Colleges and the towns they inhabit are a little like bees and flowers. Both need the other to flourish. The cross-pollination between Allegheny and Meadville delivers a diverse range of opportunities for the region and for students and faculty. The result is a healthy, resilient ecosystem for life and learning.
While investing in the community has always been a hallmark of the College, the last few years have accelerated this mutualistic bond. This is propelled by Allegheny’s landmark Strategic Pathway, wherein the fourth of five goals is as simply stated as it is part of our DNA: Allegheny will be a part of and serve the greater Meadville community
As President Ron Cole, Ph.D., ’87 wrote in an article titled “Economic Development as a Higher Education Imperative” in “Academic Leader”:
“To be successful, a commitment to economic development must be shared by campus stakeholders including the governing board, senior administration, faculty, staff, and students, along with community stakeholders including local government, businesses, and nonprofit and service organizations. At my institution, after seeking input from each of these stakeholders, we codified our commitment to community and economic development explicitly as one of five goals in our Strategic Pathway. We know that it’s important to avoid a mindset of ‘swooping in’ to ‘save’ our town. Instead, we are part of our town and need to work alongside community partners to build capacity.”
One key to being part of the community is the people – a robust history of student involvement and alumni remaining in the region to foster growth. Also important are investments in the structures – entities within and outside the College to spur community growth. Here, we take a look at examples of both and how they are impacting the place we call home.
Fostering Brain Gain
It would take years of magazine features to illustrate the alumni talent who have been enriched by the area, calling it home and using their skills to build the community through careers in the public and private sectors. Heather Fish ’15 is just one example.
A first-generation college graduate, the environmental science major is a mover and a shaker. Her entrepreneurial spirit is complemented by a cool, edgy vibe she’s imparting to her adopted hometown of Meadville.
When Fish came to Meadville from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to attend Allegheny, a non-negotiable was the chance to get involved in the local community, which she grew up doing out West. Now 31, she considers Meadville home and is glad she stayed.
Fish says, “I would be nowhere without the Meadville community. There are so many community members who are cheerleaders for the work I’m doing.”
While at Allegheny, Fish was a member of the Bonner Program, a national network that offers students opportunities to work at local nonprofit organizations through 140 hours of service learning. The program served as a natural pathway to getting involved in Meadville. Fish says, “I was a Bonner for four years at Women’s Services and then never stopped volunteering. Now I’m on the board of the organization. It really changed my life.”
She stayed in town during her first year of college and fell in love. “There was just so much to do here, especially during the summertime.”
The daughter of two truck drivers, Fish knows hard work. She started her Meadville career as a coffee packer at Happy Mug Coffee Co and bartender at Voodoo Brewery. At the same time, she made dozens of connections in her role as the community market coordinator for Second Saturday Community Market, a local outdoor event that runs from May through September. Fish says, “I kind of fell in love with small business. Just the idea of keeping your talents and money local has always interested me. Also, I just like a place that has character.”
Fish always loved the idea of a collaborative working space, but the closest one was in
Erie. When a local building owner launched a big idea contest, with the prize being one year of free rent, she knew she had to submit her idea. She ended up winning first place. “I guess I’m in business now,” she thought. Through the connections she’d made with makers, artists, and other creatives, she had an instant cache of people who gladly joined her new membership-based space, Foundry Co-Work. It quickly grew, enabling her to hire employees. By 2021, she rebranded it as Hatch Hollow, and now also offers an art supply retail space and art gallery.
Hatch Hollow evolved into a valued community anchor for artists, innovators, and people who embrace creativity, thrive in community, and want to see change. Fish says, “We share a desire for a more collaborative and sustainable Meadville.”
However, like most entrepreneurs, Fish knew she could do more. In 2024, she purchased her first commercial building, a 10,000-square-foot, three-story gem on Market Street. Originally built in 1890, it needs a lot of vision, a little magic, and the very ingenuity Fish has parlayed into past success. She is working with local contractors, bringing it back to life. Her goal is to build a larger version of Hatch Hollow, with a commercial commissary kitchen and an event space in an old ballroom on the third floor. She contemplates the many lives of that old ballroom, with its chipped and fading patina, and decides she’ll keep much of it “as is” to retain the character of the space.
In the spirit of collaboration, she’s applying for grants to support refurbishing the building and working with local entities, including the Meadville Community Revitalization Corporation (MCRC), which is headed by Andy Walker ’00, a natural partner. (See more about the MCRC on p. 10.) Walker says, “Heather is a respected, quiet leader. When she speaks, people listen.”
Fish is excited, but understands it won’t be easy. “The building needs a lot of work. Meadville really made me fall in love with historic preservation. My mission is to respect the integrity and the history of the architecture in our area. I’ll renovate this building and stick as close to its origins, while bringing it into the modern world. I have some busy years ahead of me, but I’m kind of used to it by now.”
