A NOTE FROM THE DEAN McKenna Message
You might expect summer to be a slow time at institutions of higher education, but that is not necessarily the case for the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government at Saint Vincent College.
Many of the items in this issue of the McKenna Message feature activities and events that occurred this past summer and at the outset of the fall 2024 semester.
Herein, you’ll read about some impressive new rankings of our programs, international students who are forging paths to successful careers, a bipartisan event on election integrity, and individual faculty members who use their expertise to make an impact locally and
throughout the United States.
That is how we spent our summer vacation.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to announce we will be traveling to England for the McKenna School’s 2025 spring break study trip!
The excursion is set for Feb. 28 to March 8 and is open to all Saint Vincent students.
Highlighted by visits to businesses and meetings with alumni working in the United Kingdom, the
MICHAEL J. URICK, C’04, Ph D, MBA, MS, SSGB, SHRM-CP
Dean of the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government; Professor of Management and Operational Excellence
michael.urick @stvincent.edu
A NOTE FROM THE DEAN
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trip will feature stops at Oxford and Birmingham universities for networking opportunities with educators and students. We’ll discuss the state of research in business with an editor at an international business book/journal publishing company. We’ll explore Stonehenge and other cultural sites around London and Bath.
While we do our best to plan trips that are affordable, the rising cost of travel makes participating in the trip prohibitive for some students—they need your help! Your generous monetary support will help provide our students with an unforgettable educational adventure.
There are many ways you can support initiatives at the McKenna School with your time, talent or treasure. I’m always happy to talk about opportunities and encourage you to reach out to me at michael.urick@stvincent.edu. And, of course, I love hearing your feedback about the McKenna Message or everything else we’re working on at the McKenna School.
COLLEGERAPTOR RANKINGS HONOR SEVERAL MCKENNA SCHOOL PROGRAMS
Saint Vincent’s finance major with a math minor (i.e., the computational finance track) is tops among Pennsylvania colleges for the 2024-2025 academic year, according to CollegeRaptor, an online college planning tool.
This is the second year in a row the program has received a No. 1 rating statewide. The program is ranked No. 15 nationally.
Overall, Saint Vincent College is ranked among the top 10 colleges in Pennsylvania in 15 undergraduate degree programs and three graduate degree programs.
Among the other ranked undergraduate degree programs are criminology, law and society (No. 3 in the state, No. 35 nationally); public policy (No. 7 in the state, No. 55 nationally); and business economics (No. 9 in the state, No. 90 nationally).
Ranked graduate degree programs are criminology (No. 2 in the state, No. 15 nationally) and management: operational excellence (No. 2 in the state, No. 22 nationally).
CollegeRaptor is a search and matching platform for college-bound students and their families. It also offers comparisons of estimated financial aid packages, simplified college match scores and admission chances.
CollegeRaptors’ rankings are based on a database of publicly available data from a variety of sources. Rankings are computed via a specific and proprietary methodology. Factors used to compile the rankings include median SAT/ACT scores for incoming freshmen, student-to-faculty ratio, selectivity index, four-year graduation rate and endowment per student. ♦
SPORTS MANAGEMENT STUDENT COACHES SWITZERLAND TO BRONZE MEDAL AT FIBA EUROBASKET 2024
Julien Vonovier, a junior majoring in sports management with a minor in data analytics, put his classroom lessons to work this past summer as an assistant coach for Switzerland’s U16 basketball national team.
Switzerland finished third in Division B of the International Basketball Federation U16 European Championship (FIBA EuroBasket) in Skopje, North Macedonia. Switzerland beat Belgium, 80-75, on Aug. 17 to clinch its bestever finish in an FIBA EuroBasket tournament and its first promotion to Division A.
“It was amazing,” said Vonovier, 22, a native of Pully, Switzerland. “Beating Belgium was a big surprise because they have a lot of big-time players. People were like, ‘What is this? This is not the usual Switzerland.’ So, it was great.”
After the tournament, Vonovier celebrated Switzerland’s third-place finish with a post on his LinkedIn page. Véronique Hulmann, the Swiss ambassador to North Macedonia, replied: “Congratulations for this exceptional performance!! Great team, great coaches! Bravo!”
A guard on the Saint Vincent College men’s basketball team, Vonovier played in seven games off the bench last season and this year will compete for increased playing time. FIBA EuroBasket 2024 marked his coaching debut.
