Howard Community College (HCC) has received its largest private donation in college history through a $2 million gift from the Kahlert Foundation to provide students with financial support and wrap-around services to reach their educational goals.
The funding will go toward tuition assistance for a future early college program and for student parents in the college’s Career Links program, scholarships for students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and support for the on-campus food pantry and the college engineering program.
In honor of the donation, the Maryland college plans to name its future mathematics and athletics building the Kahlert Foundation Complex, which is expected to open in spring 2025.
“My daughter attended HCC,” said Greg Kahlert, the foundation’s board president. “She is now working toward a master of business administration at the University of Utah and credits her outstanding educational experience at HCC as a springboard for her success. We are proud to provide this support so the college can do this for so many other members of the community.”
The Kahlert Foundation has been a long-time donor to the HCC Educational Foundation. Past gifts included support for cohort programs on campus, disability support services and student scholarships.
Also in Maryland, the Hagerstown Community College (HCC) Athletic Boosters have raised $26,300 to endow the Jim Brown Legacy Scholarship for future HCC athletes.
The funding announcement came in November at the Jim Brown Social, hosted by the HCC Athletic Boosters, following the Jim Brown Classic Men’s Basketball Tournament. Current and former HCC athletes, friends and colleagues were on hand to reminisce about the former HCC Men’s Basketball Head Coach and Athletic Director Jim Brown.
Illinois
Highland Community College‘s newly awarded Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs) project has received a federal grant of $232,050, which will help the college provide local adults with information and counseling to encourage them to continue with their education. The EOCs also will use the funding to provide services to improve participants’ financial and economic literacy.
“The adult populace is often forgotten. These students planned to continue their education, but life got in the way,” says Anthony Sago, director of TRIO Services at Highland Community College (HCC). “EOC staff has the potential to become life-changing agents.”
EOCs offer help with college admissions and financial aid to eligible adults, many of whom are displaced or underemployed workers. Program officials typically work with schools, college admissions personnel, veterans’ organizations, local media, community-based organizations and government agencies to connect with these adults.
HCC has participated in Educational Opportunity Centers TRIO programs for 50 years.
Iowa
Iowa Central and Southwestern community colleges were named recipients of $1 million Iowa Department of Education grants through the state’s Career Academy Incentive Fund. The grants aim to prepare high school students for success in college, postsecondary training and the workforce.
Iowa Central will use the grant to create a regional career center at its new Storm Lake Campus, set to be constructed in 2023. The Storm Lake Career Academy will serve students from five school districts in northwest Iowa.
Southwestern Community College will establish a regional center in Mount Ayr to serve students from five school districts in southwest Iowa.
Other grant recipients are Northwest Community College and the North Scott Community School District, which will partner with Eastern Iowa Community College on a new regional center to expand career academy programming to students in four surrounding districts.
Kentucky
Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC) received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for its HCTC Works! program, which will recruit and connect youth/adult students, high schools and employers to experiential learning opportunities and registered apprenticeships.
The college will create support for employers and participants to ensure successful transition from high school/life to college to careers in high-quality occupations. HCTC expects to serve 450 people – high school students and adults – during the grant period.
“We know how important it is for students to get practical, hands-on training in their chosen field. It is very helpful that these are paid apprenticeships, which will help students financially as well, and could lead to future careers,” said HCTC President Jennifer Lindon.
HCTC is partnering with several organizations on the project, including Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program and the local workforce development board.
Massachusetts
North Shore Community College (NSCC) has received $1 million in state funding for its Bertolon Simulation Health Care Center of Excellence to support and expand its allied health and human services certificate and degree programs, as well as industry credential training.
“Over the last year, NSCC has built a new strategic plan that focuses on improving the life outcomes of our students and meeting the most important community needs,” NSCC President William Heineman said in a statement. “A crucial pillar of the plan is the creation of Centers of Excellence for academic programming that will serve regional employer demand. The Bertolon Health Care Simulation Center of Excellence is the exemplar of this concept, but we must expand it to significantly widen the pipeline of trained professionals into the health care industry.”
The college’s simulation lab at its Danvers Campus has exceeded capacity by 35% since its inception in 2019 with the program outgrowing existing lab space, according to the college. Expanding the SIM program to five additional labs/support rooms will meet existing and projected student growth and provide interdisciplinary simulation education across both credit and noncredit programs in the nursing/allied health and human services pathway programs.
He noted the college is working with local healthcare organizations to address bottlenecks in the education and training of nurses, respiratory therapists, radiological technicians, surgical technicians and other urgently needed professions.
“The shortage of clinical placements are a huge challenge and the expanded use of high-fidelity simulation is the answer — if we have a facility large and well-equipped enough to expand our programs. Our employer partners also wish to pursue training of their existing staff in such a state-of-the-art simulation space and may provide instructors as well,” Heineman said.
Through another state grant, NSCC and the city of Lynn can continue their work to address local youth violence. The initiative will receive $401,635 in state funding from the Sen. Charles E. Shannon, Jr., Community Safety Initiative Grant Program, which invests resources necessary to combat youth violence in target communities across Massachusetts.
NCSS will receive $36,270 through the effort, which focuses on youth and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24 at risk of gang involvement. NSCC’s role is to assist the initiative by providing strategic, analytic, technical and research support, such as research and analysis on local crime trends, and providing training on the latest research in the field and current issues in criminal justice.
New York
Bronx Community College (BCC) has received a $125,000 grant from Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies in support of the college’s Future Now program, which aims to end the cyclical marginalization of disenfranchised young adults (ages 16 to 24) in the Bronx.
The new grant will support job training in the allied health and IT sectors for 100 Future Now students. Participants will also receive job readiness support services, including help finding jobs or internships.