Community Impact Hub
A stroll through the College archives illustrates the deep connections between the College and the community. There are cultural, physical, and programmatic manifestations throughout the region. One of the newest examples of the rich tradition of community engagement is the Community Impact Hub (the Hub).
The Hub is the result of years of tenacious work and relationship-building that initially started as a pilot project in 2018 with leadership from then Associate Provost Terry Bensel, Ph.D. The Hub expanded in fall 2024 through a $15 million grant Allegheny received from a source that wishes to remain anonymous. Bensel says, “The evolution of the Hub revolved around a series of meetings with community partners, students, and faculty experienced in (or interested in learning about) communityengaged class projects and research. Those discussions focused on what was useful and beneficial about community-based learning, the challenges in doing this kind of work, and what the College might do to help faculty overcome those challenges. This provided a blueprint for a grant request to fund an initiative to promote and enhance community-based learning at Allegheny.”
The grant provides immediately expendable funding to support first-year operations and a generous endowment of nearly $14 million to ensure the work of the Hub in perpetuity. The Hub facilitates a strategic and collaborative network of teams that include
community partners, faculty, staff, and students. It is organized around five Impact Teams: Arts and Culture, Community and Economic Development, Education and Social Development, Environment and Sustainability, and Health and Well-Being. Working together under a “Collective Impact” model, the Hub supports regional capacitybuilding and community improvement efforts initiated by community partners and integrated into the College’s curriculum and student engagement activities.
“The Hub is a vital component of academic programs, providing our students with experiences working with government and nonprofit organizations as they engage with faculty and community mentors to make Meadville a vibrant place to live and work,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Jennifer Dearden, DMA.
As part of the grant, approximately $100,000 will be awarded to nonprofits and community organizations annually through the Hub and the five Impact Teams. With mentoring from experienced community practitioners and faculty, students are exposed during the summer and academic year to real-world complexities and grand challenges faced by all communities, allowing them to apply their knowledge in practical settings, develop leadership skills, cultivate a more profound commitment to engaged citizenship, and explore potential post-graduation life paths.
Meadville Community Revitalization Corporation
Last year, Allegheny received a $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to accelerate the initial redevelopment activities of the Meadville Community Revitalization Corporation (MCRC). The MCRC is an independent nonprofit organization that aims to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing Meadville’s Central Business District and to develop a vision and multi-year strategy to improve and advance a vibrant downtown. The grant is helping the MCRC hire key staff, prepare and introduce a range of programming to activate and revitalize downtown Meadville, set up a BUILD Meadville Development Fund, and establish a comprehensive fundraising strategy for the future.
Allegheny began its collaboration with the City of Meadville to bolster downtown revitalization and development to become a strong economic anchor two years ago with a planning grant from the foundation. This investment enabled the new entity to organize and gather stakeholders and build on prior work under the guidance of
Andy Walker ’00, a Meadville community leader who, as an Allegheny employee, has been contracted by MCRC to serve as its executive director.
Key partners in the work were Meadville City Mayor Jaime Kinder, members of City Council, and Crawford County Commissioners, including alumni Christopher Seeley ’10 (recipient of the 2024 Alumni Citation), Autumn Vogel ’15, and Jim Roha ’74.
“One of the key commitments of Allegheny College’s Strategic Pathway is to grow capacity for long-term improvements and collaborative initiatives with community partners for local and regional economic development,” says President Cole. “The resources provided by the Richard King Mellon Foundation are helping the Meadville Community Revitalization Corporation continue to build a vital downtown that meets the needs of current and future residents and businesses, draws talent to our region, and serves as a destination for our students, families, and visitors.”
Manufacturing Future
Melding the mission and vision of a liberal arts college and the mission and vision of a region works best when those two complex entities are on the same page from the start. Allegheny could not have imagined incorporating the opportunities that modern manufacturing presents for our students, and for the bright future it can offer the region. As to the role the College would play, the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County was absolutely essential.
Recognized as a premier economic development organization in the Commonwealth, the Economic Progress Alliance promotes and enables sustainable economic growth with strengthening, expanding, or locating businesses in Crawford County. President Cole said, “We simply would not have the Allegheny Lab for Innovation & Creativity (ALIC) were it not for the shared vision and support of Executive Director Jim Becker and of course, Allegheny alumna and Deputy Director Angela Pero Annibale ’03.”
In 2023, Allegheny launched ALIC @ Bessemer, an expansion of the on-campus ALIC, to bring workforce development and education resources into the community. ALIC @ Bessemer, located on the Economic Progress Alliance campus on Bessemer Street in Meadville, is a collaborative learning, research, and fabrication space to equip the regional workforce with cuttingedge skills and serves undergraduate students with high-impact educational experiences alongside community members and industry partners.
