Many school-age children have visited the IDEA Center, as well, including students from the NEPA PAC After School Program who used the IDEA Center’s industry-level design and fabrication tools to create personal brand images that were engraved onto wooden plaques. Students also went home with custom NEPA PAC T-shirts that they personally hand pressed.
The visit, which included five Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine students who volunteered to help, made for “an evening of creativity, innovation and hands-on learning,” Bryan said.
“Experiences like that embody the mission of the IDEA Center,” Bryan said. “Moving learners from consumers to creators and empowering young people across our region to see themselves as innovators, leaders and makers of their own future.”
Weiss Hall also serves as the headquarters for the Departments of Psychology and of Criminal Justice, Cybersecurity and Sociology; the Small Business Development Center; Student Health Services; the University of Success; and the Center for Health, Education and Wellness.
Together, these academic units, student-support offices and University programs fulfill the charge given years ago by one of the building’s benefactors.
“Get the idea, do basic research, apply the idea,” Robert S. Weiss said at the 2024 naming announcement. “Then go out and ‘set the world on fire.’”