Future Now offers free high school equivalency (HSE) classes, job training, counseling, tutoring, peer mentoring and college enrollment support. Of the 1,000 BCC students in the Future Now program, 95% have been affected by the justice system including personal incarceration, probation, court involvement and/or have family and friends who have been involved.
“The success of Future Now over the past 24 years is due to the empowerment of its alumni to assist their current peers and to become positive contributors to themselves, their families and their communities,” said Elizabeth Payamps, who started Future Now at BCC and serves as its director. “This grant will achieve our goal of helping our students succeed.”
BCC also has received $25,000 for its medical laboratory technician (MLT) program from the New York City Mayor’s Office through its Young Men’s Initiative. The grant enables up to 30 MLT students to acquire gainful employment while pursuing their studies in the MLT program by becoming certified phlebotomists.
The goal of the pilot initiative is to embed a sample of non-credit health certificates into selected degree programs across City University of New York campuses to equip students with career-related experiences while pursuing a professional degree.
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SUNY Corning Community College (CCC) has received a $1.25 million grant to develop programs that will meet the workforce needs of the Southern Tier’s clean energy sector. The college’s grant project will focus on the Battery-NY Center, a future lithium-based battery development manufacturing facility.
SUNY CCC will build non-credit-to-credit pathways with programs in manufacturing technician, battery technician and battery storage. The programs will be a key to developing a workforce trained in the skills needed for battery manufacturing. Funds also will go towards modernizing equipment to enhance the applied learning experience for SUNY CCC students.
The awarded funds are part of Binghamton University’s New Energy New York Project, which received $63.7 million via the American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge. SUNY CCC was a sub-recipient of the grant.
North Carolina
The Hurricane Region of the Porsche Club of America (HURPC) has provided $3,725 to fund a scholarship for the automotive restoration technology program at Central Carolina Community College (CCCC). HURPC includes the eastern portion of North Carolina and has more than 1,600 members/co-members.
CCCC’s restoration program provides students with hands-on training in various subjects such as metalworking, fabrication, painting, upholstery, electrical systems, engines, woodworking and welding. They also receive instruction on the historical significance of vehicle designs and structures.
Craven Community College’s Panther Pantry recently received $5,000 from International Paper via the North Carolina college’s foundation. The pantry provides nonperishable food and supplies to students in need and will use the funds to purchase canned goods and toiletry items, as well as household goods and childcare essentials.
The pantry was originally established by Craven students in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Florence in 2018. In the following years, students and staff saw a continued need among the college’s students, and the pantry is now a steadfast campus resource.
Texas
A $100,000 gift to Alamo Colleges District from grocery store chain H-E-B will help stock campus food pantries.
As part of a commitment to student success and meeting the needs of students experiencing poverty, the Alamo College system has implemented on-campus advocacy centers across all five of its colleges. Through partnerships with multiple area organizations, the centers provide resources like healthcare, food security, childcare, counseling and more.
Virginia
Laurel Ridge Community College is a partner in a Virginia Department of Education Advancing Computer Science Education Grant that will enable a group of school teachers to earn an endorsement to teach computer science classes at no cost to them.
For the second time, the college is a postsecondary education partner in SPARCS: Sustainable Partnerships for Advancing Rural Computer Science education in the Shenandoah Valley. The regional partnership includes seven public school divisions along with Mountain Vista Governor’s School.
Up to 20 teachers can take courses at Laurel Ridge to earn a career studies certificate as a computer science generalist. Teachers who complete the certificate will qualify for the Virginia Department of Education’s add-on endorsement in computer science.
“This grant will allow area teachers to become our students, enhancing their computer science knowledge and allowing them to earn an additional VDOE licensure endorsement – minus the financial burden,” said computer science professor Melissa Stange. “These teachers then have the opportunity to inspire their classroom students to recognize the applications of computer science, and to consider and prepare for careers in the field.”
Laurel Ridge’s foundation also received an $8,500 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation to help students at the college who are experiencing food and housing insecurity and other needs. The grant will support the college’s Single Stop initiative, a screener tool designed to connect students with assistance programs at the local, state and federal levels.
Laurel Ridge will use part of the funds to develop materials to help students participating in workforce programs gain access to college resources, including Single Stop and TimelyCare, a free 24/7 tele-mental health service. In addition, the funding will help to expand the college’s textbook lending library and will bolster Laurel Ridge’s emergency aid capability for assisting students with urgent housing, transportation and childcare needs.
The grant to Laurel Ridge is part of a $125,000 donation to 14 community colleges making up the “Rural Horseshoe” in Virginia — an area that stretches from the Eastern Shore, to Southside and southwestern Virginia and up through the Shenandoah Valley. The area lags in income and education levels in comparison to the rest of the state.
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The Student Financial Resource Center at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) will use a $15,000 grant from Sentara Healthcare to support the Healthy Choices Initiative, which is designed to create sustainable community partnerships around social determinants of health, such as housing, food security, behavioral health services, skilled career training and equitable access to care.
Funds for the project supported the PVCC Panther Pantry’s enrollment in Fresh Farmacy to provide more fresh produce and to expand the college’s Boxes for Break project, an annual effort that helps PVCC students and their families over winter break with food and hygiene items. In the inaugural year, PVCC provided more than 50 families with food boxes. This year, more than 200 boxes of food and hygiene goods were requested.
“We are proud to partner with Sentara Healthcare to address food insecurity. Our graduates represent a much-needed talent pipeline for our business and community partners and reducing barriers to student success makes completion of a credential or degree possible for students,” said PVCC President Jean Runyon.
