Tennessee’s Roane State Community College has received an $80,000 grant for its popular girls’ STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) camps. The funding comes from the Verizon Foundation and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship and aims to help girls from underserved rural areas boost their interest in STEM topics.
Middle-school girls from local counties will be able to participate in year-long STEM camps beginning with three-week camps in July and one Saturday a month throughout the school year on Roane State’s campuses in those counties. Topics during the year include 3D design and 3D printing, electronics and coding, augmented reality and virtual reality and design thinking and entrepreneurship.
Arkansas
NorthWest Arkansas Community College will use a $586,900 National Science Foundation grant to upgrade its integrated design lab. The lab is used by students in fine arts, computer information systems, construction and design programs. The college plans to buy woodworking and metalworking equipment, kilns for the ceramics lab, industrial-sized printers and more.
The funds also will help to enhance the curriculum of the lab’s programs.
California
Shasta College received a $13,500 grant from the Foundation for California Community Colleges to help in the fight against food insecurity. The funding will allow the college to increase the Fresh Success cash grants offered to low-income students.
The grant is a small part of a larger anonymous philanthropic donation of $500,000 made last November through the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.
Florida
Northwest Florida State College students will benefit from a $15,000 donation from real estate broker Lucinda “Cindy” Frakes. The gift establishes the Lucinda J. Frakes Scholarship Endowment, which provide financial assistance to students who are pursuing a degree in a career or technical field.
Kansas
Garden City Community College (GCCC) received a $300,000 grant from the Sunderland Foundation to renovate two athletic training facilities. The plan is to update the existing facilities and develop another one. The grant helps offset the cost of the $491,000 project.
“It alleviates much of the funding strain that our institution would otherwise have burdened and allows us to reallocate funds to other deferred maintenance projects,” GCCC President Ryan Ruda said in a release.
New York
Kingsborough Community College’s Maritime Technology Apprenticeship Program (MTAP) received $857,543 in state funding. MTAP will train students as marine service technicians for careers at sea and ashore through on-the-job training and formal classroom technical instruction. It’s the first New York State Department of Labor-approved apprenticeship program in marine mechanics.
Claudia Schrader (left), president of Kingsborough Community College, joins New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul during a tour of the college’s maritime facility. (Photo: KCC)
MTAP at Kingsborough will address the immediate barrier of college tuition and provide students with supportive services, such as transit cards and food vouchers. Apprentices will have access to onsite academic support, food pantry, urban farm and other valuable services.
The funding comes from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Workforce Development Initiative (WDI) — a $175 million statewide investment in job training projects. WDI projects will help meet businesses’ short-term workforce needs, long-term industry needs, improve regional talent pipelines, enhance the flexibility and adaptability of local workforce entities and expand workplace-learning opportunities.
“The number one issue I hear from employers across the state is that they can’t find workers with the skills they need for 21st-century jobs,” Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said following a tour of the college’s maritime facility. “That is why we are investing $2.3 million in nine New York City-based job training programs that will benefit hundreds of New Yorkers as part of our historic $175 million Workforce Development Initiative. Whether it’s home care, the culinary arts or marine engineering, we are investing and working to close the skills gap and prepare New Yorkers for jobs today and in the future.”
Ohio
Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) will expand access to arts mastery education programs in the community using a $200,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation.
The grant builds on previous support for Tri-C’s dance mastery and vocal arts mastery programs for the city’s youth. It also funds a dance gala that brings more than 100 students onto the stage.
“The generous support from the Cleveland Foundation allows our city’s youth to unlock the talent within themselves,” said Emanuela Friscioni, director of Tri-C’s Creative Arts Academy. “The confidence built through these programs often makes this a life-changing experience.”
Dancers perform during the 2019 gala for Tri-C’s Dance Mastery program. (Photo: Tri-C)
Texas
The Alamo Colleges District’s AlamoPROMISE program will reach more students thanks to a $250,000 grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. AlamoPROMISE provides last-dollar funding for students to attend one of the five Alamo Colleges. The new funding will create a pilot program for 15 “opportunity youth” — those disconnected from the workplace and education — to become AlamoPROMISE scholars this fall.
Alamo Colleges will partner with the City of San Antonio’s NXT Level Youth Opportunity Center on the pilot.
