Lincoln Summer Program Orients Young Professionals to Transportation Industry; PA Department of Transportation Official Speaks to Students at Noon on July 30

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Lincoln University, PA —Lincoln University will conclude its Summer Transportation Institute (STI) on Friday, July 30, 2004, with a keynote address from Bob Garrett, chief of research for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), starting at noon in the Marshall Living Learning Center on the campus in southern Chester County.

Lincoln’s Summer Transportation Institute is a four-week program that began on July 5 and officially ends on July 30. The program introduces eighth, ninth and tenth graders in Pennsylvania to the transportation industry. The educational initiative is a partnership between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Division Office in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), private corporations, and Lincoln University. Lincoln's STI offers participants early exposure to the University, the wide array of careers in transportation, and the opportunity to engage in activities that are educational, socially beneficial and recreational. Lincoln’s STI also provides tuition and campus boarding to participating students.

According to Dr. Ganga P. Ramdas, professor of Business and Economics, and the STI Project Director, the program offers students who have a strong interest in science, mathematics and technology an opportunity to learn about the many aspects of the transportation industry.

The Institute also provides information on the interaction between major methods of transportation, transportation safety and the environmental impact of transportation systems. Guest speakers from the transportation industry participate in the ongoing 2004 program and students take a number of field trips to get a first-hand view of the transportation industry.

These trips have included visits and tours of the Railroad Museum, in Harrisburg, PA, the PennDOT construction site in King of Prussia, PA, Philadelphia Airport, Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, Philadelphia Naval Base, Sunoco Gas and Pipelines in Reading, PA, SEPTA (Urban mass transit authority in the Philadelphia region), and the U.S. Motor Cycle Manufacturing Plant.

Lincoln is one of 42 universities across the country that participates in the National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) pilot that partners state transportation agencies, the USDOT and the FHWA to help diversify the transportation workforce. To date, more than 3,200 students have participated in the NSTI since the program began at South Carolina State University in 1993.

Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU), educates and empowers students to lead their communities and change the world. Lincoln offers a rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse student body of approximately 2,200 men and women in more than 35 undergraduate and graduate programs.