Foundation Secretary Lynn Ashe, ACM PA Advancement and Community Relations Director Leah Pepple, ACM Nursing Student Kendra Feaster, Hometown Bank President/CEO and Foundation Vice-Chair Beth Manges, ACM Nursing Student Lydia Wright, and Foundation Board Member Connie Cragan.
Hometown Bank of PA Encourages Students to Get Ahead
EVERETT, Pa. (Nov. 30, 2023)—The Hometown Bank of PA encourages high school students to jumpstart their college careers.
On Nov. 8, it provided a $14,000 Educational Improvement Tax Credit donation to the Bedford County Regional Education Foundation. The Foundation will use the donation to cover tuition, fees and texts for Allegany College of Maryland (ACM) early college students from Bedford, Blair, Fulton, and Huntingdon Counties and the Fannett-Metal School District in Franklin County.
Students may take ACM courses in their high schools, at the ACM Bedford County Campus, or online. The Foundation enabled 354 early college students to take 1,718 college
credits this fall.
Beth Manges, who is the president/CEO of Hometown Bank, attended the check presentation and met
with two ACM Bedford County Campus nursing students, Kendra Feaster and Lydia Wright. Feaster and Wright took early college classes through Allegany College of Maryland
before their 2022 high school graduations; Feaster completed 19 college credits while
attending Bedford High School and Wright completed 12 credits while attending Tussey
Mountain High School.
“Hometown Bank is pleased to support educational programs that directly impact the
education and futures of students,” said Manges, who is an alum of ACM and vice-chair
of the Bedford County Regional Education Foundation. She noted that several Hometown
Bank of PA employees attended the college.
“The funding helps all students who are academically ready to have the financial accessibility
to experience college-level coursework,” said Leah Pepple who serves as the college’s director of advancement and community relations in Pa.
“We’re grateful for Hometown Bank’s continued support and the community impact of
their donation.” Pepple encourages families to consider early college courses for
their teens, having seen the long-term benefits it offers students.
Early college programs have been found to positively affect outcomes for both high
school and colleges. A 2017 review of studies conducted for the Institute of Education Sciences, a nonpartisan statistics, research
and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education, found that “students who accumulate
college early and consistently are more likely to attain a college degree.”
For more information about early college offerings through ACM, please call 814-652-9528 ext. 6202 or email tkravets@allegany.edu.
Those interested in the Bedford County Regional Education Foundation should contact 814-652-9528 ext. 6223 or email lpepple@allegany.edu.
