A $10 million gift will allow Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) to modernize its business building and transform its School of Business. The gift from the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation is the largest-ever single cash donation received by the college.
SLCC’s business building will carry the Miller family name and the business school will be named for Gail Miller, owner and immediate past chair of the Larry H. Miller Company. This name change will make SLCC home to the only business school in Utah and one of only a few in the country named after a woman.
“It is a powerful signal to young women that they too can achieve great success in the C-suite,” said SLCC President Deneece Huftalin.
The Miller family, a long-time supporter of SLCC, began sponsoring student scholarships in the 1980s. In the early 2000s, it donated the land and buildings for SLCC’s Miller Campus in Sandy. The Millers envisioned the campus as a place where anyone could pursue a business education regardless of ability to pay. Today, the Miller Campus is home to “The Mill,” a small business resource center offering education and training to local entrepreneurs, and SLCC’s culinary arts, automotive, public safety and professional development programs.
California
MiraCosta College will use a $2.9 million state grant to increase the number of students pursuing careers in stem cell research and manufacturing. The college was one of 16 California public colleges and universities that received grants totaling $46 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell agency.
Mike Fino, MiraCosta’s dean of mathematics and sciences, said students will be placed in internships, partner with a mentor working in the stem cell industry and receive financial support.
“This will broaden participation,” he said. “We will bring more students who are underrepresented into the fields of regenerative medicine and cell-based manufacturing and help them be successful.”
Students working toward a bachelor’s degree in biomanufacturing at the college will be eligible to participate in the program.
MiraCosta College and Solano Community College were the only community colleges to receive the grants.
Florida
Teams from Tallahassee Community College (TCC) earned a total of $90,000 in the Pitch for the Skilled Trades and the inaugural Pitch for the Foundation competitions at the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) annual conference in Boston.
Six teams, including TCC’s workforce development division, completed in the final round of Pitch for the Skilled Trades for a share of $150,000 in prizes. TCC earned $40,000 for its pitch of a project to assist citizens returning to their communities from incarceration to gain the skills needed to become commercial vehicle drivers.
TCC’s Wakulla Environmental Institute was one of eight teams competing in the final round of Pitch for the Foundation. It earned $50,000 for the Oyster Seed Nursery Training project, which will allow for the expansion of the current oyster aquaculture program where students learn to open their own farm-raised oyster businesses.
Georgia
Savannah Technical College can keep operating the Coastal Georgia Center for Driver Safety thanks to a $144,474 grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. The grant has been renewed for a third year.
Grant funds will continue to provide distracted and impaired driver prevention education for youth, young adults and parents. These activities include community- and school-based workshops, virtual reality simulation education and social media messaging.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay Community College has received its first vehicle donation to its new general studies automotive technology program: a van from MetroWest Subaru. The new program will provide students with training from entry-level through advanced-level technical education on multiple vehicle makes and models.
“Giving back to our community partners with donations like this is not only important to students, but it’s also vital to our Subaru clients. If you can’t fix them, you can’t sell them. We want to ensure we have a strong pipeline of well-trained technicians,” said VJ Donnelly, general manager of MetroWest Subaru.
North Carolina
Central Piedmont Community College will use a $15,000 grant from Titan Solar Power to better support underrepresented students in associate-degree STEM programs.
The grant will provide funds for students to participate in STEM exposure workshops, career panels, STEM-related counseling for university transfer and company visits. The college also will use the grant to hold “STEM Tank” competitions, during which students will propose solutions to STEM-related problems relevant to the Central Piedmont and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region.
Tennessee
The First Horizon Foundation presented the Cleveland State Community College (CSCC) Foundation with a check for $10,000. The donation will support the CSCC Alumni Community.
Texas
Houston Community College (HCC) and San Jacinto College were awarded nearly $1.5 million to continue a joint project to promote students engaging in STEM programs. The grant funding comes from the National Science Foundation through the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program.
Besides engaging students in STEM disciplines, the colleges’ project — the Harris County Community College Alliance –– provides peer and faculty mentoring, summer research internships, an annual research symposium and STEM seminars.
The project began in 2019. At HCC, it started with three communities: the Community of Scholars focuses on academics, the Community of Experience focuses on experience-based teaching and learning, and the Community of Research focuses on providing research skills and opportunities.
More than 300 HCC students have earned stipends from $500 to $5,000 during the three years of the program so far, with more than $400,000 awarded.
