In Texas, El Paso Community College (EPCC) has received a $50,000 grant from Microsoft Philanthropies to support its cybersecurity program. The funds will go toward mentorship and curriculum from the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center (NCyTE) and to build faculty knowledge through Microsoft training and certifications. Funding also will allow EPCC to provide financial assistance to students studying cybersecurity or computing.
The grant funding is thanks to Microsoft’s Techspark Texas, an initiative that is facilitating access to underserved groups so that everyone can participate in the digital economy.
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Amarillo College will use a $1 million grant from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation to accelerate and expand work-based learning opportunities.
The grant supports the Adams Earn & Learn Program, a multi-year effort to accelerate work-based learning in the Texas Panhandle region. The pilot program will create a proof of concept for healthcare and STEM programs with the long-term goal of expanding work-based learning opportunities into all program areas.
More than 300 students will be served in the first year of the program, which launches this fall. The college aims to reach 10,000 candidates by 2030. It also will open fast-track pathways for local high school students into high-earning, desirable careers.
“By positioning the future of learning to intersect with a work-based, earn-and-learn model, Amarillo College and the Thoma Foundation are creating a structure that could be the innovation to save higher education from itself,” Amarillo College President Russell Lowery-Hart said in a statement.
Florida
Broward College has received a $5 million U.S. Department of Education grant to improve opportunities for Hispanic and low-income students in STEM education.
The grant will support the college’s Accelerating College Completion by Engaging Students in STEM (ACCESS) project, which addresses the academic and support services needs of Hispanics and other underrepresented populations. It also serves the growing needs of local employers and the needs of the students studying information technology to improve completion and transfer rates.
“As we focus on equity and supporting all of our students to successful career paths, the ACCESS project is another way we are expanding and improving academic and support services to all our students,” said Jeffery Nasse, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs.
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Tallahassee Community College’s workforce development programs will benefit from a $200,000 gift from an anonymous donor. The gift will fund 10 welding booths in the new welding lab and 35 full-tuition scholarships in the trades for local residents.
“In the current climate of worker shortages, it has become even more critical that we place a laser focus on the skilled trades and the training necessary to produce workers ready to enter the workforce,” said Kimberly A. Moore, vice president for workforce innovation and TCC2WORK.
Maryland
Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) has received a $30,000 grant and 100 new laptops from Comcast. The grant will help students who lack resources through the college’s Student Emergency Aid Fund, and the laptops will go to students enrolled in CCBC certificate and adult literacy education programs.
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A $8,814 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will help Hagerstown Community College (HCC) preserve historical documents related to its 75 years. The grant allows the completion of a general preservation assessment of the archive at HCC. The archive consists of the historical records and materials documenting the history of Maryland’s first community college, from its establishment as a junior college in the late 1940s to the present.
Missouri
Metropolitan Community College (MCC) can help students better explore careers thanks to a $300,000 grant from the DeBruce Foundation. The funding will support hiring a project coordinator, as well as research assistance, curriculum development, and training and development for MCC academic advisors, career services staff and counselors.
New MCC students will have access to the DeBruce Foundation’s Agile Work Profiler tool, a 10-minute online assessment that identifies an individual’s work strengths and interests, as well as other career exploration tools. Starting with the fall 2022 semester, all new students will be expected to complete the Agile Work Profiler assessment.
The partnership between MCC and the DeBruce Foundation coincides with a new MCC emphasis on academic and career pathways and a reimagined first-year experience for students.
“Assisting students with early identification of their academic and career goals is a proven strategy for increasing college completion rates,” said MCC Chancellor Kimberly Beatty. “This partnership with The DeBruce Foundation will support our students in determining their career pathways.”
MCC also received a $600,000 grant from the Edward F. Swinney Trust, Bank of America, as trustee. The grant will help MCC fund relocation of workforce training programs from its Business & Technology Campus to the new Advanced Technical Skills Institute.
The college hopes moving workforce programs to the midtown site will provide greater access for students in the urban core, increase diverse enrollment in training for skilled trades and make a positive impact on economic development in the area.
