Aug. 17, 2010
OP-ED: Pinpoint Precision: Four Years After First Class, Harrisburg University Model Exceeds Expectations, Highlights Need for More STEM-Focused Universities in the Nation
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
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Harrisburg, PA (HNN) - If you didn’t know any better, it would appear to be the best job fair ever. Or at least the only economic-stimulus package that would receive unanimous approval in Congress.
Regardless of the point of view, one thing is beyond dispute: The big winners are the employers and the employees of Central Pennsylvania. Select Medical, Highmark, Penn National Insurance, Gannett Fleming, PSECU, and Hershey Foods are among the organizations that are strengthening their competitive advantage, regionally and nationally, through a homegrown talent pipeline—Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.
If it doesn’t sound like the conventional undergraduate bricks-and-mortar hall of education, Harrisburg University is OK with that. Because it’s not a conventional university, nor a conventional precursor to a career.
A Perfect Storm
In the spring of 2010 Harrisburg University graduated its fourth class of students. And just like their predecessors, this group’s post graduation success includes careers in health care, educational service, and engineering.
In a departure from the standard college graduate story line—one framed by bleak job prospects and a willingness to accept any position at any company—Harrisburg University graduates are being hired for jobs they want and by companies that want them. In fact, 92 percent of our graduates have secured jobs in their field of study by the day they graduated.
Coincidence? A quirk in the stagnant job market? Definitely not.
This is the result of a calculated strategy conceived nearly two decades ago by business, government, and academic leaders in Harrisburg to transform the then-distressed region into an economic–development engine.
The centerpiece of this strategy was the linking of business and education—to offer a curriculum tailored specifically to equip students with the skills to meet the needs of the 21st century business world while challenging local and regional employers to revive the economy, make Harrisburg a desirable place to live and work, and actively participate in educating students and, in essence, training them for the world of work.
With the symbolic end of the manufacturing sector in 1981, when Harrisburg was listed as the second-most distressed city in the nation, came a hard truth: The scarcity of qualified, educated workers to fill the growing abundance of high-skilled science- and technology-based jobs was costing the city—educationally, economically, and culturally—and killing its chances to compete, both regionally and nationally in the new knowledge-based economy.
Against the backdrop of this “perfect storm,” the foundation of what would become Harrisburg University had, for all intents and purposes, been laid.
Part of the Solution
Gannett Fleming was one of the many companies to embrace the challenge of revitalizing the region. Mired in the area’s economic woes of the post-industrial decline, the East Pennsboro Township-based engineering firm had plenty of available jobs. The problem wasn’t lack of candidates, but rather a lack of qualified candidates, a widespread issue in Central Pennsylvania.
Less than one-third of the college graduates had earned degrees in fields that Gannett Fleming and the rest of the region’s businesses needed to be competitive in the new economy. Despite a strong community college presence and several highly regarded liberal arts institutions, Harrisburg did not have a college or university that focused on the core subjects necessary to thrive in a 21st century economy: science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Moreover, there was very little interest in offering programs that concentrated exclusively on these critical STEM subjects.
To steer the region in the right direction, business and government leaders looked to leverage Harrisburg’s strength as the state capital. Making the shift would require those directly in the economy’s crosshairs—the companies and businesses—to be a part of the solution.
After examining the specific needs of the new economy, from education and industry to taxes and transportation, the leaders realized that the key was linking education to economic development. Higher education and new skill sets were needed for job growth as the age of emerging technology and new materials brought more-sophisticated products and processes to industry, business offices, and retail environments.
Business + Education = Economic Success
In 1997 a group of corporate, government, and community leaders led by David Schankweiler, CEO and publisher of the Central Penn Business Journal, spearheaded the creation of a regional task force to identify strategies to guide central Pennsylvania through the next 20 years. This 150-member task force identified four measures of regional success:
· Regional cooperation
· Job creation
· Individual earnings
· Educational achievement in the region’s population
The common thread through these findings was education, which the task force cited as the key to creating and supporting a robust 21st century economy in Central Pennsylvania. Inherent in this was the need for a partnership between business and education to create workforce-ready graduates.
Harrisburg University was the result of this home-grown integration of business and education. Established in 2001, the University was a hybrid—a private institution based on a career, competency-based learning model, connected to the business community and offering demand-driven applied science and technology-focused programs in Central Pennsylvania. When it was incorporated, Harrisburg University became the first independent science- and technology-focused, nonprofit university to be established in Pennsylvania in more than 100 years.