With leadership from Assistant Provost of Academic Innovation Byron Rich, the three-
story space is designed to mimic a real-world environment, providing off-site training and onboarding opportunities for industry partners. The facility is outfitted with advanced manufacturing equipment such as a 5-axis CNC machine, multi-material 3D printers for additive manufacturing, automation technologies, quality assurance technologies, and computer labs with digital design software, which were selected based on input from over 25 organizations across Western Pennsylvania.
In partnership with the regional precision manufacturing industry, Allegheny will play a central role in the economic resurgence of Northwestern Pennsylvania in response to the over 20% growth in the aerospace, research, and information technology industries in recent years, combined with a decline in skilled workers for these positions. ALIC @ Bessemer will equip the regional workforce to adapt to emerging technological development and advances in business operations and help businesses future-proof by providing research and development opportunities.
“Our partnerships with the region’s precision manufacturing industries are unique for a liberal arts college and empower what we can accomplish through collaboration,” says President Cole. “We look forward to our continued work with industry partners to meet the workforce needs of our region with an infusion of liberal arts learning and to provide our undergraduate students with unique research opportunities to build skills for the future.”
Learning Naturally: Watershed Conservation Research Center
An award-winning, nationally recognized program, the Watershed Conservation Research Center (WCRC) is co-directed by Associate Professor of Environmental Science & Sustainability Casey BradshawWilson, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor of Environmental Science & Sustainability Kelly Pearce, Ph.D., and has had a lasting impact on the area. The WCRC was established in 2021 through a generous grant of $1,250,000 from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and its work has been further sustained and supported by an additional grant from the foundation, in the amount of nearly $935,000, in December 2024.
This meaningful program engages Allegheny undergraduates in conservation-based research projects where they gain fieldbased skills training that helps prepare them for graduate school or conservation-related careers. Students are trained to become stewards of water resources with the goal of producing graduates who will protect watersheds not only in western Pennsylvania, but around the world.
Pearce says, “Students who work with the WCRC have opportunities to present at regional and national conferences, learn techniques and skills that relate directly to working in the field of conservation, and interact with WCRC community partners and landowners. What our graduates do with the education, hands-on training, experiences, and knowledge they gain through the WCRC has far-reaching implications.”
Located on Allegheny’s campus, the WCRC engages in strategic conservation activities and trains future watershed stewards to protect, restore, and enhance our land and water resources for future generations in the upper Allegheny River basin, focusing on the French Creek Watershed.
WCRC is essential to the French Creek Watershed, celebrated as Pennsylvania’s most biologically diverse stream. This natural resource is home to a vast diversity of wildlife, yet there’s still much to learn about the species that call it home.
Research gaps remain when it comes to tracking population trends, understanding the impacts of invasive species and land use changes, and evaluating the success of restoration efforts. The WCRC is working to fill these gaps through strategic conservation research that deepens our understanding of both land and water organisms.
The program supports student-faculty projects and initiatives that:
- Advance knowledge to aid in the protection of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife species and/or habitats with the French Creek Watershed
- Educate or create awareness of the ecological, economic, or intrinsic importance of the French Creek Watershed
- Aim to better understand the cultural, political, economic, and/or ecological value of the French Creek Watershed for regional communities/economies
“By collaborating with local partners, we not only share knowledge and resources but also take meaningful action to protect and restore French Creek’s habitats. For example, our stream restoration projects improve water quality and create healthier environments for native species to thrive.” says Pearce. Through science-driven conservation and community partnerships, WCRC is ensuring a future where French Creek remains a stronghold of biodiversity and a healthy watershed for those living and recreating in the French Creek watershed.
Key partners in this program include: Brian Pilarcik, Crawford County Conservation District; Brenda Baker Costa ’94, French Creek Valley Conservancy; Annie Maloney, Foundation for Sustainable Forests; and Matt Kaunert ’11, Clean Water Institute, Lycoming College.
Through science-driven conservation and community partnerships, WCRC is ensuring a future where French Creek remains a stronghold of biodiversity and a healthy watershed for those living and recreating in the French Creek watershed.
The Nectar of Economic Development
Like organisms in a mutualistic relationship that evolve together, Allegheny and Meadville will always adapt to the ever-changing environment – in every sense of that word – and grow in a way that benefits both.
Bees to flowers, nectar to pollen, we will continue to grow with the region. President Cole notes, “Demonstrating that higher ed is part of economic development can foster a paradigm shift in how a college or university is perceived, dismantling the ivory tower. There are mutual benefits to our college and the town, such as helping to attract new students and employees with a vibrant community while providing high-impact practices and career readiness for students.”
We understand that when our community flourishes, so does Allegheny College. Improving the quality of life in Meadville also improves the quality of life for our students, faculty, and staff. As goes Meadville, so goes Allegheny College.
