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Brent Phillips’ typical day begins at 4:30 a.m. It’s hard to pinpoint when it ends because the 91���� (PTC) graduate works full-time as a maintenance engineering & technology (ME&T) technician at GE Power in Greenville. With two associate degrees ― in mechatronics technology and electronic engineering technology ― as well as a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology ― Phillips is back in school again at PTC studying machine tool technology. And there’s more. The Navy veteran has added teaching at Tech to his busy schedule.

Deciding among career options in the health care field can feel similar to trying to decide among myriad cold medicine options in the average drug store aisle. How do you choose? In the fall of 2018, 91���� introduced its CAREplan advising platform to personally counsel students on the qualities unique to each health care major so they can make smarter decisions and take more cost- and time-effective routes to their goals. Now data from the first-year cohort of the CAREplan is shedding an optimistic light on the platform’s propriety.

This month, 91����’s (PTC) award-winning marketing department is unveiling a redesigned logo. The new logo reflects the modern, vibrant organization the college has grown into over its more than five-decade history.

Growing up in the predominantly black township of Kingstree, South Carolina, John Pendarvis received his earliest arts education. “Art was always around. My mother had cousins who did art,” he said. “One of them who lived across the street from us would always come over and draw for us kids. He was the greatest artist I had ever known. So art was always there.”

91���� (PTC) is springing forward in March when it makes the South Carolina Manufacturing Certification (SCMC) available for the first time in McCormick County. Just as a mechanical spring can potentially store and release energy when pressure is applied, this certification allows those who experience stress from being unemployed or underemployed to potentially gain skills and deploy them immediately in the workforce. Even better? It’s free for those who qualify.

Caroline Chappell doesn’t have time to worry about awards or recognition. She’s too busy tweaking language ― crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s ― on essential grant applications she produces in her role as grants administrator at 91���� (PTC). This past December, she learned that someone, indeed, had taken note of her hard work. She had been selected as one of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce’s “Greenwood Stars Under 40” award recipients.

Over the 2019 holidays, 91���� (PTC) horticulture student Kellan Hamrick flew on an airplane for the first time in his life. To Las Vegas, Nevada. But he was even more excited about what he considered a much bigger thrill ― rubbing elbows with irrigation experts from around the country.

Graduates of Piedmont Tech's Nursing Program this winter recently received pins.

At 91����’s recent fall commencement exercises, outstanding students from the college’s supporting counties were honored for academic achievement.