Nine Penn College students certified to apply pesticides

Nine Pennsylvania College of Technology students in instructor Carl J. Bower Jr.’s Insects and Diseases of Ornamental Plants course passed the Pennsylvania Pesticide Applicator Certification exam offered Nov. 25 on campus.Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture representative Jason Kehoe administered the three-hour test, which enables licensees to become applicators in one or more of 25 categories.“It can be a difficult exam, but the class definitely prepares them for it,” said Bower, a horticulture instructor in the college’s School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies. “This prepares the student even further by giving them a certification that many employers are looking for.”Passing the commercial or public applicator exam in Category 6 (ornamentals and shade trees) were Rinaldo E. DePaola, of Towanda; Morgan E. Lawton, of Bloomsburg; and Nathan A. Regan and Samuel J. VanDeLinde, of Williamsport. Certified as private applicators (agriculture-related spraying on privately held land) were Evan A. Engdahl, of Montoursville; Tyler J. Fatzinger, of Catasaqua; Nicholas D. Foreman, of Rockwood; Jonathan L. Rishel, of Milton; and Rachael E. Stafford, of Bernville. Rishel is a landscape/horticulture technology: plant production emphasis major; the other eight are enrolled in the landscape/horticulture technology: landscape emphasis major.For more about the college’s landscape/horticulture technology major, visit www.pct.edu/landscape or call 570-327-4516. For information about Penn College, email admissions@pct.edu or call toll-free 800-367-9222.