A Misericordia student and a faculty member of the university’s computer science department have combined to create and distribute a newsletter offering insight and information on the past, present and future status of the department.

Student Iryna Vanderbeek has taken on the challenge of creating the newsletter, an informational piece that explains the department and the three majors in it – Computer Science, Information Technology, and Information Technology Security.

The newsletter lists what classes students in the major will take and highlights the facilities and computer labs those students will use.

“There are classrooms that have regular desks but the monitors and computers lift up from it,” said Sr. Patricia Lapczynski, director of the program. “As you can see from these pictures, also in that building is another small computer lab we use for computer science and IT classes.

“There are some really good computers in it, so we could offer a lot of programs like networking and game programming,” Sr. Patricia continued. “This also gives the ability for people to have hands-on practice.”

Sr. Patricia added Dr. Jeffery Stephens from the physics department teaches the computer organization class where students get hands-on experience working with the many pieces of hardware that make up a computer.

This promotional sheet not only offers an overview of the program, but shows what students are learning, pictures of the computer labs where some of the students who have graduated are working, and other career these three majors require.

There is also a section about Sr. Patricia and her hopes for the department.

“I hope this gives you an overview of the three exciting majors and I hope future issues will highlight our successful graduates and also the people who teach here at Misericordia,” she said. “We hope it’s an excellent promotional material for the alums, the students interested in the program, students who are in the program and also gives Iryna an opportunity to show off her talents!”

The newsletter will be released four times a year, twice a semester, and will be distributed around campus.

“It will not be a week-by-week thing,” Sr. Patricia said. “This will be a periodic thing; it will be used to keep everyone updated on the majors. If we can get two out every semester, that would be fantastic. And if we can get four out during the academic year, that would be wonderful.”

The idea of the newsletter came from Dr. Linda Auker who has created her own newsletter about the Environmental Studies Program at Misericordia. That newsletter touches on what the program offers and upcoming events the program is involved with. It also points out social media programs that allow the programs and events to be updated.

The Computer Science and Informational Technology newsletter is expected to make its debut in the fall.