June 7, 2023 — Reading Area Community College (RACC) has been awarded $300,000 from the Neag Foundation to support nursing student scholarships.

Over the next two years, the award will be used to fund scholarships to students enrolled in the nursing (RN) and practical nursing (LPN) programs in the most impactful way possible.

“Having worked as a nurse for 30 years, Carole Neag was a passionate advocate for the nursing community WHO supported the RACC for many years. The Neag Foundation is delighted that Carole’s legacy will live on through the nursing students at RACC who are following in her footsteps providing compassionate and skilled healthcare services to our community,“ says Neag Foundation Board Chair, Sally Reis Renzulli.

“Ray and Carole Neag are among the most significant leaders in the history of Reading Area Community College. This remarkable gift from the Neag Foundation continues that incredible legacy,” says Anthony DeMarco, executive director of the Foundation for RACC. “Carole Neag has always been a passionate advocate for nurses, having personally served for years as an emergency and maternity nurse during her career. This grant will allow dozens of those students who aspire to a career in nursing to achieve their academic dreams.”

Nursing continues to be the largest profession in healthcare, with RACC educating students with clinical training at regional affiliates such as Reading Hospital Systems, Penn State Heath St. Joseph, Berks Heim Nursing and Rehabilitation, Laurel Center Genesis HealthCare and Phoebe Berks Healthcare Center.

Susan Looney, president of Reading Area Community College, says, “This award will immediately benefit our nursing students who are highly prepared and ready to enter the regional healthcare workforce.”

The NEAG Foundation supports education, healthcare, and the arts through Ray and Carol Neag’s visionary philanthropy. Reading Among their many educational and charitable donations, they are well known in Berks County for their contributions to the Caron in South Heidelberg Township, the Neag Planetarium in Reading, and the Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center.

Reading Area Community College is an accredited, comprehensive, open-enrollment education institution that provides associate degree and certificate programs with ten programs offered fully online; workforce and career-focused training; transitional coursework; personal enrichment programs and public service activities. Sponsored by Berks County, the college provides affordable access to meet identified community educational needs.

Photo caption: 
(L-R): RACC VP College Advancement and Executive Director of the Foundation for RACC, Tony DeMarco, RACC President, Dr. Susan Looney, Carolyn Holleran, Carole Neag and, RACC Dean of Health Professions, Dr. Stacia Visgarda.

The League for Innovation in the Community College is an international organization with a mission to cultivate innovation in the community college environment.

The League’s Innovation of the Year Awards were devised as a way to recognize significant innovations at board and alliance member colleges. These innovations reflect significant achievements and the continuing renewal of the spirit of innovation and experimentation upon which the League was founded.

The award honors faculty, staff, and administrators who have created and implemented innovative programs, practices, partnerships, policies, and activities that improve the institution’s ability to serve students and the community. This year, the winners from Reading Area Community College are:

• Carol Bean-Ritter, professor, social sciences/human services
• Joey Flamm Costello, instructor, communications, arts and humanities
• Linda Cuesta, information center/events manager
• Craig Fenn, professor, STEM
• Sarah Hess, manager, Foundation for RACC
• Margie Kerbel, professor, foundational studies
• Jane Mahoney, enrollment services coordinator/communications specialist 
• Anh “Emmie” Nguyen, associate professor, business division 
• David Pennypacker, library technology and access specialist
• Megan Schappell, house manager and box office coordinator, Miller Center for the Arts
• Sandra Strause, executive administrative assistant to the president 
• David Sweeley, dean of assessment, research and planning
• Judy Vecchio, manager, training and workforce development

Ordering your books for your summer classes.

If you have financial aid, you can now use it to order your textbooks on-line through the Barnes and Noble RACC Bookstore. Textbooks will be shipped to your home at no charge as the physical store is closed.

Click here to order your text books

• Click on TEXTBOOKS
• Click on FIND TEXTBOOKS
• Choose SUMMER for the term 
• Enter each course that you are registered for and it will indicate what books you need
• Add items to your cart and then proceed to checkout
• Create an account if you do not have one
• Choose financial aid in the payment step

To check to see how much financial aid you have for books, log into myRACC and click on Self-Service. Then click on My Bookstore to see available funds.

