Kentucky’s Gateway Community and Technical College will create an accelerated lineworker certificate program using a $32,315 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation. The 16-credit-hour program will incorporate the college’s energy technology curriculum with expansive training and equipment. Upon completion of the program, students will have the skills, knowledge, safe work practices and physical ability required to become line technician apprentices.
California
Los Angeles Valley College’s (LAVC) Steinway piano campaign got a boost with a $500,000 donation from Joan Payden, president and CEO of global investment firm Payden & Rygel. LAVC launched its $1.3 million campaign in 2018 to fund its lease of four new grand pianos. The funding also will establish a piano maintenance endowment.
The main stage theater at the forthcoming Valley Academic and Cultural Center will be named after Payden’s late brother William R. Payden, a former LAVC faculty and chair of the journalism department.
Also in California, the Riverside Community College District (RCCD) will use a $250,000 grant from College Futures Foundation to develop a strategy to scale the adoption of guided pathways. Funding also will help the district pilot a case-management technology solution to improve the delivery of student services. The goal is to remove systemic barriers that can impede a student’s progress to certificate, degree and transfer attainment.
Elsewhere, San Diego Miramar College received a nearly $1.4 million contract from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to help develop an alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technology workforce training program.
“The goal is to improve and expand alternative fuel vehicle technology programs throughout the state,” said Ben Gamboa, associate dean of Strong Workforce Programs at the college. “This will provide the college with an excellent opportunity to serve as a catalyst for advancing clean transportation, connecting skilled workers to high-wage jobs, and building the green economy.”
The Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Training Enhancement Program with CEC delivers workforce training related to advanced energy technology designed to cut air pollution. The program also builds partnerships with employers, labor unions, labor management partnerships, community organizations, workforce investment boards, community colleges and economic development agencies.
Maryland
Hagerstown Community College (HCC) received a $25,000 donation from the Wheatcraft Family, in memory of sister Melissa Wheatcraft and brother-in-law George Bailey, who both died in 2014. The scholarship will go toward HCC students pursuing a degree or certification in a healthcare-related field.
Wheatcraft was a 1976 graduate of Community College of Baltimore. She was passionate about her work as a physical therapist assistant and dedicated more than 30 years of her life working in the field in the greater Hagerstown area.
Virginia
Tidewater Community College (TCC) will use a $500,000 grant from TowneBank to expand visual, culinary, hospitality and automotive programs. The funds will support the development of the TCC Perry Center for Visual & Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management and the expansion of the Regional Automotive Center (RAC).
The college will use the funds to provide challenge grant funds to encourage area automobile dealers to help build the expansion of the RAC, Hampton Roads’ only high-tech education facility for the automotive, marine and diesel industries.
The 47,000-square-foot TCC Perry Center will expand the college’s visual arts education program and train the next generation of chefs by expanding the college’s culinary arts program, including housing a program in restaurant management in Norfolk.
TCC President Gregory DeCinque (center) accepts a $500,000 grant from TowneBank representatives. (Photo: TCC)