Beyond being a new place of higher learning, Harrisburg University represented an ideological switch from how four-year colleges operate and educate. Long before a single application was accepted, University senior management met with more than 100 chief executive officers from companies throughout the Commonwealth to determine their workforce needs. Their answers shaped the curriculum—what should be taught, how it should be taught, who should teach it, and how those being taught would benefit the region.
Gannett Fleming and the other participating companies also committed resources to join Harrisburg University’s faculty and act as program advisory members. Their qualifications were exemplary, from CEOs of biotech companies and project leaders, to research scientists, and clinicians. Their academic backgrounds and ongoing practical experience were an excellent fit to position Harrisburg University students for success—and propel the region back to prominence.
The proximity of the University’s campus to these businesses encouraged internships. This reciprocal relationship gives students real-work experience in the business technology sector and companies a ready-made talent pool of pre-qualified employees whom they can educate and train to meet their specific needs.
Today Gannett Fleming is one of the many businesses reaping the benefits of its investment in Harrisburg University. The firm’s GeoDecisions division collaborated with the University to develop and teach the curriculum for a GIS program. This program not only allows students to graduate with a highly sought-after skill but also contributes to filling GeoDecisions’ staffing needs.
“In the technology (important to GeoDecisions), there is a real lack of quality people to hire,” said Robert Scaer, Gannett Fleming’s president and chief operating officer. “By creating an education program that can produce the kind of people we want to hire, that helps us out.”
The help has extended in both directions. Since 2004 Gannett Fleming has:
· Invested several thousand hours of key staff, valued at $195,000. This includes development and teaching of the GIS curriculum (five classes), serving as student advisors, and being guest speakers during classes.
· Provided paid internships to students.
· Made a $30,000 donation to the Gannett Fleming Presidential Scholarship at Harrisburg University.
The investment Gannett Fleming has made to its community by investing in Harrisburg University has paid off in ways beyond monetary. Gannett Fleming is creating its own workforce. Gannett Fleming has hired two graduates for full-time positions and continues to provide internships for Harrisburg University students. Gannett Fleming and GeoDecisions will continue to commit leading geospatial technology professionals to develop and teach the dynamic and evolving material that is vital for students to succeed in the 21sr century.
“Harrisburg University is the win-win for the region. It is a strategic sure thing because it is born of this community,” said Scaer. “When private corporations, news media, and elected officials in central Pennsylvania recognized that we had a growing shortage of science- and technology-educated graduates in the region to grow our knowledge-based economy, we worked together to establish a science-, technology-, engineering-, and mathematics- (STEM) focused university that could fill the void over the next decade.”
Economic Impact
By aligning traditional undergraduate degrees with science and technology-based workforce development, Harrisburg University is directly stimulating the growth of a knowledge-based economy in Central Pennsylvania. Its educational model, formed through a unique public-private partnership, has catalyzed economic development in the region by increasing the percentage of college degree holders in applied science and technology fields; offering attractive, regionally complementary, demand-driven educational opportunities in applied science- and technology-related fields; and serving as a bridge between secondary education reform and an emerging knowledge industry.
University founders view the school’s establishment as a strategic investment in the region’s future. Harrisburg University was expected to fuel economic development by offering the right education in the fields crucial to success in the growing knowledge industry. The thinking was that not only would the university foster new and increasing job opportunities for its own graduates by attracting technology-based companies to the region but also by catalyzing innovation in the existing industry clusters.
Clearly, results are exceeding expectations and reinforcing the University’s importance to the region.
· Harrisburg University has received nearly $100 million in capital investment, representing one of the largest economic-development projects the region has ever undertaken.
· The University’s experiential learning model, coupled with career preparation and development, has led to partnerships aligned with the school’s mission and vision. For example, the National Science Foundation, funds the Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities program housed within the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement at the University.
· Partners from across industry, academia, and government provide students with on-site internships, mentoring, and advanced learning opportunities connected to the latest trends, discoveries, and developments in biotechnology through the DCED-funded Capital Area Biotechnology Partnership. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is partnering to create advanced gaming and data-visualization lab space within the University.
· Several hundred individuals and organizations—including Fortune 500 companies and other leading companies such as Hershey Company, Select Medical Corporation, PPL, Gannett Fleming, Cleveland Brothers Equipment Company, Tyco Electronics, and Penn National Insurance—have made supporting Harrisburg University one of their top philanthropic investments. This support, combined with early public- and private-sector investments, will ensure the continued fast-paced rise of Harrisburg University as a prominent institution of higher education in the Commonwealth.
