In Maryland, Hagerstown Community College (HCC) radiography students will benefit from a recent donation of a surgical C-arm machine from the Meritus Medical Center.
“The radiography students will now be able to practice using the equipment in a simulated OR environment and obtain images on mannequins. This will greatly improve their skills and hopefully decrease the training time they will need once they are in the field,” said Michelle McDaniel, medical imaging program coordinator at HCC.
California
Grossmont College was awarded a $410,000 state grant for a program to bring awareness to apprenticeship opportunities. The centerpiece of the program is a Pre-Apprentice Mobile (PAM) Lab that will serve as an outreach vehicle at career fairs, high schools and adult schools in an effort to spread the word about apprenticeship opportunities and begin preparing interested students to become apprentices.
The PAM Lab will have computers, internet access and various educational tools, all aimed at boosting student success. Students also will be invited to career service resume writing, interviewing and other job success activities on the Grossmont College campus.
Illinois
Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC) will develop a cybersecurity program with the help of a three-year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. LLCC already offers instruction in cybersecurity, but the new competency-based certificate program will provide academic credit based on students’ knowledge and mastery of skills, rather than time spent in the classroom and credit hours earned.
The program, which will launch in 2018, will be flexible, which likely “will appeal to working students since the mastery of competencies will be learned and demonstrated in an online and virtual environment,” said Wendy Howerter, associate vice president of academic innovation and effectiveness at LLCC.
Michigan
Macomb Community College received $360,000 from the Kathy and Jerry Wood Foundation to fund two-year scholarships. The college will award scholarships to one student from each of Macomb County’s 30 public high schools. They are designed to fund 100 percent of the estimated annual cost of tuition, fees and additional educational expenses, providing $3,000 per semester.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin will become the 14th state to implement a Student Success Center, thanks to a $1.3 million, three-year grant from Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates to the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS). The WTCS Student Success Center will provide a common framework for aligning and prioritizing college completion strategies and initiatives. The center will analyze and share student outcomes data, and a set of common policy goals will be developed, prioritizing completion for all students.
“The model will allow the state’s community colleges to implement evidence-based reforms at scale — rather than as pilots — to help more students earn a degree or certificate,” Amy Kerwin, vice president of community investments at Great Lakes, said in a release.
Jobs for the Future will provide technical assistance. Other state and local partners will be engaged in this effort, including local K-12 and workforce and economic development organizations.