“I had the opportunity to apply the principles from my Saint Vincent management courses in real-world settings, observing their practical
implementation in major event management and communication,” Vonovier said. “The meticulous preparation for our games helped me to deepen my knowledge of data analytics. Mastery of these tools proved to be one of the keys to our success. I did not sleep much [because I was] preparing the games until late at night, but it was worthwhile.”
Don Paul “DP” Harris, Saint Vincent’s director of athletics and men’s basketball head coach, recruited Vonovier out of DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida. Harris was not surprised Vonovier succeeded as a coach at EuroBasket 2024.
“Coaching is in Julien’s DNA,” Harris sad. “I think Julien is going to be a superstar in coaching, or maybe as a general manager or an agent. One thing we always tell kids when they come here is the sky’s the limit; there are no limitations on what they can become and do.”
Vonovier has worked for an agency that matches European basketball players with high schools and colleges in the United States and Canada. He said playing for Harris the past two seasons inspired him to get into coaching.
Julien Vonovier is a guard on the Saint Vincent men’s basketball team
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“Julien found his passion when he came here,” Harris said. “All we want to do is help him, kind of give him a road map—or in this case, an airline ticket— that allows him to be successful. After that, we hope he opens the door for the next guy to walk through.”
Growing up, Vonovier played on youth teams (U8 through U20) sponsored by the Pully Lausanne Foxes, a Swiss professional basketball club. He came to the United States about four years ago to figure out if basketball will become his career.
“When you finish high school in Switzerland, you have to choose if you’ll go [to college] or play basketball. You cannot do both,” he said. “It’s very hard to make that decision. It’s a very different mentality than here, where you can play sports while you’re a student. [Studying in America] gives me a few extra years to make up my mind about what to do later in life.”
Next summer, Vonovier is planning to expand his coaching résumé. He’s mulling an offer to be on Switzerland’s
coaching staff for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup. The nine-day tournament will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the championship game set for July 6, 2025.
“Hopefully, we’ll play against the USA,” Vonovier said. “I can’t wait to experience the World Cup, and to have it in my city will be amazing.”
Pully is a suburb of Lausanne, a city of about 140,000 people on the shores of Lake Geneva. The Lausanne region hosts the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Maison de Sport International and more than 40 international sports organizations. ♦
Julien Vonovier (center) and the Swiss U16 national team celebrate their third-place finish at FIBA EuroBasket 2024.
STUDENT’S JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY
TAKES HER FROM UKRAINE TO SVC
InAugust 2022, Marta Trembetska traveled halfway across the world from Ukraine to Latrobe to enroll at Saint Vincent College. Her motivation for the journey was twofold: to flee a war that is ravaging her homeland and to discover—perhaps a better word is reinvent— herself in America.
“No one knows you here, so you can be the person you want to be,” said Trembetska, a junior with a double major in marketing and behavioral finance. “You can leave a lot of worries behind. In Ukraine, if I’d do something different, everyone would be like, ‘What happened to the Marta we know?’ Here, you get to introduce yourself as a new person, without old beliefs or patterns. That’s a very cool thing, to kind of start a new life.”
Trembetska grew up in Lviv, a city with a population of 717,500 in western Ukraine about 43 miles from the border with Poland. A hub of culture and education, Lviv was a popular tourist destination before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“The day the war started, it was like everything was empty,” Trembetska said, “All the streets were empty. It was very silent. You don’t know what to do. Should you try to leave the country? Should you stay? How will it affect you?”
Although Lviv is farther from the front lines than any other major city in Ukraine, it has absorbed several missile attacks. On the first night of the war, Trembetska and her family sought shelter and companionship at the home of some friends. It was a fitful night’s sleep for everyone— and then they heard the air raid sirens.
“We had to learn all the rules of what to do when there is an explosion, like where to hide and what to keep in your backpack,” she said. “When you’re woken up at 3 a.m. by an air raid alarm, you go to the shelter, sit there until everything is done and then go back home. You live like that every day, and you get used to it.
“When you hear explosions, it’s not the same as in the movies. I remember the first time it happened. I stood still and waited for the second [explosion], and then the third one. Everyone else was still; no one was talking. After it’s done, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s go check the news.’ It’s like, you live in the world, but also you don’t know anything else. You only know that [the war] is not going to end tomorrow.”
Seeking stability and safety, Trembetska considered enrolling at a university in France, Great Britain or Canada. However, the lure of America won out. It took a while for her to get all her paperwork in order, line up a host family in the United States and investigate colleges via the Internet. Six months after the bombing and shooting began in Ukraine, Trembetska stepped foot for the first time on Saint Vincent College’s tranquil, leafy campus.