· The University’s annual impact in the local economy is more than $32 million. Over the next decade, Harrisburg University has the potential to create 450 jobs and 350,000 square feet of additional academic space, and spark investment in entirely new or rehabilitated corporate, retail, residential, and research office and laboratory space in downtown Harrisburg.
From College to Career
Although shrinking in the rearview mirror now and a generation in the past, the nadir of the post-industrial decline in Harrisburg still serves as a reminder of how far the region has come.
The model that Harrisburg University created to allow the marketplace—employers and employees—to set the economic pace is distinctive and fluid, led by faculty who act as partners with, or who are themselves members of, the corporate and larger business community. By bringing this “world of work” into the classroom, Harrisburg University transforms the classroom into the world of work, balancing traditional elements, specialized expertise, and significant career-oriented experiential components so students graduate with a learning experience that leads from college to career in one step.
“We are accomplishing precisely what the region envisioned for us when we were founded in 2001: Offer academic programs in the nationally critical STEM disciplines that are designed to meet the needs of the region’s youth, workforce, and businesses, and to create, to expand, and to attract economic opportunities,” says Mel Schiavelli, president of Harrisburg University. He is pictured in the photo accompanying this Op-Ed.
“Our graduates are stimulating growth of a knowledge-based economy here and positioning the region—and the nation—to be a competitive force in the global economy. As the only applied science- and technology-focused comprehensive university between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Harrisburg University is meeting the needs of our region’s workforce and industries in a manner that cannot be easily matched by any other institution.”
Founded in 2001 to address Central Pennsylvania’s need for increased opportunities for study leading to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Harrisburg University is an innovative and ambitious private institution that produces graduates who provide increased competence and capacity in science and technology disciplines to Pennsylvania and the nation. Harrisburg University ensures institutional access for underrepresented students and links learning and research to practical outcomes. As a private university serving the public good, Harrisburg University remains the only STEM-focused comprehensive university located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
For more information on the University's demand-driven undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs in applied science and technology fields, call 717.901.5146 or email Connect@HarrisburgU.edu.
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OP-ED: Pinpoint Precision: Four Years After First Class, Harrisburg University Model Exceeds Expectations, Highlights Need for More STEM-Focused Universities in the Nation
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Harrisburg, PA (HNN) - If you didn’t know any better, it would appear to be the best job fair ever. Or at least the only economic-stimulus package that would receive unanimous approval in Congress.
Regardless of the point of view, one thing is beyond dispute: The big winners are the employers and the employees of Central Pennsylvania. Select Medical, Highmark, Penn National Insurance, Gannett Fleming, PSECU, and Hershey Foods are among the organizations that are strengthening their competitive advantage, regionally and nationally, through a homegrown talent pipeline—Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.
If it doesn’t sound like the conventional undergraduate bricks-and-mortar hall of education, Harrisburg University is OK with that. Because it’s not a conventional university, nor a conventional precursor to a career.
A Perfect Storm
In the spring of 2010 Harrisburg University graduated its fourth class of students. And just like their predecessors, this group’s post graduation success includes careers in health care, educational service, and engineering.
In a departure from the standard college graduate story line—one framed by bleak job prospects and a willingness to accept any position at any company—Harrisburg University graduates are being hired for jobs they want and by companies that want them. In fact, 92 percent of our graduates have secured jobs in their field of study by the day they graduated.
Coincidence? A quirk in the stagnant job market? Definitely not.
This is the result of a calculated strategy conceived nearly two decades ago by business, government, and academic leaders in Harrisburg to transform the then-distressed region into an economic–development engine.
The centerpiece of this strategy was the linking of business and education—to offer a curriculum tailored specifically to equip students with the skills to meet the needs of the 21st century business world while challenging local and regional employers to revive the economy, make Harrisburg a desirable place to live and work, and actively participate in educating students and, in essence, training them for the world of work.
With the symbolic end of the manufacturing sector in 1981, when Harrisburg was listed as the second-most distressed city in the nation, came a hard truth: The scarcity of qualified, educated workers to fill the growing abundance of high-skilled science- and technology-based jobs was costing the city—educationally, economically, and culturally—and killing its chances to compete, both regionally and nationally in the new knowledge-based economy.
