The City University of New York (CUNY), which includes seven community colleges, will receive $550,000 from the New York City Council to expand anti-hate initiatives to address religious and ethnic discrimination on CUNY campuses.
All 25 CUNY colleges are eligible to receive $20,000 to implement campus‐based plans, training and student engagement, as well as academic and cocurricular programming. The funds include $50,000 to support a new collaboration between Queensborough Community College’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Center and Kupferberg Holocaust Center, which will collect data about existing and needed resources for system-wide reporting, provide training for CUNY professionals, and design programming to promote respectful relationships across racial, religious and ethnic lines, according to a release.
“History teaches us that education is the best tool to combat bias and that unaddressed hatred divides communities,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “With support from the New York City Council, CUNY is reaffirming its mission to root out antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination and bigotry, building new programs to ensure campuses remain bastions of tolerance, empathy and respect.”
CUNY noted that the new funding supports the system’s ongoing efforts, which includes $750,000 in state funds for Campus Climate Support Grants to address religious, racial and ethnic bigotry across the university system.
Alabama
Gadsden State Community College has received a $3,140 grant from the Megan Montgomery Foundation to Prevent Domestic Violence Inc. for a digital awareness campaign that promotes healthy relationships to prevent relationship violence before it starts.
The campaign, known as “Know Your Power Partner Violence Prevention Program,” aims to inform students and employees about safe and helpful ways to advocate for friends in need, as well as the needed encouragement to speak up, said Elizabeth Wheatley, Gadsden State’s grant writer who secured the funding.
California
San Bernardino Valley College’s (SBVC’s) clean energy/EV tech program will use a $25,000 grant from the Southern California Gas Company to buy additional training modules and classroom tools for a second lab section, supporting the growing interest and enrollment in the college’s CNG/clean energy training expansion program.
Florida
More than $200,000 was raised October 26 during the R. Motwani Family Gala to benefit Broward College students enrolled in the R. Motwani Family Academy of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Through the academy, students get hands-on learning opportunities and have access to scholarships, internships and leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry who mentor and guide them through their education.
The academy was established to honor the memory of Ramesh “Bob” Motwani by his wife Ramola and sons Nitin and Dev to recognize Bob’s legacy, leadership and commitment to the hospitality industry.
“It has been rewarding to see students graduate and thrive in their careers over these past four years since the Academy was first established,” said Ramola Motwani, chairwoman of Merrimac Ventures, a Fort Lauderdale-based real estate development and investment firm. “These students learn so much, both in and out of the classroom, from this program. That’s important because when you think about it, we are all in the hospitality business.”
Maryland
Community College of Baltimore County’s (CCBC) School of Continuing Education received a $197,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant to train 37 military veterans (including spouses and dependents) for the commercial truck driving industry.
The funding will finance tuition and fees for students and provide classroom training, driving instruction, certification and job search assistance.
A partnership with Tradepoint Atlantic has enabled CCBC to build a successful commercial driver’s license program in an industry that is experiencing a high demand for qualified drivers. CCBC’s students have a 92% success rate in obtaining certification and placement in high-paying professional positions.
Massachusetts
North Shore Community College (NSCC) has received nearly $200,000 to fund the accreditation of its nutritional science and diet technology degree (NSD) program and attract more Hispanic students to it over the next four years. The funding is from the federal Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
NSCC has a two-year associate degree program in nutrition science, but the program is not accredited.
“This means that after graduation, students cannot obtain registration and licensure to practice nutrition therapy,” said professor Ginny King, chair of the NSD department. “When accredited, our students will be able to sit for the DTR exam and gain meaningful employment in mission-critical professions.”
In addition to gaining accreditation, the college will seek to attract and increase Hispanic student enrollment by 10% each year starting in the second year of the grant project and graduate them with an associate degree in NSD.
New Jersey
Raritan Valley Community College’s (RVCC) service learning program has received a gift that will benefit RVCC students in their efforts to give back to the local community. Don and Penny Pray have made a five-year, $150,000 commitment directed through the RVCC Foundation.
The funds will help to create greater recognition and exposure for the achievements and impact of students participating in programs offered through service learning. RVCC’s program, which will be renamed The Pray Family Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement., enables students to use community service as part of their academic coursework and receive credit for the experience.
“The college is doing some exceptional things to impact the journeys of its students, and service-learning is just one example,” Penny Pray said. “RVCC continues to demonstrate it truly is ‘the best community college in New Jersey.’”
New York
Rockland Community College (RCC) in New York will use a $933,000 state grant to develop and implement a new industrial machinery maintenance mechanics pathway.
The new pathway will provide skills-based training for students that results in an industry-recognized credential designed to address talent shortages for Hudson Valley employers in the advanced manufacturing industry.
“This project is part of Rockland Community College’s goal to ‘skill up’ Rockland and create pathways that lead to upward economic mobility,” said Kevin Stump, RCC vice president of economic mobility and workforce innovation.
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A $1 million contribution from GlobalFoundries (GF) will help Hudson Valley Community College with its plans to build a new workforce training center.
The Applied Technology Education Center – an $85 million, 130,000-square-foot facility – will prepare graduates for careers in building systems, automotive and transportation technology, renewable energy and semiconductor manufacturing.
The donation is the largest in GF’s history and builds on a workforce training partnership with the college that includes a registered apprenticeship program for GF employees.
In 2021, GF announced a $500,000 gift for a new training and apprenticeship center at the college’s HVCC North extension center in Malta, New York. The center is part of the college’s $12.5 million expansion project to boost workforce training efforts in high-demand areas.
North Carolina
Southwestern Community College’s annual gala in September raised more than $150,000 to support student scholarships – marking a 20% increase over the 2022 gala.
More than 600 individuals attended the sold-out gala, up from approximately 425 last year. This year’s event received an additional boost when an anonymous donor offered to match up to $10,000 in extra donations made on the evening of the gala. Guests quickly met and exceeded that goal.
West Virginia
BridgeValley Community and Technical College in West Virginia will receive $3 million through the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a center with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College and a four-year state institution that will focus on smart manufacturing and electric vehicle manufacturing.
The Industrial Assessment Center, which is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, directs activities and investments to disadvantaged communities in regions of West Virginia that are recovering from economic impacts of the downturn of the coal industry, residents and workers affected by the opioid epidemic and ongoing business effects of the Covid pandemic, according to a release.
“As new facilities and manufacturing centers continue to be built, the time is now to start developing a local workforce that will help students find good-paying jobs in these new, innovative industries,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in the grant announcement. “West Virginia is America’s Energy Powerhouse, and this program will help to continue that legacy while providing new economic opportunity for the people of our great state as we develop the energy technologies of the future.”