“The first few months here were definitely surreal,” said. “It was like being in an American movie, you know, living the American dream. Everything was just as I’d imagined it would be and even better.”
Recently, Trembetska’s brother called with disturbing news: their father was conscripted
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Marta Trembetska (left) with her brother, Vitaliy (center); mother, Ixana (right); and father, Roman (back row) in Ukraine.
FROM UKRAINE TO SVC
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into the Ukrainian army. “I cried all my tears that day,” she said. Although her home and family are 5,000 miles away, Trembetska has come to realize that in some ways the war is never far from her.
“I hate fireworks. I’m afraid of thunder,” she said. “Very often, before going to sleep, I check myself, like, ‘Where are my documents? Where is my backpack? What clothes and food should I pack?’ It gives me a sense of security, but at the same time, it’s weird.”
In her first year at Saint Vincent, Trembetska said she tried to experience as much as possible as quickly as possible. “I was meeting and talking to everyone, trying to make as many friends as I could,” she said. Trembetska became active with the Health and Fitness, Women in Business and International Student Union clubs. She went to dozens of athletic events—even though she was clueless about American football and doesn’t like baseball—and learned how to play pickleball.
In Ukraine, Trembetska studied
international economic relations. The program didn’t suit her, so she altered her career plans and switched to a double major in marketing and behavioral finance with a minor in psychology at Saint Vincent. “The biggest thing [about America] is the career opportunities,” Trembetska said. “If you want something, and you’re willing to work very hard for it, you can get it. There is almost nothing impossible here.”
Trembetska has work-study jobs with the Office of Global Community Engagement and the McKenna School. This past summer, she volunteered to mentor high school students during Crossroads Foundation’s annual Saint Vincent College Week.
A member of Alpha Lamba Delta national honors society, Trembetska has made three appearances on the Dean’s List. In fall 2023, she was among the students featured on Amazon Prime’s “The College Tour” episode about Saint Vincent.
“Marta is an extremely hardworking person,” said Dr. Michael Urick, C’04, dean of the McKenna School. “She does a great job as a student assistant in the McKenna School office because she is so driven to learn and succeed. As a student assistant, she interacts with visitors, answers calls and engages in other meaningful tasks that help the office function. She does each of these in a positive and friendly way. This, along with her drive, will ensure success in her career.” ♦
Marta Trembetska (right) and her friend, Anna Sarabun, in traditional costume for a folk dance called the Hopak. The photo was taken before they performed in Lviv to raise money for the Ukrainian army.
DR. JACOB
BOROS JOINS
SAINT VINCENT FACULTY
Dr. Jacob Boros, C’16, was hired for the fall 2024 semester as an assistant professor of political science. After graduating from Saint Vincent with bachelor’s degrees in history and politics, Boros earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Baylor University. His courses at Saint Vincent will focus on environmental politics and sustainability. Boros’ hobbies include studying maps and geography, traveling, jogging and riding roller coasters. “I’m also thinking of getting back into golf,” he said. Boros has written a book chapter about the American flag for an edited volume coming out next year. Hanging in his office are the flags of all six states in which he’s lived—the next time you’re passing by Aurelius 308, stop in and see how many you can identify! ♦
BRUCE ANTKOWIAK APPEARS IN DOCUMENTARY
Bruce Antkowiak, J.D., C’74, law professor and senior legal counsel to Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Archabbey, was interviewed for “The Godfather of Fentanyl,” a true-crime documentary series that streamed on Fox Nation last August and September.
“The Godfather of Fentanyl” tells the story of George Erik Marquardt, a high school dropout and self-taught chemist who ignited the fentanyl overdose epidemic in the United States in the early 1990s.
One of Marquardt’s lieutenants was Joseph V. Martier, of Vandergrift. In 1979, when Antkowiak was an assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, he helped convict Martier for manufacturing PCP, known on the street as angel dust.
“At the time, [Martier was operating] what was the largest PCP laboratory ever found in this country in a little cabin out in Westmoreland County,” Antkowiak said. “If all that PCP had hit the streets, it would have been an absolute plague.”
After Martier was paroled, he connected with Marquardt’s fentanyl production and distribution ring.