Against the backdrop of this “perfect storm,” the foundation of what would become Harrisburg University had, for all intents and purposes, been laid.
Part of the Solution
Gannett Fleming was one of the many companies to embrace the challenge of revitalizing the region. Mired in the area’s economic woes of the post-industrial decline, the East Pennsboro Township-based engineering firm had plenty of available jobs. The problem wasn’t lack of candidates, but rather a lack of qualified candidates, a widespread issue in Central Pennsylvania.
Less than one-third of the college graduates had earned degrees in fields that Gannett Fleming and the rest of the region’s businesses needed to be competitive in the new economy. Despite a strong community college presence and several highly regarded liberal arts institutions, Harrisburg did not have a college or university that focused on the core subjects necessary to thrive in a 21st century economy: science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Moreover, there was very little interest in offering programs that concentrated exclusively on these critical STEM subjects.
To steer the region in the right direction, business and government leaders looked to leverage Harrisburg’s strength as the state capital. Making the shift would require those directly in the economy’s crosshairs—the companies and businesses—to be a part of the solution.
After examining the specific needs of the new economy, from education and industry to taxes and transportation, the leaders realized that the key was linking education to economic development. Higher education and new skill sets were needed for job growth as the age of emerging technology and new materials brought more-sophisticated products and processes to industry, business offices, and retail environments.
Business + Education = Economic Success
In 1997 a group of corporate, government, and community leaders led by David Schankweiler, CEO and publisher of the Central Penn Business Journal, spearheaded the creation of a regional task force to identify strategies to guide central Pennsylvania through the next 20 years. This 150-member task force identified four measures of regional success:
· Regional cooperation
· Job creation
· Individual earnings
· Educational achievement in the region’s population
The common thread through these findings was education, which the task force cited as the key to creating and supporting a robust 21st century economy in Central Pennsylvania. Inherent in this was the need for a partnership between business and education to create workforce-ready graduates.
Harrisburg University was the result of this home-grown integration of business and education. Established in 2001, the University was a hybrid—a private institution based on a career, competency-based learning model, connected to the business community and offering demand-driven applied science and technology-focused programs in Central Pennsylvania. When it was incorporated, Harrisburg University became the first independent science- and technology-focused, nonprofit university to be established in Pennsylvania in more than 100 years.
Beyond being a new place of higher learning, Harrisburg University represented an ideological switch from how four-year colleges operate and educate. Long before a single application was accepted, University senior management met with more than 100 chief executive officers from companies throughout the Commonwealth to determine their workforce needs. Their answers shaped the curriculum—what should be taught, how it should be taught, who should teach it, and how those being taught would benefit the region.
Gannett Fleming and the other participating companies also committed resources to join Harrisburg University’s faculty and act as program advisory members. Their qualifications were exemplary, from CEOs of biotech companies and project leaders, to research scientists, and clinicians. Their academic backgrounds and ongoing practical experience were an excellent fit to position Harrisburg University students for success—and propel the region back to prominence.
The proximity of the University’s campus to these businesses encouraged internships. This reciprocal relationship gives students real-work experience in the business technology sector and companies a ready-made talent pool of pre-qualified employees whom they can educate and train to meet their specific needs.
Today Gannett Fleming is one of the many businesses reaping the benefits of its investment in Harrisburg University. The firm’s GeoDecisions division collaborated with the University to develop and teach the curriculum for a GIS program. This program not only allows students to graduate with a highly sought-after skill but also contributes to filling GeoDecisions’ staffing needs.
“In the technology (important to GeoDecisions), there is a real lack of quality people to hire,” said Robert Scaer, Gannett Fleming’s president and chief operating officer. “By creating an education program that can produce the kind of people we want to hire, that helps us out.”
The help has extended in both directions. Since 2004 Gannett Fleming has:
· Invested several thousand hours of key staff, valued at $195,000. This includes development and teaching of the GIS curriculum (five classes), serving as student advisors, and being guest speakers during classes.
· Provided paid internships to students.
· Made a $30,000 donation to the Gannett Fleming Presidential Scholarship at Harrisburg University.
The investment Gannett Fleming has made to its community by investing in Harrisburg University has paid off in ways beyond monetary. Gannett Fleming is creating its own workforce. Gannett Fleming has hired two graduates for full-time positions and continues to provide internships for Harrisburg University students. Gannett Fleming and GeoDecisions will continue to commit leading geospatial technology professionals to develop and teach the dynamic and evolving material that is vital for students to succeed in the 21sr century.
