Graduate with Cove Ties Earns Degree at Ship U.

After almost two years at Shippensburg University, Catherine Grace Fackler, daughter of Pastor Jeff and Lori Fackler of Penn Run, Pa., and granddaughter of Darl and Betty Bechtel of Williamsburg, has graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with a minor in Disability Studies. Her focus of studies was children, development, and disability rights and oppression.

Catherine graduated from Penn Highlands Community College, Johnstown, with an Associate Degree in General Studies in May 2018, a few weeks prior to her high school graduation from Penns Manor High School, Clymer.

Catherine earned double internship credit at Shippensburg in disability studies and psychology in the summer 2019 with New Story School in Indiana, Pa.

During the school year, she worked with local Shippensburg high school students with disabilities as an Employment Training Specialist for HIRE ME at different "job sites" around campus helping them gain employment skills.

Catherine was also an assistant Group Supervisor at the Bartos Child and Family Center, a project of the Shippensburg Foundation. There, she worked with the children with disabilities.

While at Shippensburg, Catherine was a member of the Equestrian Team riding Jigs, Phi Beta Lambda (a business fraternity), FBLA for college students), a Psychology Department Representative for Community and Prospective Students, and she was a Big Buddy at the Grace B. Luhrs Elementary School meeting with students each week as a form of support and mentorship.

Catherine was awarded the Aberman Leadership and Departmental Service Award from the Psychology Department by the psychology department faculty.

Catherine has been accepted into Graduate School at California University of Pennsylvania. Her program is all online and by the end she will have earned a Master of Education degree in Special Education Applied Behavior Analysis with a certification in Autism Spectrum Disorder. After graduating from Cal U, she will take the exam to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, (BCBA), a part of the program's courses.