News From Mount Aloysius College

Mount Hits ‘Start’ on E-Sports Activities

Mount Aloysius is getting into the esports game. With a brand-new, state-of-the-art esports lab in the basement of Cosgrave, and a new esports coach, the College is primed to make waves in the gaming community. Currently, the Mountie esports players are focused on League of Legends, a popular multiplayer online battle arena game, but new coach Joseph Lee would like to expand beyond that based on player interest and skill. The Mount Aloysius esports team streams their matches on twitch.tv/MtAloy_ESports. This summer, the Mount and The Esports Company also hosted an esports summer camp for local teens geared toward teaching the campers about the esports industry as a whole. Classes focused on marketing, technology, strategy, and more.

Mount Aloysius Receives Grant from Department of Justice

In October 2020, MAC received a grant for $290,698 from the Office on Violence Against Women at the US Department of Justice to establish a Healthy Relationships Resource Center. The Center will educate the MAC community about sexual assault and other domestic violence issues, as well as lead prevention and response initiatives. “We appreciate the DOJ’s recognition of the importance of this issue,” said President John McKeegan. “The Healthy Relationships Resource Center will be an important part of our efforts to develop the ‘whole student’ and create greater awareness around these topics.”

Mount Aloysius Awarded $100,000 for 3D Anatomy Visualization System

The College was the recipient of a $100,000 grant from the George I. Alden Trust to be used for the purchase of an Anatomage Virtual Dissection Table. The table allows students in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences to virtually dissect human subjects in a 3D environment. “This amazing piece of technology will assist our students greatly in their pursuit of knowledge and skill in the health science fields,” said President John McKeegan. “At the time of this grant, we are the only institution within 50 miles, and 1 of only 16 in the state, to offer this experience to incoming students.”

Mount Aloysius Cuts Ribbon on Community Sidewalk

Mount Aloysius College cut the ribbon on the new Community Sidewalk that connects the Mount Aloysius campus to downtown Cresson. The project was made possible by a $666k Grant from PennDOT, a $100k investment from Mount Aloysius College, and additional support from Cresson Township for lighting along the sidewalk. The project will allow greater interaction between Mount Aloysius students/employees and the downtown Cresson business district. It will also enhance the safety of those pedestrians making the trek along Admiral Peary Highway.

Nursing Faculty Contribute to Book

Two MAC nursing faculty members, Nicole Custer, Ph.D., chair of the nursing department, and Heather Zonts, Ph.D., BSN Program Coordinator, contributed to the “Academic Clinical Nurse Educator Review Book: The Official NLN Guide to the CNE®cl Exam.” They used their nursing experience and knowledge for the project, which will help academic clinical nurse educators better provide their students with a more well-rounded nursing education.

Congratulations to Dr. Marilyn Roseman and Shamim Rajpar on their Retirements

Dr. Marilyn Roseman announced her retirement this year after 35 years of teaching Mounties as a professor of Early Childhood Education and the department chair of the education department. After 30 years assisting students in the Mount’s library, Shamim Rajpar announced her retirement this year. We wish them all the best in their retirement!

Mount Aloysius Professor Published by Smithsonian Magazine

Mount Aloysius College Professor of Biology Dr. John Whitlock has been mentioned in an article posted by Smithsonian Magazine for his work on reclassifying a dinosaur fossil discovered in 1883. Whitlock’s work, coauthored by Jeffrey Wilson Mantilla, originally appeared in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2019. Whitlock is a paleontologist and a research associate at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Whitlock and Mantilla reclassified the fossil as a dicraeosaurid–a family of long-necked dinosaurs rarely found in North America, according to the Smithsonian Magazine article. They have named the specimen ‘Smitanosaurus agilis’

Mount Aloysius College Student Secures Grant for Local Fire Department

Mount Aloysius College MBA student Richard Clark assisted Keystone Regional Fire & Rescue Department in securing a $10,000 grant for an upgrade to the department’s radio system. Clark wrote the grant as part of his MBA Fund Development class.

The Keystone Regional Fire & Rescue Department (KRFRD) is a cooperative effort between the Cresson Volunteer Fire Company and the Lilly Volunteer Fire Company to provide comprehensive fire and rescue services to the local community. The grant, administered through the Energy Transfer Corporation, will be used to purchase two mobile radios. These radios will allow the department to provide faster response times and improve safety measures for both first responders and the community.

“In the past year, we’ve written over 30 grants. It got to be a lot of work for us,” said Dave Fulton, president of the KRFRD. “Rich came to me with his class project, and he was able to help us write this grant. He did a great job. The money will be combined with financial support from Cambria County to help us purchase this new radio system. $10,000 is a lot when you’re a volunteer fire company like us.”

“I’m happy to help,” said Clark, a Cresson native who also serves as a social member of the department. “If they need help with any future grants, I’m more than willing to provide it.”

“This project really meets the mission of the Sisters of Mercy in terms of supporting the community. The Sisters are very service-oriented, so this is just the students living out the Sisters’ principles in their work,” said Dr. Leah Spangler, who teaches the Fund Development class at the Mount. “I’m just so happy to have a student who is so invested in an organization to really do this kind of work for them. It’s so much more than a grade for a class that you can do something so positive for the community.”