St. Petersburg College (SPC) will receive $7.2 million in state funding to help establish the Semiconductor, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Training for Technicians (SMART Tech) 4.0 lab.
With the funds — $3.2 million through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund and $4 million through the Workforce Development Capitalization Grant Program — SPC will purchase equipment, hire personnel, build facilities and acquire training materials.
“Students at St. Petersburg College will have access to a cutting-edge training lab, with a focus on semiconductors and advanced manufacturing,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said on the social media platform X in announcing the funding. “Dual enrollment will also allow local high schoolers to learn in-demand technical skills free of charge and be prepared to start rewarding careers in critical industries right after graduation.”
Semiconductors and advanced manufacturing are target industries for Florida. Over the past two years, the state has invested nearly $400 million into growing these sectors, according to the governor’s office.
Louisiana
SOWELA Technical Community College recently received $309,000 from Cheniere Energy to upgrade its industrial programs. The gift was given over the 2023-2024 academic year.
In recognition of Cheniere Energy’s support, the college named its process technology outdoor training area the Cheniere Hands-on Training Pavilion, which aims to empower students to hit the ground running within the industrial industry upon graduation. The center simulates starting and shutting down a working plant, providing students with a safe and practical training environment to learn LNG, petrochemical and other product operations.
A portion of the funding supports apprenticeship programs in various career pathways, such as chemical laboratory technology, industrial electrical, industrial instrumentation, machine tool and process technology.
New Jersey
Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) was celebrated at a July 1 Somerset Patriots game with an evening honoring RVCC students, faculty, staff and programs. The event established the first-ever crowd-funded scholarship at RVCC, with net proceeds from the 269 “RVCC tickets” sold used to create the Big Picture Scholarship at RVCC, which will be offered this fall at the college.
The event raised $3,038, plus a $500 match from the RVCC Foundation.
“The Big Picture event was a wonderful celebration of our collective community, and an opportunity to feel genuine pride in our institution as we showcased the successes of RVCC students, alumni, staff and key programs,” said RVCC President Michael J. McDonough. “It was also an important reminder of the generosity of our partners and just how important an anchor RVCC is to the counties we serve and New Jersey more broadly.”
Maryland
Wor-Wic Community College has received a $350,000 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the college’s Eastern Shore Technician in Electro-Mechanics (ESTEEM) project.
The ESTEEM project provides students with skills vital to the Lower Shore workforce. With the grant funding, the college can address barriers and provide solutions to encourage student success and achievement.
“We are looking at scheduling, such as making sure labs are available for students with demanding schedules, and considering what kinds of scheduling works for students who can’t enroll in traditionally scheduled courses,” said Joe Roche, applied technologies department head and associate professor of trades. “We are also looking into micro-credentials that divide coursework up into more manageable pieces and provide achievements along the way.”
The grant also will fund some of the needed lab equipment.
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Allegany College of Maryland will use an $825,000 grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission and the Maryland Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports to address the youth mental health crisis.
The college will use the grant to introduce self-care to 4,600 public school students in rural Appalachia. For one academic year, it will teach mind-body skills to K-12 students in all 22 Allegany County Public Schools. Mind-body skills are simple, evidence-based techniques developed by the Center for Mind Body Medicine to calm the body’s response to stress.
The grant project promotes a culture of care where students choose how they participate. Students can learn and practice skills during student assemblies and classroom presentations, join optional mind-body skills groups, become skills ambassadors or take part in mind-body clubs.
The college also will educate adults who support students by hosting education sessions and mind-body skills groups for parents and guardians. It will offer professional mind-body medicine training to school nurses.
In addition, Allegany College of Maryland will share a $617,400 grant with two other Maryland community colleges to implement two cyber ranges through the Cyber Workforce Accelerator program. The grant was awarded from the Sen. George C. Edwards Fund.
The Cyber Workforce Accelerator program was created by the Maryland Association of Community Colleges and BCR Cyber.
New Mexico
Elevate Quantum, a consortium of organizations based in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, has received a $127 million grant award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) and the University of Colorado-Boulder, both Elevate Quantum members, are the workforce development leads on the grant project.
Quantum technology will transform the economy and require a much larger workforce at all levels, including quantum technicians to service the technology and equipment, according to a release. The grant is expected to spur more than $2 billion in additional private capital and establish the Mountain West region as a global leader in quantum innovation and quantum economic and workforce development.
CNM Ingenuity, which, among other things, provides accelerated educational and training opportunities in key workforce areas, will partner with Sandia National Labs to develop the curriculum for an immersive 10-week Quantum technician bootcamp that will serve as a rapid workforce training program. In addition, CNM will support other community colleges in the region to reproduce and expand the training.
Graduates of the CNM bootcamp are expected to earn starting salaries in the $80,000-per-year range.
In 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Agency (EDA) designated Elevate Quantum as one of 31 regional Tech Hubs, making it eligible for up to $1 billion in federal investment over the next decade. With $40.5 million in initial EDA funding and matching funds from Colorado ($77 million) and New Mexico ($10 million), the $127 million investment represents a down payment on the next 50 years of U.S. quantum leadership, according to a CNM press release.
New York
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) and the Research Foundation of The City University of New York were awarded a $2.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EES). Their grant project aims to increase success of STEM students with disabilities.
The research project may produce outcomes that pave the way for better identification of students with disabilities in higher education and STEM fields. It will produce research-based recommendations to improve college policies and practices so that they provide better access to both formal and informal accommodations for STEM students in college.
“Our aim is to ultimately raise the number and diversity of students with disabilities in STEM,” said BMCC mathematics professor Claire Wladis, who is principal investigator on the grant.
Ohio
Engineering and information technology students at Stark State College will maintain access to the high-tech facilities they need to enhance their skills thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Timken Foundation of Canton.
The funds will support building infrastructure and classroom technology upgrades in the college’s W.R. Timken Center for Information Technology. They also will be used to purchase more than 400 new classroom computers for the center.
Opened in 2004 with support from the Timken Foundation, the 44,000 square-foot Timken Center is home to Stark State’s engineering technology and information technology programs.
Texas
An $80,000 donation to Midland College from the Permian Basin International Oil Show will support programs dedicated to developing the next generation of energy professionals.
The funds will help various programs within the college’s energy curriculum, designed to equip students with the latest knowledge and skills required in an evolving energy landscape.
