You Can Get There From Here

Making the decision to stay in Pittsburgh while pursing a college degree was not a hard choice for Anthony Bruce. After all, Anthony?s friends and family were already here and when he looked around at the opportunities available, he knew he could be successful right in his own community.

As a young man attending Oliver High School in the City of Pittsburgh, Anthony was considered a participant and not a bystander. In fact, many of his classmates and teachers viewed him as a leader. He graduated from Oliver High School in 2000 as class valedictorian and was Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) Battalion Commander.  Anthony was an active member of the Oliver High School football, wrestling, and track and field teams. He was a two-time gold medal high jumper and a one-time City runner-up in wrestling in the high school city league. Anthony also participated in Honor Guard, Rifle team, and Raiders while in JROTC.

Anthony remained active throughout his entire high school experience and managed to maintain exceptional grades. When he set a course of action to attend college, he started investigating universities and scholarship opportunities. Upon graduation from high school, Anthony had been offered half a million dollars in scholarship offers and awards ranging from partial to full scholarships, academic to ROTC, American Chemical Society to Coca-Cola.  In the year 2000, he was selected as one of top 50 scholars out of 253,000 in the U.S.to compete in Atlanta for a Coca-Cola scholarship.  Ultimately, he accepted a full-academic scholarship from PennState and his course was set. 

Today, Anthony Bruce works for Verizon as a GPS Analyst/Construction Specialist where he is leading a project to develop and automate summarized scorecards. His years at Penn State McKeesport helped him to gain the knowledge and experience he needed to be successful and when it was time to select an intern site location, Anthony chose, once again, to look no further than his own backyard. He had dual internships all four years while he resided at Penn State McKeesport at both Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and at Carnegie Mellon University?s Software Engineering Institute. He received his bachelor?s degree in Information Sciences and Technology in 2004.

Anthony Bruce is proof that ?you can get there from here? and is proud to be one of the many young people from Pittsburgh that chose to get an education and capitalize on the many opportunities that living and working in Pittsburgh can provide.

Students like Anthony who attend Penn State McKeesport enjoy the benefits and resources of a major research university in an intimate setting. The campus is located outside of Pittsburgh between the residential community of White Oak and Renziehausen Park, and is just 15 minutes away from The Waterfront. The PAT bus 56-C bus stops on campus. The campus? diverse student body is served by dynamic academic and service-based programs.

Penn State McKeesport offers all four years of bachelor?s degrees in Business, Communications, Information Sciences and Technology, Organizational Leadership and Psychology as well as the first two years of 160+ Penn State majors.  Classes are offered in both day and evening schedules.  A new associate degree in Nanofabrication Manufacturing Technology has increased two-year degree offerings which include Business Administration; Letters, Arts and Sciences; and Science. 

For more information, contact Penn State McKeesport at 412-675-9180.