Reading, PA – RACC students, who will graduate on May 5th, participated in the second annual “Career Ready” event at the Boscov’s store in Exeter on Tuesday, April 25th. This event was built upon the unique partnership of Reading Area Community College, Truist Bank and Boscov’s Department stores, to set graduating students on the right path for success. Each student participated in financial literacy sessions facilitated by the experts at Truist, as well as met with the Director of Career Services at RACC for job search preparation.  Buyers from Boscov’s were on hand for a special presentation on color coordination, accessorizing and proper attire demonstrations for interviews. Upon completion of the various sessions, each student received a $250 Boscov’s shopping spree to purchase new career attire.

Last year’s inaugural “Career Ready” event was a rousing success with exuberant students moving through the Boscov’s store to select new clothing and outfits that they would never have thought possible. “Many of our students have never been able to purchase a new suit or put together a completely new outfit”, RACC President Susan Looney explained. “This opportunity to shop with the assistance of personal shoppers is a dream come true for our graduates”.

Providing professional clothing to RACC students for their job interviews would assist them in presenting a more professional appearance and make a good first impression.  Looking and feeling confident helps students to focus on being their typical best and be in a better position to communicate their skills and qualifications.

“Truist is proud to partner with Reading Area Community College and Boscov’s in helping their students prepare for the next step in life. Our company’s purpose is to ‘Inspire and build better lives and communities’ and this event certainly gave us the opportunity to help fulfill that purpose here in Berks County” said Truist Market President David Roland and Senior Vice President Schnearia Ashley. 

“We’re delighted to partner with Reading Area Community College and help launch the careers of so many outstanding students.  We thank Truist for the investment they have made in the graduates and in our community. We are pleased and excited to help outfit these hard-working students as they enter the workforce,” says CEO of Boscov’s Department Stores, Jim Boscov.

“This is a wonderful collaboration between three leading Berks County organizations. Our RACC graduates have the training to be successful in the workplace, and thanks to this event, they now have the professional attire to complement their skills along with the important understanding of budgeting their own finances,” said Tony DeMarco.

Reading Area Community College (RACC) believes in the educational access of each Berks County citizen and the economic and cultural development of the community it serves.  It is committed to providing diversified educational opportunities for individuals to develop their maximum potential and realize their self-worth and dignity, while serving as the conduit between high school graduation, degree-seeking programs and / or career training, and a family sustaining career.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) offers two annual competitions to “honor excellence in student publishing: Crown Awards for overall excellence and Gold Circle Awards for individual student recognition.”

Legacy 2022 was initially recognized as a Crown Finalist and later honored with a Silver Crown as a print literary magazine at the 2023 CSPA College Media Convention. According to the CSPA, Crown Awards are “the highest level of recognition given by the CSPA” to a student publication and one of the highest honors in college media. 

Below is the complete list of award winners:

• Grub Street Literary & Arts Magazine, Towson University, Towson, MA
• Lighted Corners, Mount St. Mary's University, Emmitsburg, MA
• Port City Review, Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA
• The Tower, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
• Legacy, Reading Area Community College, Reading, PA
• Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Parnassus, Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, MA
• Windhover, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

We are the only college in the state of Pennsylvania to receive this prestigious distinction, which is a testament to the great work of RACC students and the staff of the journal. Congratulations to the contributors, the student editors who helped produce the 2022 edition, the Editor-in-Chief and Layout/Design Editor, Dylan Sokolovich, and the faculty advisor, Dr. Bahar Diken.

The CSPA also awarded Legacy’s 2022 issue four national Gold Circle Awards:

• First Place – Experimental Fiction
  Shianne Ayala-Lind, “Pretty Girl”
• First Place – Cover Design for Literary or Literary Art Magazine
  Miguel Santiago and Dylan Sokolovich
• Certificate of Merit – Table of Contents Page
  Dylan Sokolovich
• First Place – Portfolio Illustration
  Mia Davis

The complete list of individual awards can be found here.

Legacy 2022 contributors also took top awards from The Community College Humanities Association (CCHA). The CCHA’s annual literary magazine competition highlights student work from all over the nation. Honoring the best in the Eastern Division, the CCHA named the following contributors as winners of its prestigious literary magazine competition.

• First Place – Best Artwork
  Mia Davis, “Wanderer”
• First Place – Best Song
  Rachel Dodson, “Alice”
• Third Place – Creative Nonfiction
  Rachel Dodson, “A Conversation with My Dad”
• Third Place – Short Story
  Jack Weaver, “The Silence of the Bugle”

Congratulations to the CCHA winners for their exceptional work.

Legacy 2022 and all the past editions can be seen here.