Autumn, the Season where we are blessed in Warren County, PA to witness the fall foliage in all its colorful glory!

This reset is important not only for nature, but also for the businesses and people “in our neck of the woods”. And I am not just talking about the increase in tourists we see chasing the beautiful views from Rim Rock or the Trails at Jake’s Rocks (TJAR) this time of year, I am talking about the reset that we as businesses and employees begin in order to prepare for the new year to come.

With summer coming to an end and employees wrapping up most of their vacations, everyone is ready to buckle down and spend the next few months focusing on resetting for the next season. Let’s be honest, the idea of a break from the heat is appealing, even if you aren’t a basic pumpkin spice kind of person. But what does that reset mean, or rather, let me tell you what it could mean for you and/or your business.

When you hear or see Warren WORX tagline, “Warren County, a Place to Become,” I bet you are thinking, “Become What?” EXACTLY! What do you want to become? Maybe you want to become a small business owner, maybe you want to become the bookkeeper for your church, maybe you want to work from home doing marketing, or maybe you want your kids to be more successful than you? There are so many more “maybe’s”, it can be overwhelming to know where to start and that’s where Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, NPRC, comes in to help.

Warren County is the administrative headquarters for the only Regional College in the state of Pennsylvania and the only college in the state created specifically to level the playing field for northwestern Pennsylvanians by bringing education directly to the small rural towns.

Now don’t shake your head and say, “college isn’t for me.” NPRC is different, we bring the type of education needed directly to the residents and businesses. You don’t necessarily need a college degree, sometimes you need just a few classes to achieve what you need. Or maybe you need your employees to gain a specific skill. That’s where NPRC comes directly to you!

At NPRC we are different, we prioritize meeting the needs of each individual community, business and person. We routinely go to, and meet with, businesses to hear what it is that they need for their business to experience success. We then customize a plan that helps our new friends reach that goal. We created customized tooling classes and delivered them onsite, so that employees didn’t have to travel and production didn’t need to stop. We have delivered OSHA and Lockout/Tagout trainings onsite, to all three shifts (1st, 2nd and 3rd). That’s right, we sent instructors onsite to deliver trainings at 11 p.m. so that the business would see the most success possible. We even have an accelerated CDL program that allows students to get on the road in a matter of weeks!

Now sometimes, what’s needed is upskilling. A business may have a fantastic person that they would like to see grow with the company, but they need additional skills. That’s where we see our Certificate programs come into play. NPRC offers sets of 3 and 4 classes that allow a person to learn what’s needed to transition into a new position, think bookkeeping, human resources, marketing and many more! The best part is that the employee doesn’t have to miss work. Attend in a classroom here in Warren, attend remotely from home or attend online before work and during breaks, whatever you need, it’s possible with NPRC.

For those that want a more “college” experience, Warren County can provide that too! NPRC, located at 300 2nd Avenue in Warren (for you old timers, it’s the old PNC building and for the rest of you, the entrance is next to Allegheny Antiques at the corner of Liberty and 2nd Avenue). Inside this beautiful building you will find classrooms outfitted with the technology that connects you to students and college instructors. You can also meet with admissions, advising, student billing, and get connected to financial aid. Heck, if you are lucky, you may even bump into the college President, Susie Snelick, who loves to meet student and our community as she is a small-town Pennsylvanian herself.

And before you think, “that all sounds good, but I don’t want to go into debt just to get a college degree,” let’s talk about money! A debt free degree is honestly possible at NPRC. We were designed to be the most affordable college experience in the state. While other folks are paying close to $9,000 for just one semester of college, at NPRC, your entire associate degree costs just under $9,000! Now just think about how much money is saved when you start at NPRC and then transfer those credits onto the 4-year school…that’s like getting 3 semesters FREE!!!! When we add on the fact that NPRC students can apply for federal financial aid, we see that eligible students often receive aid that covers their entire tuition!

Listen, Warren County is a place where you can become anyone and anything you want. You just must be willing to put yourself out there and try. Now at this point in the blog, you are probably thinking, sure the author can say all these things because she works for the college, because she is paid to write, blah, blah, blah. Yes, I spent my professional career working at college across the country from Idaho and Texas to Kansas and Nebraska, but what makes me qualified to speak to how impactful this opportunity is for you, is for our County, is the fact that I grew up on Brown Hill and was the 4th generation of my family to proudly graduate from Youngsville High School. Like many in this community, I came home and now I get to be part of bringing education to our community, not sending them away and possibly never seeing them return. I get to see our rural high school students access college credits, just like the kids in the cities, that allow them to enter college with semesters already done and sometimes years…saving them money (especially since academic college credits at NPRC are free for high school students). I get to see business owners not having to turn to Erie or Pittsburgh to get training, but to their own local college. And best yet, I get to see old friends upskill and get more pay or be able to afford college for their own children, here, in Warren County.

So, when you hear, Warren County, “A Place to Become,” I encourage you to think big, use our local resources and go for it. What kind of reset do you or your employees need to tackle what’s next, to grow, to “Become?”

Warren County is where I became a College Vice President, what is your dream?