“These guys were brilliant chemists,” Antkowiak said. “They could have gotten sixfigure salaries from any chemical company, but there’s no jazz in that. There’s a thrill they can’t get from doing things legitimately … We got the impression that [their crimes] weren’t done out of financial desperation or anything, but because it was fun, and they knew they could pull it off.”
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Marquardt was the only source of illegal fentanyl, commonly called China white, in America until his arrest in February 1993. The National Center for Health reports that street fentanyl, which is 40 times more potent than heroin, caused nearly 75,000 overdose deaths in 2023. ♦
DR. TOM CLINE TENDS TO MAPLE TREES ALONG CAMPUS DRIVE
Theshort, winding stretch of Fraser Purchase Road that serves as the main entrance to Saint Vincent College is lined by 45 red maple trees. One sunny afternoon last summer, however, it was more like 44½.
“This one’s a mess,” Dr. Tom Cline said as he walked toward a short, scrawny tree that slouched near the guard rail about midway up the drive. The tree’s bark was peeling, and only a few brave leaves poked out of one branch. Using the saw on one end of his extendable tree pruner, Cline grunted as he hacked off the gray, brittle top portion of the tree and dragged it into the brush.
“It’s probably not going to make it,” Cline said, gesturing toward the stumpy remnant.
“But I don’t want us to take it down yet. I have hope for everything.”
Driven by his innate optimism and respect for the Benedictine values of stewardship and reverence for creation, Cline has tended to Saint Vincent’s maples the past three years. Although he already has a full-time gig as a professor of business, Cline cheerfully volunteered for the extra work.
“When I drove onto campus, I’d see a lot of dead lower branches that were really ugly,” Cline said. “The trees were neglected, and I just couldn’t take it. You can’t plant trees and ignore them. I wanted to save these maples. So, I asked for permission and Father Paul [Taylor, O.S.B., C’87, S’91, president of Saint Vincent] was kind enough to say, ‘I trust you.’”
Red maples are indigenous to Pennsylvania and are found from Maine to Minnesota and Florida to Texas. Their sap can be used to make maple syrup. Some folks refer to them as swamp maples because they are a wetland species of tree. The average lifespan of a red maple is 80 years, although some have survived 100plus years.
Wearing reflective safety vests and lugging clippers and the 20-foot pruner, Cline and his wife, Sally, attend to the trees four or five times a year, mostly in the summer and fall. At the outset, there was a lot of heavy cleanup work to do—some of the trees were being choked by forgotten strings of burned-out Christmas lights—but now it’s mostly maintenance.
“We really have to train [the trees] to grow,” Cline said. “We can’t just plant them then walk away and hope for the best. It’s like our faith—we have to plant it and nurture it.”
The yard work is good experience for Cline, who is studying to become a board-certified Master Arborist. He has been inspired and assisted by two Master Gardeners: Br. Elliott Maloney, C’68, S’72, O.S.B, the Archabbey’s landscape liaison to the College, who has directed a work-study landscaping crew year-round since 1976, and Mark Abramovic, a retired instructor of business administration in the McKenna School.
“We take care of these trees because they’re from God and they’re growing,” Cline said. “I need to work on them now before they get too big—in 10 years I won’t be able to reach them. My job is to make sure they’re still here in 80 years.” ♦
BOLIVIA NATIVE VALERIA HURTADO RECEIVES BENEDICTINE PREP AWARD
Afew years ago, alarmed by economic and political turmoil in their native Bolivia, Valeria Hurtado’s parents sent her to the United States to finish her high school education. Hurtado flew from Santa Cruz to Newark, New Jersey, and enrolled at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School—a rigorous, highly rated Catholic boarding school run by Benedictine monks.
“I was scared because I was going to a new country,” Hurtado recalled. “I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t even speak English. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it. But I knew I had to try because it would be better for my future and my family’s future.”
Four years later, Hurtado is on a path toward success—excelling academically and socially at Saint Vincent College.
Hurtado, a sophomore majoring in finance and mathematics, has a 3.656 grade-point average and is a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta national honors society. She plays for the women’s volleyball and women’s lacrosse teams and has a part-time job in the campus cafeteria.
Last spring, Hurtado was the first female recipient of the Benedict Prep Award, a scholarship awarded annually to a Saint Vincent College student who is a graduate of a Benedictine high school. The scholarship was founded to honor Fr. Vernon Holtz, O.S.B.,
C’58, S’62, former assistant headmaster of the Saint Vincent Preparatory School and academic dean at the College.
