Louisiana’s Delgado Community College will expand its maritime training program using a $850,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA). The grant will be matched with more than $264,000 in local funds and is expected to create 100 jobs, according to the EDA.
Delgado completed construction on a new 18,750-square-foot Maritime and Industrial Training Center in 2016. The facility provides maritime and industrial firefighting, radar, safety and U.S. Coast Guard-approved training. State-of-the-art simulators, operated under the guidance of experienced captains, provide early-career and advanced mariners with hands-on training needed to achieve licensing.
California
Las Positas College’s (LPC) Veterans First Program got a boost with a $40,000 grant from the Safeway Foundation. Veterans First supports student veterans and their families as they transition from college to career success. With this funding, the program can provide student veterans with financial support to help with childcare and transportation costs, as well as food vouchers, gas cards and more.
The Safeway grant also will help to continue providing workshops, honoring events, mentoring programs and tutoring.
Long Beach City College will use a $650,000 grant and scholarship endowment to provide stipends to students who are in unpaid internships. The John Apostle and Helen Apostle Foundation will fund the effort for five years.
“Too often, our students pass up a great internship that might provide valuable work experience and networking opportunities in lieu of a part-time job simply because they need the money,” said Vivian Malauulu, board president of the Long Beach Community College District. “Students can now in good conscience bypass a job bagging groceries — which does pay, but probably does not cultivate the skills they will need in a particular industry — for a job that will provide them with professional work experience in their field of study.”
Through the grant funding, students also will get workforce development staff support to develop their resumes and improve their job interviewing skills.
Maryland
Community College of Baltimore County’s Center for Business Innovation (CBI) supports young entrepreneurs thanks to a $1 million grant from the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation. With the funding, CBI’s Business Plan Competition awarded $62,500 collectively to entrepreneurs looking for start-up capital for their fledgling business.
The grant also provides instructional support to develop new courses and workshops to strengthen the business acumen for those interested in starting a new business.
New York
Borough of Manhattan Community College’s (BMCC’s) Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development will use a $1.25 million state grant to fund its bridge programs — English for speakers of other languages, high school equivalency and adult basic education (ABE) — for another five years. Students who complete the bridge programs go on to earn associate degrees or enter the workforce with higher skills.
“Every time I see that BMCC ad on a billboard or brochure — ‘Start here, go anywhere’ — I think, ‘That’s really us,’” said Denise Deagan, the college’s director of ABE programs. “Nowhere is that slogan more apt than in the literacy program of continuing education. Adult students come to us to start the most fundamental education in reading, writing and math. Against daunting odds, so many of them persist to make the most of a second chance to build the lives they want for themselves and their families.”
The funding comes from the New York State Education Department’s Adult Literacy Education program
Ohio
Clark State Community College will receive $132,233 as part of the RAPIDS — Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills program — from the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE).
The grant supports welding robotics and 3D metal printing at Clark State. The college will purchase two Motoman welding robot cells to integrate into its robotics certificate. It will develop additional curriculum around robotic welding.
“Clark State’s engagement in the RAPIDS program will help improve Ohio’s workforce development capacity, strengthen business and industry partnerships and train Ohio’s workers for the jobs they will encounter in our 21st-century economy,” ODHE Chancellor Randy Gardner stated in an award letter to Clark State.
In 2018, Clark State received $93,131 from RAPIDS, which it used to strengthen its cybersecurity/information assurance, manufacturing and physical therapist assistant programs.
Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) also received funding through the RAPIDS program. The college will use its $265,000 grant to purchase high-tech training equipment for a smart manufacturing lab.
Tri-C joined with Cleveland State University (CSU) and Lorain County Community College in the regional application for funding. Combined, CSU and Lorain received approximately $452,000 from the state.
