Teaching the Future: Venango Expo Links Schools and Industry

Written by Addysen Fawcett 

SENECA, Pa, May 6, 2025 - On April 10, 2025, the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual educator event, VenangoREADY Educator Expo, at the Venango Campus, supporting its VenangoREADY initiative, where local businesses showcased career opportunities in Venango County through booths, demonstrations, and guided tours.

The VenangoREADY initiative is a partnership between the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce, local school districts, and technical training institutions. Its goal is not only to make students aware of opportunities but to help students develop the skills that companies desire to create a smoother transition from high school to the workforce.

Kat Thompson, Membership and Education Manager at the Chamber, orchestrated the event, which is designed to help teachers learn about local job opportunities and take that knowledge back to their classrooms.

“For kids who don't want to go to school, there's also a lot of opportunities to still earn a very good living, learn a trade, learn a skill, and still stay in the community,” said Arien Morgan of Grand Valley Manufacturing. “You don’t have to leave Venango County to be successful.” 

Heather Motter, a senior high school English teacher at Cranberry High School, expressed appreciation for the variety of career opportunities presented at the event. “I love to have lots of options to tell them [students],” she said. 

Teachers from across the county, along with administrators, attended from A-C Valley, Christian Life Academy, Cranberry, Forest, Franklin, Oil City, Titusville, and Valley Grove School Districts. 

Several booths represented businesses in Venango County at the event.

Ashley Nichols, Protective, Intake, and Crisis Unit Director at Venango County Human Services, explained that Human Services “offers mental health case management, substance use, clerical, maintenance, case aids” to all ages and stages of life. She added that the agency is “pitching some new tuition programs” to get more students involved in the field, helping them earn credits that will eventually help students go into Child Welfare Services.

Nichols, who has been spearheading the program, said, “ I really want students to feel like they could find a place in Human Services. It's broad enough and you can build an entire career.”

Businesses conveyed that there are plenty of jobs within a company that students might be interested in but don’t necessarily know about regarding technology, design, and media.

“Down in Oklahoma, in our home base, we have a guy who just creates video game training for us that we can use in this augmented reality,” said Matt Craig of Webco (a manufacturer of innovative tubing solutions). “We can put on an Oculus headset and do our training in virtual reality” so that employees can learn by doing and can “fail” in a safe environment to learn better. 

Not only were businesses highlighted at booths, but the event included planned tours of Altium Packaging, Community Ambulance Services, and the nursing labs at the Venango Campus.

Altium Packaging offered a tour of its facility. Mindy Crisman, Human Resources and Operations Assistant, explained the ladder of careers at Altium. “They'll [Students] come right out of high school, and they'll start on the back of the lines, packing, folding those boxes. Then they'll learn how to drive a forklift. Once they learn how to drive a forklift, they'll learn how to operate palletizers. Once they do palletizers, then they become a machine operator, and then they go up into maintenance,” she stated. 

Crisman briefly discussed the history, process, and benefits of working at Altium, noting that it “has the biggest recycling location inside of the United States.” She added that there is little turn-over there and that those who start at Altium typically retire from Altium. 

Some participants toured the Community Ambulance Services building and the inside of an ambulance. Jeff Hollidge, Operations Supervisor of Community Ambulance Services, explained how they have a Co-op internship available for students during high school through the Venango Technology Center.

The last tour of the evening was the Venango Technology Center’s Practical Nursing Program at the Venango campus.  Those who attended witnessed the use of mannequins with a pulse and blinking eyes that simulate the realities of real-life patients and situations. Through this program, students work with life-like mannequins that simulate vital signs and are programmed to mimic real-world scenarios. The resources and education of some of the on-job certifications are quite realistic.  

Dr. Cindy Cornelius, VTC’s Director of Nursing, commented on the quality of the program noting a recent job fair where 20 employers were present for 18 students. 

She went on to say that “a lot of our students [qualify] for the Full Power Grant and the Full PA TIP Grant, which can cover all but about $2,000. For people who have economic disadvantages, it's a good place to come, because we work with them. We sit down and help them with their financial aid.  I think that it [economical disadvantages] holds people back, not knowing that it [financial aid] is available, but it is.”

Through initiatives like VenangoREADY, the Chamber hopes to effectively connect passionate educators and engaged employers so young people know that they don’t have to leave Venango County to build meaningful, successful careers.