“Harrisburg University is the win-win for the region. It is a strategic sure thing because it is born of this community,” said Scaer. “When private corporations, news media, and elected officials in central Pennsylvania recognized that we had a growing shortage of science- and technology-educated graduates in the region to grow our knowledge-based economy, we worked together to establish a science-, technology-, engineering-, and mathematics- (STEM) focused university that could fill the void over the next decade.”
Economic Impact
By aligning traditional undergraduate degrees with science and technology-based workforce development, Harrisburg University is directly stimulating the growth of a knowledge-based economy in Central Pennsylvania. Its educational model, formed through a unique public-private partnership, has catalyzed economic development in the region by increasing the percentage of college degree holders in applied science and technology fields; offering attractive, regionally complementary, demand-driven educational opportunities in applied science- and technology-related fields; and serving as a bridge between secondary education reform and an emerging knowledge industry.
University founders view the school’s establishment as a strategic investment in the region’s future. Harrisburg University was expected to fuel economic development by offering the right education in the fields crucial to success in the growing knowledge industry. The thinking was that not only would the university foster new and increasing job opportunities for its own graduates by attracting technology-based companies to the region but also by catalyzing innovation in the existing industry clusters.
Clearly, results are exceeding expectations and reinforcing the University’s importance to the region.
· Harrisburg University has received nearly $100 million in capital investment, representing one of the largest economic-development projects the region has ever undertaken.
· The University’s experiential learning model, coupled with career preparation and development, has led to partnerships aligned with the school’s mission and vision. For example, the National Science Foundation, funds the Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities program housed within the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement at the University.
· Partners from across industry, academia, and government provide students with on-site internships, mentoring, and advanced learning opportunities connected to the latest trends, discoveries, and developments in biotechnology through the DCED-funded Capital Area Biotechnology Partnership. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is partnering to create advanced gaming and data-visualization lab space within the University.
· Several hundred individuals and organizations—including Fortune 500 companies and other leading companies such as Hershey Company, Select Medical Corporation, PPL, Gannett Fleming, Cleveland Brothers Equipment Company, Tyco Electronics, and Penn National Insurance—have made supporting Harrisburg University one of their top philanthropic investments. This support, combined with early public- and private-sector investments, will ensure the continued fast-paced rise of Harrisburg University as a prominent institution of higher education in the Commonwealth.
· The University’s annual impact in the local economy is more than $32 million. Over the next decade, Harrisburg University has the potential to create 450 jobs and 350,000 square feet of additional academic space, and spark investment in entirely new or rehabilitated corporate, retail, residential, and research office and laboratory space in downtown Harrisburg.
From College to Career
Although shrinking in the rearview mirror now and a generation in the past, the nadir of the post-industrial decline in Harrisburg still serves as a reminder of how far the region has come.
The model that Harrisburg University created to allow the marketplace—employers and employees—to set the economic pace is distinctive and fluid, led by faculty who act as partners with, or who are themselves members of, the corporate and larger business community. By bringing this “world of work” into the classroom, Harrisburg University transforms the classroom into the world of work, balancing traditional elements, specialized expertise, and significant career-oriented experiential components so students graduate with a learning experience that leads from college to career in one step.
“We are accomplishing precisely what the region envisioned for us when we were founded in 2001: Offer academic programs in the nationally critical STEM disciplines that are designed to meet the needs of the region’s youth, workforce, and businesses, and to create, to expand, and to attract economic opportunities,” says Mel Schiavelli, president of Harrisburg University. He is pictured in the photo accompanying this Op-Ed.
“Our graduates are stimulating growth of a knowledge-based economy here and positioning the region—and the nation—to be a competitive force in the global economy. As the only applied science- and technology-focused comprehensive university between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Harrisburg University is meeting the needs of our region’s workforce and industries in a manner that cannot be easily matched by any other institution.”
Founded in 2001 to address Central Pennsylvania’s need for increased opportunities for study leading to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Harrisburg University is an innovative and ambitious private institution that produces graduates who provide increased competence and capacity in science and technology disciplines to Pennsylvania and the nation. Harrisburg University ensures institutional access for underrepresented students and links learning and research to practical outcomes. As a private university serving the public good, Harrisburg University remains the only STEM-focused comprehensive university located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
For more information on the University's demand-driven undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs in applied science and technology fields, call 717.901.5146 or email Connect@HarrisburgU.edu.
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