When Hurtado arrived in the United States, her older brother, Jose, C’24, was a student at Saint Vincent. After visiting him on campus, Hurtado decided she also wanted to study here.
“I had other [college] options, but I wanted to come to Saint Vincent because they really wanted me here,” Hurtado said. “I like being on a small campus because it feels more like a family. The other day, we were in Mass with Father Paul [Taylor, O.S.B., C’87, S’91, president of Saint Vincent] and he knew everyone there by name. It’s nice to feel like you are part of this—you’re really part of Saint Vincent.”
At St. Benedict Prep, Hurtado’s tuition was covered by a scholarship. An investment fund set up by her parents— her father is a teacher, her mother a secretary—enabled Hurtado to enroll at Saint Vincent. To avoid asking her parents for cash to cover day-to-day expenses, Hurtado works 20 hours a week at the cafeteria.
“Even working just three days a week, I make more money than my mom makes,” Hurtado said. “I don’t want to ask them for more because it’s so hard for them to get money.”
Receiving the Benedict Prep Award from Saint Vincent was a welcome surprise to Hurtado.
“When I got the email telling me I’d gotten the scholarship, I read it twice and was like, ‘What is this?’ I was confused,” Hurtado said. “When I realized it was for real, I was so happy. If you work hard, good things will happen to you. My parents were so excited, not just because of the scholarship, but because I am doing well here.” ♦
DR. JIVIDEN LEADS PANEL ON 2024 ELECTION AND BALLOT INTEGRITY
TomCorbett was careful to choose a tie with red and blue stripes for his appearance Sept. 3 at Saint Vincent College as part of a public forum about the 2024 election and ballot integrity.
“Some of you are on the red (Republican) team, some of you are on the blue (Democrat) team,” Corbett said to a crowd of more than 100 people at the Fred M. Rogers Center. “I have both colors in my tie. This is our bipartisan effort to explain the election process.”
Corbett, former governor of Pennsylvania, was joined on the panel by retired U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich, Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas and Robert Beecher, deputy policy director for the Pennsylvania Department of State. The moderator was Dr. Jason Jividen, department chair and associate professor of political science in the McKenna School and co-director of the Center for Political and Economic Thought at Saint Vincent College.
The event was organized by Bruce Antkowiak, J.D., C’74, law professor and senior legal counsel to Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Archabbey.
Vote counting is a multi-layered process with slight variations from county to county in Pennsylvania. The panel explained how in-person, mail-in and absentee ballots are tabulated and detailed the safeguards against election fraud.
Legal challenges to some recent election outcomes have stoked unreasonable fears and eroded confidence in the election system, Cindrich said.
“If democracy is working, we don’t need much from the courts, Cindrich said. “We debate, we decide, we elect. A court can make a ruling [about election results]. What it can’t do is make people agree. That has to come through discussion and dialogue.” ♦
LEFT: Former governor Tom Corbett
ABOVE: (From left) Deputy policy director for the Pennsylvania Department of State Robert Beecher, Dr. Jason Jividen and Westmoreland County Commissioner Ted Kopas
STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF ON THE MOVE AND IN THE NEWS
Saint Vincent College was recognized for the second year in a row by Colleges of Distinction. Career development and McKenna’s business programs were lauded in the 2024-25 ratings.
In May, Dr. Michael Urick and Aaron Allen, an adjunct professor in the criminology, law and society program, were honored with Trailblazer Awards by the Westmoreland-Fayette Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The Trailblazer awards recognize local professionals under the age of 45 who exemplify Scout principles.
Urick’s 2021 book “A Manager’s Guide to Using the Force: Leadership Lessons from a Galaxy Far, Far Away,” which explores how we can learn about decision making and influence practices in “Star Wars,” recently was translated into Mandarin.
In September, Lexington Books released “A Hero in All of Us? Heroism and American Political Thought as Seen on TV.” The book examines the trend in American entertainment away from stories about conventional heroes and villains and toward more complex protagonists. Three McKenna School alumni are featured: Aaron Kushner, C’13, was co-editor and author of chapters on “The Walking Dead” and “The Boys”; Ben Slomski, C’16, contributed a chapter on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”; and Jacob Boros, C’16, assistant professor of political science, wrote about “Severance.”
In August, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe held its annual air show. Urick and Lee Intachai, assistant director of community relations and outreach, enjoyed meeting everyone who stopped by the Saint Vincent College booth to talk about our new aviation management–professional pilot program.
