Calhoun Community College (CCC) and its foundation have received a $30,000 gift from the National Space Club in Huntsville, Alabama (NSC-HSV). The funds will go toward an endowed scholarship by the organization to support students majoring in advanced manufacturing with a concentration in aerospace technology or any other technology at CCC. NSC-HSV promotes U.S. space leadership; stimulates the advancement of civilian applications of rocketry and astronautics; and recognizes and honors those that have contributed to the advancement of rocketry and astronautics.
Arizona
Pima Community College’s Downtown Campus has received a $2 million U.S. Department of Education (ED) grant to support several initiatives geared toward increasing student success. The college is working to align course content with industry needs, improve labs and learning centers and provide focused student support services in advising and tutoring, among other initiatives.
“The timing could not be better,” Campus President David Doré said in a release. “This is an invaluable opportunity that is aligned with the college’s Centers of Excellence initiatives and implementation of guided pathways, which supports students to ensure on-time graduation.”
Colorado
Pueblo Community College will use a five-year, $2.4 million ED grant to increase retention, graduation and transfer rates for Hispanic and high-needs students. The grant funds PCC’s Providing Opportunity for Diverse Educational Roles (PODER) program.
Through the PODER program, students will receive counseling and enhanced support services. Another component of the program will be to introduce new students to the idea of teaching as a profession.
“PCC has developed a recipe for student success that, with the financial support provided by this Title V grant opportunity, will enable us to sustain our efforts to ensure every student – regardless of income, first-generation status, race, religion or gender – will have an equal chance to achieve their unique goals and aspirations,” said PCC President Patty Erjavec.
Connecticut
Housatonic Community College will expand science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) initiatives thanks to a $25,000 contribution. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, provided the funding, which also will help the college launch a STEAM Center of Excellence. The center will be designed to provide hands-on learning that encourages innovation, invention and creativity.
Illinois
Harper College was selected to receive a $15,000 Delphi Award for its comprehensive efforts to revamp the adjunct faculty evaluation process. Instead of relying solely on classroom observations by administrators, Harper College began offering its adjunct faculty options: they could perform a goal-based self-evaluation or participate in a peer observation of another faculty member’s classroom. This has allowed adjunct faculty to experiment with and assess new classroom practices to improve their teaching. It also has promoted a sense of community and shared learning among peers.
The Delphi Award is an initiative of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success led by the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. The award champions efforts to support non-tenure-track faculty and new faculty models, so that other postsecondary institutions might adopt these successful models on additional campuses.
Maryland
College of Southern Maryland was awarded two grants from the the Chaney Enterprises Foundation. One $10,000 grant will assist with maintaining CSM’s Bee Campus USA Program. CSM was among the first Maryland colleges to become a bee campus and is creating pollinator-friendly environments at each of its four campuses.
The second grant, also for $10,000, will be help create a workforce development scholarship for students pursuing skilled trades at the college’s Center for Trades and Energy Training.
Hagerstown Community College (HCC) students can keep on trucking, thanks to the donation of a model tractor from Dot Foods. The 2012 Volvo VNL model tractor with auto-shift will be used in the college’s truck driver training program. This is HCC’s newest model tractor, and will add an automatic transmission tractor to the school’s fleet.
(From left) David Hess, director of transportation at Dot Foods; Jim Klauber, president of Hagerstown Community College; Mike Stevenson, commercial vehicle transportation program coordinator; and Fred Hughes, the program’s assistant coordinator. (Photo: HCC)
Massachusetts
Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) and Fitchburg Public Schools have received a $4.5 million ED grant to help more than 800 students get more out of high school and navigate the path to college.
Through the federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) program, students in the school district will have opportunities for academic counseling, mentoring, community service opportunities, academic workshops and activities, college and career awareness and readiness activities, and financial aid planning.
This marks the fourth time that MWCC has received a GEAR UP grant to work with the Fitchburg Public Schools. In 2017, 95 percent of GEAR UP Fitchburg high school seniors graduated from high school, which was 8.7 percent above the baseline graduation rate. In the 2016 GEAR UP graduating class, postsecondary enrollment was 54.4 percent, 10.9 percent above the baseline rate.
Mississippi
Meridian Community College (MCC) has received a $1.1 million 2019 Career and Technical Education (CTE) Challenge Grant from the Mississippi Community College Board to implement a new advanced manufacturing technology program aimed at helping meet the needs of the local business community.
“This is exciting news for the college and absolutely speaks to our desire to address economic and workforce development needs in Meridian and Lauderdale County,” said MCC President Tom Huebner. “The challenge grant will serve as a catalyst for MCC to align career and technical education programs with ever-growing needs in advanced manufacturing.”
New York
Bronx Community College (BCC) will introduce on-campus child care for students attending evening classes next year, thanks to a nearly $1.4 million Child Care Access Means Parents in School program (CCAMPIS) grant from ED. While BCC’s Early Childhood Center currently offers child care and preschool programs to 100 children while their parents attend classes during the day, this new funding mean that 160 preschoolers whose parents take evening classes can be placed in child care after hours.
“More than half of all BCC students work while attending classes, and 55 percent have children under the age of five,” said BCC President Thomas Isekenegbe. “Their ability to access high-quality child care gives them peace of mind and the support they need to pursue their studies.”
BCC also received a $98,170 grant from ED to upgrade the technology in its Cybersecurity Computer Lab. BCC’s launched a degree program in cybersecurity and networking this fall with 25 students. BCC faculty will use the funding enhance four advanced cybersecurity courses with new equipment and software.
As part of the grant, BCC also receives technical assistance from the National CyberWatch Center at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland.
Ohio
Washington State Community College (WSCC) will use a $50,000 grant from the Bernard McDonough Foundation to address the increasing demand for nurses in the Mid-Ohio Valley. WSCC has developed a measure to help fill the nursing gap with the Education and Advancement to Registered Nurse (EARN) pathway. EARN was designed to attract and support non-traditional students who can advance their careers while working toward a degree.
With these new funds, the college will hire an additional faculty member who will serve as a success coach to support EARN students.
Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, Tulsa Community College (TCC) plans to expand mental health training for faculty, staff and a select group of students using a $375,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant has a goal to reach most of TCC’s full-time faculty and staff. So far, TCC has already trained 150 faculty and staff in mental health first aid, which is designed to give people the skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The college plans to train an additional 630 faculty, staff and select students over a three-year period.
A mental health training grant will help Tulsa Community College expand Mental Health First Aid training to an additional 630 faculty, staff and student leaders over a three-year period. (Photo: Shane Bevel/TCC)
Texas
Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) is grateful to Georgann and John A. Raney, Jr., for bequeathing an endowment of $36,245 that will support students majoring in advanced engine technology and industrial mechanics.
Included in the endowment are two historic, parchment-backed maps of Beaumont and the old Gladys City. One is dated 1907; the other estimated to have been from around that time or earlier.
