Traveling to Comic Con as part of a course sounds like a dream come true, but it was reality for students enrolled in the "Research in Comic Book Culture and Community" course, part of the Communication Arts and Sciences baccalaureate degree program at Penn State Berks. A group of twelve students and two faculty chaperones traveled to New York Comic Con to experience comic book culture and popular arts, and to conduct research from October 9-11, 2015.

Penn State Berks Biochemistry and Molecular and Biology major Margaret "Maggie" Neiman completed a National Science Foundation (NSF) International Research Experience for Undergraduates (iREU) at the University of Graz, Austria in August 2015. Offered through Syracuse University, this competitive summer research program is for students who have a serious interest in chemistry and prior research experience.

While a student at Penn State Berks, Joseph Sinclair had his first encounter with a 3-D printer in the college's Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development Center. It sparked an interest but it wasn't until he attended a career fair and had only limited success that he decided to take matters into his own hands by taking that interest to the next level and starting his own company.

CHANGE OF LOCATION With race relations in the United State reaching a boiling point after incidents in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore; and other cities, Asali Solomon's presentation, Children of the Revolution that Never Was: Black and Disgruntled in America, comes at a poignant time in our nation. It will be held on Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center multi-purpose room, Penn State Berks.

The Penn State Berks Theatre Department will present the second annual Fall Festival of Plays, a showcase of student written and produced plays, on Wednesday, December 9, 2015, at 7 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

As part of its sustainability initiatives, the Penn State Berks Sustainability Team along with the local Kittatinny Sierra Club will host a public viewing of the film Merchants of Doubt on Thursday, December 3, 2015, at 6 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. The film will be followed by a panel discussion composed of Penn State Berks faculty and students, as well as members of Kittatinny Sierra Club and the Nolde Environmental Education Center. This event is free and open to the public.

The Penn State Berks International Klub, a student organization, will hold a gala, followed by an international dinner on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. The gala will begin at 6 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium, and the international dinner will begin at 7 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Multipurpose Room. These events are open to Penn State Berks students, faculty, and staff, but seating is limited and attendees must purchase a ticket by Friday, Nov. 13. Tickets are $10 for staff and faculty.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A team of three students from Penn State Berks competed against more than 200 of their classmates in HackPSU and won impressive opportunities from the Penn State EdTech Network and the Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL).

New book explores our complex relationship with environmental chemicals We just can't seem to quit bug-killing chemicals. Michelle Mart, an historian at Penn State Berks, investigates why Americans cling to their love of pesticides despite warnings, rising costs, and declining effectiveness in her recently published book, "Pesticides, A Love Story: America's Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals" (University Press of Kansas, 2015).

One professor has been engaging her students in environmental science service-learning projects within the local community this semester. The students have been blogging about their progress through writing and multimedia on a public website built via Sites@PennState.