School of STEAM

The project to build a Saint Francis University Tiny Classroom is officially a reality! The Tiny Classroom Big Impact project, currently under construction, will provide hands-on, renewable energy education for SFU students and community members in central and southwestern Pennsylvania. A year ago, the Institute for Energy dreamed an idea to construct a tiny mobile classroom. They envisioned the classroom would utilize renewable energy and serve as a teaching tool about sustainability and power technologies for communities in the region. Two local organizations are making that dream come true

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering program at SFU strongly encourage and support undergraduate students to involve in academic and industrial research projects. In these research projects, students have the opportunities to develop new skills, present their research results in national/international professional conferences, publish conference proceedings or peer-review journal articles, and meet external professors and industrial engineers. Our university, department and PNGE program have invested a lot in undergraduate student research by providing facilities, funding, etc. The Coming

Students from Saint Francis University helped give people in need something to smile about last weekend. MOM-n-PA Dental Missions hosted their 5th annual clinic this year at Gannon University in Erie, PA on June 17th and 18th. The MOM-n-PA mission is a two-day large scale dental clinic where dental treatment is provided at no cost to individuals who cannot afford dental care. Over 700 dental, medical and pharmacy professionals, students and lay volunteers freely donated their time to help at MOM-n-PA 2017. The two-day clinic provided dental care to nearly 1,000 patients. They did 3,677

Loretto, Pennsylvania — Researchers from Saint Francis University, the University of Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania State University have found that exposure to trace metals from potatoes grown in soil irrigated with waters from the Potosi mining region in Bolivia may put residents at risk of non-cancer health illnesses. The world’s largest silver deposit lies in this region, and exposure to mining pollution from contaminated irrigation waters worries residents. “In this high mountain desert, water is a critically precious resource and the use of metal-polluted waters for irrigation may have

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Pittsburgh section has awarded $30,000 in scholarships every year for the last five years. 12 outstanding students from Penn State University, Pittsburgh University and Saint Francis University who show great promise in and dedication to the petroleum engineering profession and related fields in the oil and gas industry are chosen for the scholarship. This year, three students in the petroleum and natural gas engineering major at Saint Francis University won the annual scholarships, worth $2500 each, from the SPE Pittsburgh Section. Please join us in

One of the things that makes Saint Francis University different from other colleges is our commitment to research and faculty mentorship. Our students conduct research in small teams that work closely with faculty members in dedicated student/faculty research labs. Many students begin research as freshmen, and students can work with multiple faculty on different projects over their four years. Two first-year SFU Biology students, Taylin Lehman and Morgan Ruis, along with Associate Professor Dr. Lane Loya, recently discovered larvae of the rare Tiger Spiketail dragonfly ( Cordulegaster erronea

Meet Mudkip and Wooper, the two newest members of the The Dr. Wayne and Elizabeth Takacs Biology Department . The axolotls, also known as Mexican salamander, are actually amphibians and not walking fish, although they do spend their entire lives in water. The axolotl’s name is derived from the Latin words “atl” (water) and “xolotl” (monster). They retain their larval features as adults and never go through metamorphosis. The axolotls are currently the eighth most endangered species in the world with less than 100 individuals currently left in the wild. Their natural habitat is in an area of

Athena, Otis and Tobie graduated from Saint Francis University on Friday! The trio of shelter dogs from the Central PA Humane Society received an SFU collar tag, a diploma and an AKC Canine Good Citizen certification. Now they are heading off to new "furever" homes. The dogs were part of a semester-long Psychology course, “Canine Learning and Behavior." The class is a community partnership project taught by SFU Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Shlomit Flaisher-Grinberg and Megan Sanchez, Volunteer Coordinator at the Central PA Humane Society. The idea for the class was initiated by Dr

When the temperatures reached an abnormal high of over 70 degrees Fahrenheit in February, many professors headed outdoors with their classes. Dr. Joseph Goodwill took things a step further. For this Environmental Transport Processes class (ENVE 312), he took the Junior Engineering students and some special equipment outside. Dr. Goodwill collaborated with the Saint Francis Institute for Energy and borrowed a solar kit from Goal Zero . The portable power station generated enough power to run the large monitor that displayed Dr. Goodwill’s PowerPoint slides. That day, the Environmental

Ms. Stephanie Wilson is a senior Biology major with a Marine Biology and Environmental Science concentrations. In addition to her coursework, she has traveled, engaged in a variety of campus activities, and has contributed much time and energy to the Dr. Wayne and Elizabeth Takacs Biology Department and the School of Sciences in general. Last year, she was been actively involved in the maintenance of the 1500-gallon aquarium at SFU and the care of many specimens in the marine lab in addition to being a Work Study Assistant to the Dean of the School of Sciences, a Microbiology Lab Prep