A $25,000 gift from NexTier Bank will benefit a Butler County Community College program that enables sophomores through seniors to earn affordable and transferable credits in college courses instructed at their high school or learning center, and a game played by pupils as young as fourth-graders that teaches financial literacy. Shown Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township are, from left, Lisa Mislan, Carol Achezinski, Mikayla Moretti and Lara Wozniak. Mislan, Achezinski and Wozniak are NexTier officials. Mislan is community relations manager; Achezinski, senior vice president and treasury management officer; and Wozniak, senior vice president and director of treasury management. Moretti is interim executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation and external relations. Achezinski is also a member of the BC3 Education Foundation board of directors. Submitted Photo

A $25,000 gift from NexTier Bank will benefit a Butler County Community College program that enables sophomores through seniors to earn affordable and transferable credits in college courses taught at their high school or learning center, and a game played by pupils as young as fourth-graders that teaches financial literacy.

NexTier’s latest contribution to the BC3 Education Foundation, through the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, follows its $5,000 sponsorship of the foundation’s golf outing in August and $1,500 sponsorship of the Pioneer Pursuit in September.

“Our support of BC3 is more than a banking relationship,” said Natalie L. Cotherman, NexTier vice president and director of marketing. “We know our funds are working to enrich the lives of students who will become the future leaders of Butler and beyond.”

BC3’s College Within the High School program is available to sophomores who have a 3.25 cumulative grade-point average; to juniors with a 3.0 cumulative GPA and to seniors with a 2.75 cumulative GPA. Courses this spring are being offered at 16 high schools or learning centers in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Clearfield, Jefferson, Lawrence and Mercer counties, according to James Frank, BC3’s assistant director of high school programming.

“BC3’s program gives high school students a first look at what college might be,” said Mikayla Moretti, interim executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation and external relations. “It also helps students to get ahead of the game and hit the ground running when they go into college.

“NexTier Bank has been an incredible partner with BC3 in so many ways.”

BC3’s Professor David C. Huseman Center for Economic Education administers a 30-week Stock Market Game that begins in September, and 10-week competitions in the fall and spring.

Fourth-graders through high school seniors competing in the game receive a fictional $100,000, make buy-and-trade decisions and track how those decisions would have played out in the market had they been real, Huseman said.

“NexTier continues to be an advocate for promoting financial literacy to students both in and out of the classroom,” Cotherman said. “It’s our responsibility as a community bank to provide financial tools and resources to students.”

Pennsylvania’s EITC program, through the state Department of Community and Economic Development, provides tax credits to eligible businesses that contribute financially to a scholarship organization, to an educational improvement organization or to a prekindergarten scholarship organization.

The foundation received nearly $73,000 in 2024 EITC contributions, Moretti said.

The BC3 Education Foundation golf outing raised nearly $95,000 in unrestricted funds in August to support opportunities beyond the classroom at BC3 and the Pioneer Pursuit, nearly $10,500 in September to benefit BC3’s intercollegiate athletics programs.

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.