Former Pottsville Giant to become Alvernia’s Pottsville CollegeTowne
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Alvernia President John Loyack speaks to a crowd of community leaders, dignitaries, and media members at the former Giant on Progress Avenue in Pottsville.
POTTSVILLE – As Shenandoah works to build a hub of education and entrepreneurship in its downtown, Alvernia University announced today it is bringing one to Pottsville.
Alvernia, Reading, will be moving its Schuylkill Center from the Cressona Mall in North Manheim Township to the former Giant supermarket on Progress Avenue, which closed in favor of the location at the aforementioned mall.
The new center will be more than the Schuylkill Center is now, university officials said, calling the project “Pottsville Collegetowne.”
Michael Fromm, chairperson of the board of trustees, said at a press conference Thursday at the former Giant, that “our overarching goal is to bring businesses, community organizations, and local residents together to create a stronger downtown.”
“As someone who grew up in Reading and is seeing the early impacts of this strategy in my hometown, and as a business owner in Pottsville, I’m very excited about the endless possibilities that Collegetowne will bring to this city and the greater Schuylkill County region,” Fromm said.
Alvernia President John Loyack said that the move begins “the process of coming back home” for the school, which, he said, began its Schuylkill campus in downtown Pottsville’s Thompson building in 1995.
He cited the success of the Collegetowne concept in his college’s efforts in Reading and by Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, and explained the concept.
“It has to start with a building, because you can’t be in the city, and not be in the city. Then it brings academic programs… then there’s experiential learning,” Loyack said. “Part of the model we’ll bring from downtown Reading is a business incubator that’s driven by students. Students are surrounded by SCORE and national SCORE and mentors that work with entrepreneurs to help them at the epiphany stage of an idea all the way through funding.”
“This is truly an exciting day for us in the Alvernia community and we hope for those of you in the Schuylkill County region, eager and interested to continue your education with us,” said Glynis Fitzgerald, provost and senior vice president. “What makes today so exciting for us is that the Pottsville CollegeTowne strategy and the purchase and retrofitting of this location will allow us to expand our footprint and meet student interest and the ever-evolving needs of local industries.”
Fitzgerald said the Schuylkill center offers 13 bachelor and five graduate programs, and she said “we’ve outgrown the space needed to serve the needs of our students.”
“To better serve them, the move to downtown will create a vibrant learning and entertainment environment,” Fitzgerald said. “Students will have the ability to attend lectures, study, dine, relax, and spend time with one another and our faculty and our partners here in downtown Pottsville.”
She said the 16,000 square foot campus will feature “high-tech classrooms for 20 credit certificate programs, 15 bachelor, and five graduate degree programs, and more and more to come.”
The Social Work and Communications programs will both be added in the new facility.
She also said that the school is partnering with Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Joseph F. McCloskey School of Nursing.
Dr. Rodney Ridley, vice president, interim dean of the College of STEAM & chief operating officer O’Pake Institute for Economic Development & Entrepreneurship, said that many businesses fail for reasons not related to the market, which he, and Alvernia, say shouldn’t happen.
“We made a bold statement when we went into Reading to launch CollegeTowne, and that statement was that it’s our belief that no business should ever fail for non-market reasons,” Ridley said. “We want to make that not such a reality, both in Reading and now here in Pottsville.”
A solution, he says, is the student-driven business incubator at CollegeTowne.
“We’re looking forward to working with all of you and to make Pottsville really thrive,” Ridley said.
Senator David G. Argall (R-29/Rush Township) told a story of how local education could be transformative, from when his mother taught at McCann School of Business in Mahanoy City.
“I had, at a senior expo, a man come up to me — I think he was a displaced factory worker or a coal miner — and he held up his hands, which were about twice the size of mine, and he said ‘your mom saved my life,'” Argall said. “I thought ‘Teaching Accounting? Or Typing?’ And he said ‘She gave me a C'”
“I taught for 30 years, nobody ever thanked me for a C, but he pointed out that they did not make keyboards for hands like his, and so she cut him a break so he could get that degree and move on to the next phase of his life,” Argall added.
Argall also stressed partnerships — between Alvernia, the community, and various government and business organizations in the area — which was echoed by Mayor James T. Muldowney.
“Today is one of the greatest things for our revitalization, bringing Alvernia here to Pottsville with a new campus and new people,” Muldowney said. “As far as partnerships, you do not have a stronger partner than myself and city council.”
County Commissioner Barron “Boots” Hetherington also echoed the importance of a local education, saying he was the first in his family to get a four year degree from Penn State Schuylkill.
Hetherington, of Pattersonville, said he commuted to the school, and if it wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have been able to get the degree.
He said the CollegeTowne will be “a hub of operations for Pottsville.”
Savas Logothetides, Pottsville Area Development Corp. executive director said “It’s a great day for the City of Pottsville.”
“Today marks possibly the biggest component of progress that [PADCO’s Continued Progress Project] has seen,” Logothetides said. “Let me be clear, Alvernia picked Pottsville. We couldn’t be happier that they did.”
Alvernia’s CollegeTowne project comes as Downtown Shenandoah, Inc. is working towards developing its Center for Education, Business, and the Arts (CEBA) on North Main Street in the borough.
The CEBA project has been in the planning stages for several years now and is expected to break ground next year.
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