NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) has received a $25,000 donation from local business leader George Westmoreland and his family to fund scholarships for students who have financial need and are participating in cross country running.
“The Westmoreland family is honored to be able to support student athletes in the NWACC cross country program and help provide an opportunity for them to continue their athletic careers,” Westmoreland said. “We hope that this serves as a ‘Build it and they will come’ type of moment for the college and allows for a potential future expansion of the athletic program.”
California
Mt. San Antonio College students will have new opportunities to participate in research and internships thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The college will use the funding to engage STEM students in either an authentic research experience at the University of California, Irvine and Riverside campuses this summer or participate in an industrial internship at a local industry.
The program provides financial support, advising and mentoring to the selected Mt. SAC STEM students to enhance their academic success.
Colorado
The nursing program at Lamar Community College (LCC) is the recipient of a $383,265 Colorado Talent Pipeline Report grant. The funding will allow the nursing department to transform a one-bay simulation room with a mannequin into a simulation center designed to look like fully functioning hospital rooms.
Among the upgrades is the purchase of one pediatric and two adult high fidelity human patient simulators.
“Simulation is the future of nursing programs and truly gives LCC’s nursing students extra practice for clinical scenarios in a safe place,” said Morgan Clark, LCC’s director of nursing and allied health programs.
Florida
Broward College has received two TRIO Talent Search grants totaling almost $3 million from the U.S. Education Department.
Through their first federal Talent Search grants, Broward College and its partner, Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), will conduct two projects within middle and high schools that lack of resources, poverty, low education attainment and unemployment rates experienced in these communities. The schools are in the zip codes that the college already is serving through the Broward UP program. Each project will serve 500 students each year.
Students will receive counseling and have access to college and financial application assistance, college entrance test preparation and career exploration. Both projects also will conduct online project-based STEM learning activities, connect students to tutoring and other services, and promote dual enrollment and industry-recognized certification training in the Broward UP communities.
“As systemic inequity and financial hardship discourage many of the students from these communities, these programs will remove obstacles preventing students from succeeding academically,” said Mildred Coyne, the college’s senior vice president for workforce education and innovation.
Illinois
Heartland Community College will use a $2 million gift from McLean County Farm Bureau to construct a dedicated space for agriculture programs and develop a flexible learning lab space for students, as well as community groups and K-12 learning experiences like summer camps and field trips. The instructional lab will be housed within Heartland’s planned agriculture facility. The college anticipates breaking ground on the $20-million facility this spring with a projected completion date of 2023.
The gift from McLean County Farm Bureau represents the first substantial local investment in the agricultural facility project.
“We see this gift as an opportunity to invest in building a strong future for agriculture in our community, to support workforce development for local agriculture employers and to fuel a robust agriculture economy in central Illinois,” said Mark Hines, McLean County Farm Bureau president.
Kentucky
A $25,000 donation will help Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) expand programming at its Experiential Learning Center (ELC). The donation comes from Domtar Hawesville Mill.
The ELC provides students with internship and apprenticeship placement, mentorship opportunities and facilitates course-embedded experiential learning opportunities. The center also offers programs to help students with career exploration, resume development, job searches and more.
Louisiana
Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC) will use a $200,000 donation to provide more student support.
The anonymous donor has asked that the college used the funds primarily for student scholarships. Additionally, funds are available to provide emergency support to help students with personal needs related to their educational pursuits, such as buying clothes for a job interview or assistance with transportation needs.
“This investment in our students will allow many to continue their pathway to success,” said BRCC Chancellor Willie E. Smith.
South Carolina
A $50,000 donation will support Piedmont Technical College’s (PTC’s) engineering technology programs.
The donation came from Eaton Corporation, a producer of power management technologies and services. The company employs many PTC graduates.
Library grants
A handful of community college libraries will receive a $10,000 grant from the American Library Association (ALA).
The grants, awarded to 200 libraries, are funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities and aim to help libraries affected by the pandemic. The funds will help libraries to deliver programs and services related to culture, history, literature and other humanities subjects.
The library at Hawkeye Community College in Iowa will use its grant to license a collection of audiobooks to support the Hawkeye Reads program and present poetry slams and pop-up poetry stations during National Poetry Month in April.
“It is gratifying to be offered this opportunity to bring meaningful humanities programming back to our campus,” said Candace Havely, Hawkeye’s director of library services. “This grant will allow our library to provide enriching and edifying experiences to our students and the local community through poetry, film and books.”
The Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) Learning Resources Center will install a permanent StoryWalk around the NACC Walking/Nature Trail. StoryWalk promotes children’s literacy and physical fitness.
Bronx Community College (BCC) librarians Nelson Santana and Emma Antobam-Ntekudzi teamed up with editors, writers and photographers of the cultural digital platform ESENDOM to create an exhibit that highlights Dominican activism in New York, Santiago and Santo Domingo.
“Our project will reveal and intensify the potent community activism highlighting cultural and social accomplishments of the area Transnational Dominican population served by the college,” said BCC Chief Librarian Michael J. Miller.
Other community colleges receiving grants are Guttman Community College (New York), Tulsa Community College (Oklahoma) and Columbia State Community College (Tennessee).
