Students enrolled in emergency management and homeland security at Pennsylvania College of Technology are benefiting from a recent software donation, according to a recent press release from the college.

D4H donated its cloud-based emergency management software to the college. Students in the Incident Command System Operations class now have access to the same software used by more than 100,000 responders in more than 37 countries, the release said.

The value of the donation is $14,450.

“By having access to this software, our students are exposed to modern incident management software that they will use in the field throughout their careers.” William A. Schlosser, emergency management and homeland security instructor, said in the release. “All high school students (about 60) will use the software.”

Marketed as “Simple software for emergency and crisis management” D4H facilitates real-time information sharing and collaboration among team members, according to the press release. The software includes configurable templates for different types of emergencies, integrated mapping and built-in weather forecasts.

“It allows emergency managers to orchestrate the response to an incident and communicate with each other to manage the incident throughout the incident lifecycle.” Schlosser said. “It tracks things like resources used and tasks required. And you can create a map of the incident that is shared with everyone in the program.”

Penn College students used the software for the first time earlier this month during a large-scale search and rescue exercise at the college’s Schneebeli Earth Science Center.

“The software package is extremely simple to learn how to use and does not require a lot of setup. The students quickly engaged with it and were very successful in using it.” Schlosser said. “The software allowed students to use their classroom knowledge in the field. The partnership with D4H has been fantastic.”

“At D4H, we believe in empowering the next generation of emergency managers with the tools they need to succeed. We are excited to partner with Pennsylvania College of Technology and provide their students with hands-on experience using our emergency management software. This donation reflects our commitment to support education and drive innovation in emergency management.” said Robin Blandford, CEO of D4H.

D4H is part of the college’s Corporate Tomorrow Maker program.

“We are so excited to receive this D4H emergency management software,” said Ana I. Gonzalez-White, college relations officer. “Using it in our emergency management program will be a great benefit to our students’ hands-on learning.”

The Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency Management and Homeland Security can be completed online or on campus. The major requires 300 hours of field experience and boasts a 100% graduate placement rate.

For information on emergency management and homeland security and other degrees offered by the School of Business, Arts and Sciences, call 570-327-4520 or visit www.pct.edu/bas.