In Florida, Palm Beach State College (PBSC) President Ava L. Parker announced a $1 million gift to the college from Palm Beach Gardens couple Jan Winkler and Hermine Drezner.
“We believe in this place. We think it’s a wonderful opportunity for young people who have little prospects to suddenly have great prospects. That’s why we’re involved, and that’s why we’ll continue to be involved,” Winkler said.
Parker announced the gift at her investiture ceremony. During her address, she also told attendees that the PBSC Foundation’s Charitable Gift Annuity Program has been renamed the Winkler/Drezner Charitable Gift Annuity Program.
Colorado
The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) received a $1.5 million gift from Delta Dental of Colorado to support the dental hygiene programs. It will use the gift to attract and retain top faculty and ensure programs have current equipment, technology and supplies. Funds also support student scholarships.
Dental hygiene programs are offered at Colorado Northwestern Community College, the Community College of Denver and Pueblo Community College.
Maryland
Carroll Community College (CCC) and Howard Community College (HCC) will use a $427,583 grant to support programs that train students for careers as audio-visual systems specialists. The grant comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education program.
CCC and HCC are creating parallel programs – known as entertainment technology – that will share research and resources. They will offer the only public, associate degree programs for multimedia and presentation technology in the mid-Atlantic region. The colleges have already formed partnerships with more than 20 local businesses and organizations to offer training that could lead to employment.
“A grant award from the NSF speaks to the highly technical nature of this emerging field. It is a prestigious validation of the goals of our program. We are very encouraged and grateful to NSF,” said CCC President James D. Ball.
Virginia
Lord Fairfax Community College will prepare more people for careers in the healthcare sector using a $144,000 grant from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation (CMCF). The college will work with Rappahannock County schools to initiate a certified nursing assistant program (CNA) and partner with Shenandoah County schools to start a career studies certificate program in medical office administration. LFCC also will create a program for high school students who have already received certification as a CNA to go on to earn a healthcare technician career studies certificate as a medication aide.
This is the second grant that LFCC has received from CMCF. In 2016, the college received $200,000 to start a medical laboratory technician program.