Several McKenna students, including Zoe Mangan, Jaden Bailey, Mike Fleming, and AJ McLafferty, received crucial real-world experience by working at the annual Steelers training camp this past summer.
In an article entitled “Leadership and Operational Excellence in the Neighborhood of MakeBelieve,” published this
summer in the Journal of Leadership and Management, Urick explored what we can learn about leadership from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Congrats to former adjunct instructor of finance and McKenna Council of Advisors member John Malone, C’83, who in July was inducted into the Connellsville Area High School Hall of Fame.
Instructor of business administration Bob Markley met with Drew Johnson, a 2021 Saint Vincent graduate who participated in our SAP Business One Program, at the Americas SAP Users Group (ASUG) summer meeting in Pittsburgh. The annual ASUG meeting explores cutting-edge concepts related to SAP.
Minor construction work was completed over the summer to help preserve historic Aurelius Hall, which houses the McKenna School.
Dr. Eric Kocian, chair and associate professor of criminology, law and society, spoke at the Justice Works Youth Care meeting in Westmoreland County. Justice Works Youth Care provides a variety of programs focused on child welfare and juvenile justice. Kocian discussed his research on addiction, early intervention and recovery.
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OUT AND ABOUT
Canon USA hosted instructor Bob Markley’s SAP Business One class for a tour of the Cranberry Township manufacturing facility. During the visit, SAP Business One students learned how Canon implemented its enterprise resource planning system.
Over the summer, Markley visited SAP’s United States Headquarters in Newtown Square.
On Aug. 14, we held our inaugural Friends of McKenna Steelers training camp picnic. Thanks to everyone who came to campus to experience the final day of training camp! We hope to make this an annual event.
In August, business law instructor Fr. Bonaventure Curtis, O.S.B., C’10, assistant professor of business law, blessed a fleet of airplanes at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. These are the planes flown by students in our aviation management program.
Students Benjamin Tantalo and Madalyn Smith had great early career experiences assisting Cannon USA, Inc. with its launch of SAP Business One. Instructor Markley and Cannon employee Joshua Henn, C’21, guided the McKenna team. Tantalo, a finance major, interned with VistaVu Solutions. Smith, a business management major, interned with Consensus International.
The first McKenna School outing at PNC Park was a success. Thank you to the 40 alumni, faculty, family and friends who joined us July 23 on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Although the Pirates lost the ballgame, we had a fantastic time together!
Dr. Jeff Godwin, professor of business administration, attended the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs conference last June in Miami and participated in sessions relating to accreditation.
In June, Dr. Mike Urick, dean of the McKenna School, gave a presentation to some of the region’s top high school students at the Leadership Westmoreland Youth Academy.
McKenna School students in adjunct instructor Mike Arabia’s Essentials of Selling course got a firsthand look at how a sales strategy comes together. On April 18, Lauren Fox, Jimmie Evans, Tyler Wood, Bella Prediger, Alissa Minerd and Domenica Delaney took a field trip to U. S. Steel’s Irvin Plant, which is part of the Mon Valley Works. During the tour, the students met with the company’s operations managers and toured production facilities that support many customers across U. S. Steel’s portfolio. The trip has been part of Arabia’s course since 2017.
This summer, SAP Business One interns Minerd and Derek Hald worked their jobs remotely from our OE Lab classroom. Derek Hile, C’17, a solutions expert at Stellar One, returned to campus to mentor them.
EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
On Sept. 19, the McKenna School held its annual town hall meeting for students. The meeting was well attended, and participants learned about many of the exciting things that will be happening this semester.
To mark Constitution Day (Sept. 17), Dr. Adam Carrington, associate professor of political science at Ashland University, delivered a lecture about the Supreme Court and the separation of powers on Sept. 11 at the Fred M. Rogers Center. The event was sponsored by the Center for Political and Economic Thought (CPET) at Saint Vincent College and the Jack Miller Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit committed to teaching America’s founding principles and history.
In September, Saint Vincent College welcomed visitors from San Beda University in the Philippines. Part of their visit included a discussion with Dr. Jason Jividen, department chair and associate professor of political science and codirector of the CPET.
The Dale P. Latimer Library featured an exhibit this summer on the history of the College’s aviation program. It included artifacts dating back to the 1920s.
Dr. Kayla Jachimowski, assistant professor of criminology, law and society, and business administration instructor Marti Fusco talked with students in the Crossroads Program, which was held last June on campus. Crossroads is a Catholic middle-school program that helps students develop and achieve life and career goals.