BC3

BC3 Moves Summer Courses To Remote Instruction

(Butler, PA) Butler County Community College will transition all face-to-face format summer credit courses to remote instruction and will cancel all face-to-face noncredit courses through at least June 30 with regard to COVID-19, BC3 President Dr. Nick Neupauer announced to the college’s board of trustees Wednesday. BC3’s decision follows statewide orders for residents to stay at home and for non-life-sustaining businesses to remain closed in response to COVID-19. It aligns with decisions made by the state’s other institutions of higher education for the summer of 2020. The commonwealth’s 14 state-owned universities, as well as a number of its 14 Pennsylvania…


172-year-old Lodge Creates Legacy With $15K Endowment; Students Can Apply For $200K in Scholarships

(Butler, PA) Butler County’s 172-year-old and last Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge, the vast majority of its 24 members of retirement age or beyond, has established what its office holders and Butler County Community College administrators say will be the fraternal organization’s legacy through its first financial gift to an institution of higher education. Connoquenessing Lodge No. 278’s endowment of $15,000 to the BC3 Education Foundation will result in one of 12 new scholarships available to BC3 students in the 2020-2021 academic year. Students attending BC3’s main campus in Butler Township or its additional locations in Brockway, Cranberry Township,…


Ellwood City Resident Among Eight Students To Enter BC3 Int’l Academic Honor Society

New Castle, PA) Eight Butler County Community College students from Lawrence County this spring have accepted membership into BC3’s Rho Phi chapter of an international academic honor society that has attained Phi Theta Kappa’s ultimate five-star status for the fourth time since 1968. Members of Phi Theta Kappa, the society for two-year colleges and academic programs, must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.5. “By receiving an invitation to join Rho Phi, it shows students’ commitment to their academics,” said Morgan Rizzardi, BC3’s associate director of admissions and primary adviser to Rho Phi. “To have a 3.5 grade-point average or higher…


BC3 Informed That Student Tests Positive for COVID-19

Butler, PA- Butler County Community College was notified today by a student that the student who attends BC3’s main campus in Butler Township has tested positive for COVID-19. The student was last on BC3’s main campus March 9. The college today alerted students who attended classes with the student and faculty who taught the courses. It also notified other students, faculty and staff. The notifications advised students, faculty and staff to contact a heathcare provider should they experience symptoms of COVID-19, and provided information about a community healthcare center that serves adults who do not have health insurance. In respecting…


BC3 Announces President’s List, Dean’s List and Graduates for Fall 2019

Several area residents were recognized by Butler County Community College for making the President’s List and Dean’s List for the Fall 2019 semester, as well as five local students who have graduated recently. Students who have achieved a cumulative GPA (grade-point average) of 3.75 or higher are named to the President’s List following completion of at least 12 semester hours or upon completion of degree requirements.  Students who have achieved a cumulative GPA (grade-point average) of 3.5 to 3.74 are named to the Dean’s List following completion of at least 12 semester hours or upon completion of degree requirements. Area…


BC3 No. 1 Community College in Pennsylvania For Fifth Time Since 2015

(Butler, PA) For the fifth time since 2015, Butler County Community College, serving 24,000 credit and noncredit students in eight western Pennsylvania counties and online, has been ranked as the No. 1 community college in the state. BestColleges.com analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Education statistics in assessing academic quality, affordability and online competency and rated BC3 atop all Pennsylvania two-year colleges for 2020, as it did in 2017. Schools.com also used U.S. Department of Education data in ranking BC3 as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania in 2015, 2017 and in 2019. Each institution in BestColleges.com’s Top…


Commissioners Add Radio Exec To BC3 Board Of Trustees

(Butler, PA) Vicki Hinterberger, president and general manager of Butler Radio Network, and members of her staff assisted on a recent December morning with delivering stockings to area cancer facilities as part of the Hang Tough Stocking program. Butler Radio Network is among Hang Tough Stocking program collaborators that helped in stuffing more than 2,000 stockings and serving as a collection site for items donated by area schools, churches, businesses and organizations and to be delivered to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The Hang Tough Stocking program is one of the volunteer projects that involve Hinterberger, and her…


BC3 President’s Speech to Leadership Lawrence County Class “Eye-Opening”

(New Castle, PA) Students should research the average starting wage of their intended profession when evaluating the cost of the college or university that will prepare them to enter their field, Dr. Nick Neupauer told Leadership Lawrence County’s Class of 2019-2020 on Thursday during an Education Day seminar designed to introduce program participants to higher education opportunities in the county of 86,000. “If you have student-loan debt equal to or less than the average starting wage, you can make it work,” said Neupauer, an Ellwood City native and president of Butler County Community College since 2007. “If you are going…


LHS Students Participate In BC3 Entrepreneurship Challenge

Students at Lincoln High School in Ellwood City recently participated in Butler County Community College’s Entrepreneurship Challenge, which drew students from nine high schools in six counties to BC3’s main campus in Butler Township. Anthony Spadafore, Ashton Wilson, Katelyn Wehman and Bryn Gray, accompanied by teacher Cindie Friello pitched a business plan called Foundation of Advancements in Youth Academics – which would focus on progressing student education – in the Entrepreneurship Challenge that took place earlier this month. Junior students from Seneca Valley won the BC3 Entrepreneurship Challenge on November 5th with a plan to create a subscription service that…


Parents at Welcome Day laud students’ decision to select BC3

(Butler, PA) More than 850 new students this week began fall 2019 classes at Butler County Community College in pursuit of careers such as anesthesiology, computer programming, human resource management, law enforcement and registered nursing, with many citing BC3’s affordability, accessibility and quality of education in a higher education selection applauded by their parents. “You are way more successful when you can start out not having giant financial debt,” said Tracey Nevel, of Butler, whose 18-year-old daughter, Jen, will take 12 credits this fall as a general studies major while envisioning a career in sports medicine. “This world is a…