the top 25 women in education. Laurie serves on numerous boards within our communities.
Laurie took to the virtual podium to discuss life-long learning at Ship. As a lead-in to the topic, she shared stats about Ship including that there are 5,000 graduate and undergrad students and the School is the only State university within the State system that offers five degrees in engineering. There are over 100 undergraduate programs and unique opportunities such as the Center for Land Use and Sustainability and a stock trading room where business students can learn how to manage money. There is a Fashion Archives & Museum as well. Ship is the only institution in the State with a pubic lab school on campus so elementary education majors can work with students right on campus. There are several notable programs led by the Criminal Justice department which is only one of eight certified in the country! The Communications/Journalism Department is one of only three accredited in Pennsylvania. The John L. Grove College of Business became the first school in PA’s State System of Higher Education to become internationally accredited. Ship is the only state university in PA to offer: Civil Engineering; Computer Engineering; Electrical Engineering; Entrepreneurship; Mechanical Engineering; Software Engineering. The University has one of the best Certified Public Accounting exam pass rates in the country for medium sized accounting programs with students earning a top 2% ranking. There are many accreditations and awards for Shippensburg University that were shared by Dr. Carter.
Continuing to the topic of life-long learning, Dr. Carter spoke to Upskilling and Reskilling for the life-long-learner. Workforce development and innovation are a priority at Ship. They are continually working to ensure for-credit programs align with employers needs and they are building a non-credit program that will aid economic recovery and development within the south central region of PA. Most importantly, they are communicating regularly with employers and workforce development to listen and understand the nature of their pipeline and developments. Digital transformation of work is changing the landscape. Workers will have to take core foundational skills and build technical skills to adapt to a post-COVID environment. Dr. Carter spoke to the impact of COVID on our region and how it is causing increase in skill gaps which require additional education. The additional education preferences by people are non-degree and “short-burst” learning online. Soft skills and technical skills are becoming extremely important in an environment that is going to remote working arrangements. Ship has responded by offering COVID-related skills training, degree pathways, and human skill training in areas such as emotional intelligence. The University is looking toward other new opportunities as well and Dr. Carter shared a list of initiatives. Holding roundtables is a great way Ship learns about needs within industries and the community. Ship also takes training directly to employers through customized training opportunities in areas such as remote work, leadership, Microsoft Office, Agile and Scrum, and project management. Training funds are available through WEDnetPA for many training opportunities. Employers are always connected to students through, internships, job shadowing, mentoring, employer in residence, career fairs, and panel presentations.
Dr. Carter concluded by providing contact information for future questions and also expanded upon the topic of COVID skill gap for James. Dr. Carter explained that the skill gaps existed before COVID but have been heightened because of COVID. She also spoke to challenges in the future for higher education at James’ request. Some of them have to do with population changes and cost. Finally, she answered a question about their slogan “Making Waves” and provided background on the origin and purpose.
James adjourned the meeting at 12:56pm
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