The Community College of Allegheny County, Catalyst Connection and DMI Industries joined 50 other business leaders and community college partners from 15 states in Washington, D.C., this month to speak with senators and representatives, including leadership on the Senate and House education and workforce committees, to discuss the critical role that small- and medium-sized businesses should play as Congress develops and modernizes education and workforce policies. The attendees urged lawmakers to close the skills gap and invest in strategies that develop a pipeline of skilled, trained workers that meets the demand of growing industries.

The Community College of Allegheny County will conclude the Men of Merit Initiative and Women on a Mission Fall 2018 Speaker Series with a presentation by Carmen A. Anderson, director of Equity and Social Justice at the Heinz Endowments. The presentation will take place on Thursday, Nov. 29, at 2:00 p.m. in Room 520 of the K. Leroy Irvis Science Center on Allegheny Campus.

The Community College of Allegheny County and Sharon Regional Medical Center are partnering to offer a new satellite paramedic program at the Sharon, Pa. facility. The Paramedic program will provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to be eligible to obtain National Registry certification as paramedics. Applicants must be at minimum certified EMTs. The partnership will meet the urgent need for paramedic level education to develop emergency medical services (EMS) professionals to care for communities and patients in the northwest region of Pennsylvania.

Sierra Dunlap, a resident of Penn Hills and a student in the Physical Therapist Assistant program at CCAC Boyce Campus, was presented with the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Association (PPTA) 2018 Student Leadership award at PPTA's annual conference, held last month in Valley Forge. Annually, two outstanding students-one each from among the 18 physical therapy programs and the 17 physical therapy assistant programs in the commonwealth-are honored with the award.

Maria (Mia) Maneer was working parttime as a security guard, making about $5,000 a year and receiving food, medical and transportation assistance, when she learned about the Modern Office Systems Training (MOST) program offered at CCAC Braddock Hills Center. The program provides free, up-to-date office technology training to unemployed and underemployed individuals for the purpose of developing employment skills that will lead to self-sufficiency and career advancement.

The Community College of Allegheny County's North Campus will offer winter intersession courses from December 18, 2018, to January 11, 2019. The four-week courses between the fall and spring semesters will enable students to stay on track with their goals by affording them the opportunity to take foundation classes that apply to many degrees, as well as other classes of interest.

The Community College of Allegheny County will host College Kickstart Day at all eight of its locations on Saturday, November 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This free open house event welcomes all prospective students, their family members and friends.

The Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus will offer winter intersession courses from December 18, 2018, to January 11, 2019. The four-week courses between the fall and spring semesters will enable students to stay on track with their goals by affording them the opportunity to take foundation classes that apply to many degrees, as well as other classes of interest. The initiative also provides opportunities for Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients to continue receiving their monthly housing allowance while furthering their degree during the break.

Nine students in CCAC’s Mechatronics Technology program at West Hills Center visited Chicago from Oct. 15 to 18 to attend the PMMI PACK EXPO International trade show held by the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (formerly Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute). Accompanied by CCAC Assistant Professor Patricia Thompson and CCAC Adjunct Professor Janine Mickey, the second-year students had the opportunity to witness cutting-edge technology and to meet with more than 2,000 vendors of automated equipment used in the packaging industry.

The Community College of Allegheny County's North Campus will host a Candidate Forum on Thursday, November 1, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the North Campus Atrium stage. The forum will feature four candidates-two running for the Pennsylvania Senate and two running for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Members of the public are invited to attend. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

he Community College of Allegheny County's Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program is recognizing 30 years of academic excellence, career training, civic engagement and service learning. The anniversary will be celebrated on Thursday, November 15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the program's 22nd Annual Alumni Poster Night hosted by the PTA Class of 2019. The hallmark event will be held in the Performance and Lecture Hall Lobby located in the South Wing of CCAC Boyce Campus.

CCAC will present “Mission Critical: Filling Tomorrow’s Jobs”, a labor and management panel discussion focusing on how business and labor can collectively address the rising challenge of the growing skills gap. The event will take place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 15, at Allegheny Campus.

The Community College of Allegheny County will continue the Men of Merit Initiative Fall 2018 Speaker Series with a presentation by the Honorable Austin A. Davis, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 35. The presentation will take place on Thursday, Oct. 18, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Room 520 of the K. Leroy Irvis Science Center on Allegheny Campus.

Employees of the Community College of Allegheny County have walked the distance to promote good health by participating in the SparkPittsburgh Company Step Challenge. The college finished in third place among large companies in the Pittsburgh region-up from seventh place last year-with 43,798,006 steps in all.

Community College of Allegheny County's South Campus Theatre will present a One-Act Festival that is acted, directed and produced entirely by students. The plays will be performed on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 12:00 p.m. and on Thursday, Oct. 25, and Friday, Oct. 26, at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Students and community members are invited to find out how they can receive training at the Community College of Allegheny County in two years or less toward high-paying and highly rewarding careers. CCACs West Hills Center will host a Skilled Trades & Services Fair on Tuesday, November 20, from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This is CCAC's 11th annual trades fair, which typically draws 400 to 600 high school students from 50 area high schools.

Community College of Allegheny County's Respiratory Therapy program will celebrate National Respiratory Care Week, Oct. 22 to 26, with activities designed to promote respiratory health. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, students at Allegheny Campus will staff informational tables in the Milton Hall Rotunda as well as in the Foerster Student Services Center, outside of the cafeteria, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Community College of Allegheny County's West Hills Center is inviting high school students, parents, community members and local businesses to Manufacturing Day 2017 on Wednesday, October 24, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Manufacturing Day is an international event where thousands of businesses and schools across North America celebrate modern manufacturing and inspire the next generation of manufacturers.

