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Bri Irvin of Portage cuts Altoona resident Frank Pacovsky’s hair at the Altoona Elegance College.
A school that has been on the slicing edge in style will be just one of two firms inducted into the Blair County Chamber of Commerce Company Corridor of Fame on Thursday at The On line casino at Lakemont Park.
The Altoona Natural beauty University has been a portion of the area training neighborhood due to the fact 1956.
“It is an honor, it is great to be acknowledged in the small business group,” mentioned operator/director Linzi Biesinger, a 1986 graduate of the college.
Virginia Stoudenour started the faculty in 1956 in a house at Wide Avenue and 29th Avenue. She operated the college until eventually 1979 when it was acquired by Richard Koop.
The college moved to the former Altoona Catholic Higher College building at 1100 Sixth Ave. in 1986 and remained there till 2001, when Biesinger — who acquired the college from Koop in 1994 — moved to a new 6,750-square-foot facility at 1528 Valley See Blvd.
Marin Grabill of Tyrone does dermal layering on Jaden Calhoun of Osterburg in the esthetics place at the school.
Mirror image by Patrick Waksmunski
“I experienced taught there for 7 many years, and I was supervisor the last a few years. I just considered why not and took the prospect. I like instructing. I was at the appropriate area at the ideal time It was the excellent option,” Biesinger claimed.
Nowadays the school delivers five applications: cosmetology, nails, esthetics (pores and skin treatment), electrology (everlasting hair elimination) and a trainer training plan. The college also features continuing training lessons for licensed industry experts.
Esthetics is the most well-liked application currently.
“The more youthful generation is all about encounter and lashes, it is just a craze. Cosmetology has the most significant work desire there are more openings there than anything,” Biesinger claimed.
In addition to the many approaches college students also learn small business techniques this sort of as how to market on their own to make clientele, payroll, income and decline, upservice and rebooking expertise. “Some pupils really don’t know how to discuss to men and women, how to do points like shake palms and introduce on their own,” Biesinger claimed.
Now 55 students are enrolled.
“We typical amongst 60 and 100 a year. Enrollment has been down the last 4 many years, but it is beginning to appear again again. There was extra emphasis on attending college or university. Now the tables have turned toward vocational instruction,” Biesinger mentioned.
Pupils ordinarily variety in age from 19 to 25 but sometimes more mature college students enroll as nicely as males.
“Short phrase lessons like nails and esthetics are finished five times a yr. We by no means have more than eight (college students). These lessons are very hands-on, and the trainer desires to function with each and every of the learners. Cosmetology is offered 6 times a calendar year, we usually have among four and 14 college students. They get a good deal of arms-on teaching,” Biesinger stated. “The trainer coaching plan can start off any month we have 6 at a time.”
The university appeals to college students from a 200-mile radius.
