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A Message From President Rounds:
A Spring Semester Of Great Accomplishments
exhibit was located in the main staging area next to professional exhibitors.
Our horticulture seniors did a great job
with the exhibit and represented Williamson in an outstanding manner!
SkillsUSA
Spring has finally arrived after another long and cold winter. We are
finally starting to enjoy sunshine
and warmer weather and look forward to the approaching graduation
of the Class of 2015 in just a few
short weeks. This school year has
been full of great accomplishments
by our students and there is excitement in the air about some of the
upcoming events that will be truly
historic for Williamson.
Name Change
As you are all aware by now, we
will change our name to “Williamson College of the Trades” on July
1st. The name change was officially
announced in February at Founder’s
Day by Wayne Watson 4W8, chairman of the board of trustees. We
believe that most are understanding and supportive of the decision
as word spreads of the reasons for
the change. The name will better reflect who we have been for the past
40 years: a postsecondary, associate
degree-granting college focused on
the trades. As we upgrade our degree to an Associate of Applied Science Degree and seek Middle States
accreditation, our graduates will
find that their Williamson credits
will be accepted at more colleges
and universities across the country
if they decide to pursue a bachelor’s
degree at some point in their careers.
Flower Show
We had a very successful showing at the Philadelphia International Flower Show this past winter,
winning four major awards with
our creative exhibit, “The Bloom
Awards,” which was in keeping with
the show’s Hollywood theme. Our
Accompanied by Ken Nelson (carpentry instructor), Jim Schell (power
plant instructor), and Dan Hiltebeitel
(masonry instructor and SkillsUSA advisor), Williamson sent a team of seven
students to this year’s SkillsUSA state
competition in Hershey and walked
away with no award less than a silver
medal. Earning gold medals were senior carpenter Bill Davis in Carpentry,
junior mason Cody Palmer in Masonry,
and senior machinist Joe Goodwin in
CNC Technician (what used to be called
Precision Machining). Earning secondplace silver medals were Kevin Costigan
(junior in power plant technology) in
Industrial Motor Control, and a team of
three senior machinists – Dave Bender,
Mitchel Carl, and Dan Deaver – in Automated Manufacturing. Williamson’s
three gold medal winners will compete
for the national championship June 2226 in Louisville, Ky. Congratulations to
our Williamson men for another stellar
performance at the state level! Good
luck to our three national competitors,
as they seek to add to Williamson’s astounding 23 national medal winners
(including 10 national gold medals)
since the program began in 2000!
Nonprofit of the Year Award
In March, we were honored with the
Nonprofit of the Year Award by the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce
in recognition of our mission of helping
young men and being a great asset and
source of pride for Delaware County.
This prestigious award is a real honor
for Williamson.
“Commissioning Celebration”
The Energy Island continues to move
steadily forward. In March, we held a
“Commissioning Celebration,” to celebrate the commissioning of the new
steam turbine and recognize the progress of the project to date. We celebrated
completion of three major milestones:
the upgrading of the boilers, the installation of the steam turbine, and the
completion of the new control room.
These accomplishments were made
possible with the support of many who
have donated money, time, equipment,
and skill. We have accomplished a lot in
the past year and have so many to thank
for their efforts. We are pleased with our
progress to date, but much remains to
be done before we truly are an Energy
Island. This will require continued donations of finances, equipment, time,
and skills as we move forward into the
next phases of the project.
Career Fair
We believe that Williamson provides
the best trade education in the country,
but more importantly produces men
of outstanding character that reflect
our core values. The reputation of our
graduates is strong, and they are in high
demand. A good measure of this is our
biannual career fairs. Our latest career
fair in February set a new record with
103 companies participating and hoping to hire one of our 70 seniors. These
companies all had jobs to fill and some
seniors reported up to eight job offers!
How many other schools can claim to
have 30 more companies hiring than
the number of graduates available?
That fact clearly demonstrates the quality of our young men and is the result of
the hard work of a very dedicated staff
and faculty.
Athletics
Our spring sports teams have been
battling the weather as well as their opponents and have managed to hold their
own against both. Our lacrosse team is
4-1 under new head coach Jim DeRose
while our tennis team is 3-4 with the
three wins being the most in school history. The baseball team has four wins
and recently had one of their players,
Jacob Dellipriscoli, named USCAA National Baseball Player of the Week.
Class of 1W8
Our Admissions Committee has selected the incoming freshman class. We
had a strong pool of about 400 candidates and 102 were selected to receive
offers of admission. This is a rigorous
process that factors in academic testing,
scores from two separate interviews,
and demonstrated financial need. It is a
tough decision to make and disappointing that we have to turn away so many
deserving young men, but we are confident that we will be bringing in a great
new class in the fall.
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