The Community College of Allegheny County's South Campus will host its first-ever 5K race on Sunday, October 14, at 10:00 a.m. The event is open to the college and the wider community. Proceeds from the race will benefit CCAC South Campus student clubs and organizations.

The Community College of Allegheny County's West Hills Center in Oakdale will host Odyssey Day in collaboration with Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities on Friday, Oct. 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The education and outreach event is coordinated by the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. This year's theme is "Smart Cities."

The Community College of Allegheny County will continue the Men of Merit Initiative Fall 2018 Speaker Series with a presentation by K. Chase Patterson, chief executive officer of Urban Academy, a K-5 elementary charter school in Pittsburgh's Larimer neighborhood. The presentation will take place on Thursday, Oct. 4, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Room 520 of the K. Leroy Irvis Science Center on Allegheny Campus. As an active member of the community, Patterson has been instrumental in shepherding black millennial leaders into roles of power throughout the region.

The Community College of Allegheny County and the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania will present a Junior Chamber of Commerce Workshop on marketing and communications at CCAC's Homewood-Brushton Center on Wednesday, September 26. The workshop, "Marketing Savvy for Your Business," will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

CCAC Allegheny Campus will host the second annual HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) Recruitment and Transfer Fair on Thursday, October 11 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus Student Nurses' Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) Club will host their fifth "Cookout in the Park with Healthcare Options" on Saturday, September 8, from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in Cedar Park on Pittsburgh's North Side, located across the street from Light of Life Mission at 10 East North Avenue.

The Community College of Allegheny County and the Northgate School District are partnering to offer high school students an opportunity to earn a 30-credit General Education Certificate through the College in High School (CIHS) program, with classes taught onsite at Northgate High School.

The Community College of Allegheny County's Washington County Center is offering a Small Business Management course that starts October 19 and runs for eight weeks. The hybrid course combines traditional classroom instruction (60 percent) with online collaboration and learning (40 percent). The in-class portion of the course will be held at the center on Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.

The Community College of Allegheny County’s South Campus will host its first-ever 5K race on Sunday, Oct. 14, at 10:00 a.m. The event is open to the college and the wider community. Proceeds from the race will benefit CCAC South Campus student clubs and organizations.

Community College of Allegheny County student Qingqing Zhao of Cheswick is one of 207 Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society members named as a 2018 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar and, as such, will receive a $1,000 scholarship. A dual enrollment student, Zhao is a junior at Shady Side Academy Senior School. She is pursuing an Associate of Science in Business Management at CCAC, where she is taking General Chemistry 1 and Differential Equations courses this semester.

CCAC will launch the Men of Merit Initiative Fall 2018 Speaker Series beginning in September. The series will feature presentations by outstanding Pittsburgh leaders on how to achieve personal and professional success in the 21st century.

The Community College of Allegheny County and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce have partnered for the first time to establish a new apprenticeship program that will train employees of local manufacturers in mechatronics.

The Community College of Allegheny County and the Penn Hills School District are partnering to offer high school students an opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. The College in High School (CIHS) program, which begins with the start of the school year on Sept. 4, offers an alternative to the traditional method of taking the Advanced Placement (AP) exam administered by The College Board.

Students at the Community College of Allegheny County who work at McDonald's restaurants may be eligible for up to $2,500 a year in scholarship money. The Archways to Opportunity program provides eligible McDonald's employees funds to pursue their educational goals as long as they are in school.

The Community College of Allegheny County is offering a nine-session class that has been developed to help individuals prepare for the math portion of the entrance examination that is used by the local trade unions when recruiting new apprentices. The class will be held at CCAC Allegheny Campus on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. beginning Aug. 25.

Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus will host a conference that explores the Vietnam War from the varying perspectives of Vietnam veterans, anti-war resisters and representatives from the Vietnamese community. The conference will take place on Saturday, September 22, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Foerster Student Services Center Auditorium and Lobby, followed by a march to the Vietnam Memorial on the North Shore where a ceremony will be held honoring T.J. McGarvey and the Pittsburgh Building Trades who built the memorial with donated labor.

The Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus will host the 5th Annual TAZ (The Authors' Zone) Writers' Conference on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (The exact location is to be determined, based on enrollment.) The TAZ Writers' Conference is an opportunity for writers of all levels to receive in-depth instruction on various writing-related topics in one day.

The Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus recently hosted a day-long educational camp that taught students entering sixth through eighth grades all about DNA. In the Digging for DNA Biotech Bootcamp, students engaged in fun hands-on learning activities, such as creating models and investigating a "crime scene."

Community College of Allegheny County Associate Professor Jill Oblak traveled to Cuba last month with a group of college professors and high school teachers from Pittsburgh and across the country to see and experience first-hand the island nation that has been closed to most Americans for almost 60 years. Knowing very little about Cuba prior to embarking, Oblak, who teaches Sociology at CCAC Boyce Campus, found the trip to be "fascinating and enriching."

The Community College of Allegheny County's West Hills Center in Oakdale will offer demonstrations of its Mechatronics Technology program during College Kickstart Day, a free open house event that will be held at all eight of CCAC's locations. The event runs from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18, and is open to all prospective students, their family members and friends.