Education briefs
Legion donates to fund West Brownsville American Legion Post 940 donated $500 to the Veterans Club’s Col. Arthur L. Bakewell Veterans Scholarship Fund at California University of Pennsylvania.
In turn, the Veterans Club presented Post 940 with a $500 Club Certificate. The Veterans Club awards three $1,000 scholarships to eligible Cal U Veterans per year.
For more information, contact the Office of Veterans Affairs at 724-938-4076.
Local librarian selected
Dr. Andrea Wyman, California University of Pennsylvania’s government documents librarian, has been invited to review for the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ most recent round of proposals in the Research and Demonstration category for the National Leadership Grants Program.
Proposals receiving federal funding will be model projects that can have national impact as a result of their innovative approaches to meeting the challenges that libraries and museums are facing today implementing information literacy. The month of April was designated by the IMLS as grant review month.
Also, Wyman was selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board as a Fulbright Senior Scholar to participate in the bi-national program of educational exchanges between the U.S. and Iceland.
Under the guidelines, she will lecture and conduct research and have institutional affiliation with the department of library science at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.
Cal U earns grant
California University of Pennsylvania earned a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to study public housing in rural Pennsylvania.
Dr. Pamela Twiss, associate professor with Cal U’s social work and gerontology department, who applied for the grant last spring, describes the proposed project as a collaborative effort with Twiss serving as project director and Dr. Thomas Mueller of the earth sciences department serving as co-principal investigator.
According to the executive summary of the proposal, “The goals of this project are to: describe the size and location of the public housing stock in rural Pennsylvania, identify what changes are underway in public housing use in rural counties in Pennsylvania, explore perceived underlying causes for these changes, and explore how Pennsylvania may target its efforts and resources to maximize the use of this valuable housing resource.”
The study will include a telephone survey of public housing managers in 31 rural counties across the state of Pennsylvania. The contract was finalized early in March of this year and includes $9,288 in Center for Rural Pennsylvania funding to be spent over 11 months.
Program recommended
The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) is encouraging students to apply for the Pennsylvania State Work-Study Program as a significant part of their financial aid package.
The application deadline for the summer term is May 15. Students interested in participating during the fall term or the entire academic year 2002-03 must submit their application by Oct. 1. Applications received after the deadline will be considered if funds are available.
Participating students may work in technology or community service positions related to their major or minor for a maximum of 20 hours per week during the academic year.
They may work up to 40 hours per week during their summer and term breaks. Non-profit employers are then reimbursed by PHEAA for 40 percent of the student’s wages. For-profit employers are reimbursed for 30 percent of the earned wages.
Interested students can find information and an application form at www.pheaa.org or by calling PHEAA at 800-692-7392. Students may also send an e-mail request to matchingfunds@pheaa.org.