close

Retiring Penn State Fayette director of Continuing Education made a difference

By Frances Borsodi Zajac fzajac@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
1 / 3

Rebecca Devereaux

Summer robotics camp participants yell, “Thanks, Mr. Joe!”, to Joseph Segilia (right), who had a hand in making the program a reality on Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

2 / 3

Joseph Segilia, director of outreach and continuing education at PennState Fayette, The Eberly Campus wipes away tears as he recalls different stories throughout his career, during an interview with a reporter at his office on campus.

3 / 3

Joseph Segilia, director of outreach and continuing education at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus retired this summer after serving at Penn State for 24 years.

An eastern Pennsylvania native who was eager to work for Penn State, Joseph E. Segilia, had a question when told 24 years ago there was a job opening at the university’s Fayette County campus.

“Where is Fayette County?” he asked.

By the time he retired at the end of June as director of Outreach and Continuing Education at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, Segilia was one of the campus’ biggest champions, leaving as the 2017 Outstanding Fellow. It’s an honor that humbles him.

“It’s been a great 24 years,” said Segilia, interviewed during his final days on campus when his smile sometimes gave way to tears. “When I came here, Penn State had a motto: ‘Making life better,’ and that’s what we try to do.”

A native of Hazelton, Luzerne County, Segilia earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from West Chester State University. He taught in Hazelton’s public schools during the day and gave lessons in a music store at night.

Thinking he wanted to be a principal, Segilia earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Penn State University at University Park but switched his interest after taking a class in adult education. He began doctoral work through Penn State in higher education administration.

Segilia took jobs that gave him a variety of experiences, working at Luzerne Community College in Pennsylvania, University of Dubuque in Iowa, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, University of Arizona and the University of Phoenix.

In 1993, he became director of Outreach and Continuing Education at Penn State Fayette, a campus that serves Fayette, Greene and Somerset counties as well as portions of Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Segilia recalled then-chancellor Dr. August Simonsen telling him, “I want to make this work.” He said Simonsen strongly supported the office, as have the other four chancellors with whom Segilia has worked, most recently Dr. W. Charles Patrick, whom Segilia said has been “such an advocate.”

When Segilia arrived, the office’s primary focus was emergency medical training. He asked the chancellor to designate a campus classroom to serve as a continuing education center and reached out to the community for ideas.

Segilia joined local organizations and boards, worked with schools, the Intermediate Unit, government, business and industry. He let people know Penn State Fayette wanted to help.

“My job is to bring the campus to the community or the community to the campus. I tried to build diversified programming to met the needs of various segments of the community,” said Segilia, who lives in Vanderbilt with his wife, Jean. Together, they have six children and five grandchildren.

In fact, the Office of Outreach and Continuing Education has grown through the years, making an impact on both Penn State and Southwestern Pennsylvania communities by offering degree and certificate programs for businesses and organizations, corporate training, individual and professional development and youth programs.

“You reach out to the communities you serve, find out their academic, professional and vocational needs and develop programs to meet them,” said Segilia.

The office also coordinates and manages campus facilities used by community organizations for more than 100 meetings and events each year. They include lectures, charity and athletic events, performances, candidate debates, lectures on community issues, and partnership programs with Penn State Extension.

One of the biggest highlights of Segilia’s career was handling arrangements for a March 2008 campaign stop at Penn State Fayette by Hillary Clinton in her first run for president.

“It was amazing,” said Segilia. “Every seat in the gym was taken. Every inch of the floor was covered. Governor Rendell was here, Congressman Murtha, our state representatives. It was crazy. We put it together in three days.”

Segilia considers the establishment of a Center for Community and Public Safety to be one of the office’s biggest contributions. The center focuses on first responders, health care workers, law enforcement professionals, government, industrial and corporate employees and the military. The paramedic program recently received national accreditation, one of three in western Pennsylvania to achieve this distinction.

The center has been awarded a number of contracts with the U.S. Dept. of Defense and three statewide contracts with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to develop statewide curriculum for Pennsylvania constables, deputy sheriffs and more than 800 law enforcement officials in western Pennsylvania each year.

“We try to make it a quality program,” said Segilia, who noted center programming has resulted in the campus receiving more than $32 million in commonwealth grants.

The office even has an international reach as Fayette Campus received a contract with Chile’s Ministry of Education through the U.S. Dept. of State to bring Chilean students to the campus in Fall 2018 for a mining credit certification program.

“Seven colleges bid on that and we were selected. That was three years in the making,” said Segilia, who worked in partnership with University Park’s Global Programs. It will be the first program offered in the U.S. with the Chilean government.

All the while, the office has made an effort to find grants, contracts and other sources of funding to help people receive training and education at free or reduced costs. Segilia pointed to the support of regional foundations.

The office has won awards for creative and innovative programming, including one from the Association for Continuing Higher Education for the best non-credit program in the nation as well as Penn State’s Vice President’s Award for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity. Many individuals from the office have also been honored.

Segilia constantly talks-up the office staff, pulling them into the conversation when discussing their programs. He noted many staffers were able to move on to other leadership roles on campus or in community agencies.

For this office, there’s one overall goal. “I hope we made the community a better place. It’s not me — it’s our team who made it happen and the support of our chancellor,” said Segilia, “because what we do is good.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today