UPPER BURRELL, Pa. -- Penn State New Kensington alumna Amy Cyprych, director of risk revenue at Highmark, will be the principal speaker at the campus' fall commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Dec. 19, in the Athletics Center. Thirty graduates will receive baccalaureate and associate degrees.
Cyprych earned a bachelor’s degree in information sciences and technology in 2002. At Highmark, she leads a team of program and project managers and business and data analysts, who support risk adjustment for Medicare Advantage and Affordable Care Act. Cyprych’s responsibilities include facilitating the department’s strategic and tactical planning, leading business process modeling and redesign activities, developing business requirements and test plans, and managing the operational data submission processes. Risk adjustment is a government reimbursement program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“I am passionate about identifying an organization’s business goals and developing people, process, and technology strategies to support these goals,” said Cyprych, who was a member of the campus' Honors program. “I enjoy bringing cross-functional teams together to accomplish a common goal.”
A frequent guest speaker in IST classes at the campus, Cyprych enjoys interacting with the students and sharing her experiences in the corporate world. In addition, she has sponsored projects for the senior capstone course, and she has participated as an employer partner of the GREAT (Growing Regional Excellence through Experience, Academics, and Training) program for promising students in engineering and technology fields.
New Kensington’s IST program gives students a background in the core technical areas of networking, databases, programming, and system integration. Graduates are trained in key business areas, such as project management and organization theory. The capstone course, “Information Sciences and Technology Integration and Problem Solving,” provides students with real-life problems faced by organizations. Each semester, nationally-known corporations bring campus students on-board as interns for special projects. At the end of the semester, the students present their results to the company, usually in front of its top management. The campus program is one of best in the Penn State system. For more on the program, visit http://www.nk.psu.edu/Academics/Degrees/44621.htm
The campus’ five-year-old GREAT program matches promising engineering and IST students with local internship opportunities. The GREAT program is a partnership between the New Kensington campus, the Penn State Electro-Optics Center and industries within the greater Pittsburgh region. Students visit companies and attend job/internship fairs. Unlike many other programs, GREAT provides qualified engineering and IST students with the opportunity to build professional skills and experiences starting as soon as their first year at the campus. The advantages of freshmen internships are numerous. For more about the GREAT program, visit www.nk.psu.edu/GREATprogram
Cyprych lives in Lower Burrell with her husband, Jim, and their two pugs, Peyton and Bailey.
For more on commencement, visit http://www.nk.psu.edu/academics/graduation.htm