Penn State Summer Discovery program returns, ‘life-changing’

ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) – Penn State Readiness Institute’s Summer Discovery program is back for 2024, and students and moderators alike are learning from the experience.

The Summer Discovery program’s goal is to expose high school students to different job fields to help them determine where they want to end up in the future. The select group of students can come from Allegheny, Bedford, Blair, Cambria and Somerset County.

Each week of the six-week program has a different theme, each designed to give students a taste of that specific field. There are on-site experiences like hearing from speakers, or off-site like visiting a local business to see how they operate. No matter where they are getting the information from, the students find it “life-changing.”

“It’s such a great help because I completely didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Jude Pletko, one of the students said.

As rewarding as it is for the students, the moderators also get enjoyment as well.

“You can see their eyes light up when something may interest them that they didn’t realize that they had interest in,” Janel Vancas, director of curriculum innovation at Intermediate Unit 8, said.

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Vancas said that for those interested in applying, they send out applications to the specific school districts, usually towards the beginning of the year. If a student applies and is picked, they are compensated $2,000 for their time in the program.

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