Tidewater Community College (TCC) business professor Peter Shaw retired from teaching this year, but not before establishing a scholarship at TCC with a $10,000 gift. The Business Pathway Scholarship has already helped five students at the Virginia college.
Shaw got his start at TCC as a student in the 1970s. He earned an associate degree in business administration before going on to earn a bachelor’s in business from Old Dominion University and a master’s in business from William & Mary.
Shaw taught business administration and management for 25 years at TCC.
“TCC is where I began my college journey and my gift to TCC is my way of saying I have not forgotten that,” Shaw said. “I see my contribution as a way of paying ‘rent’ for living in our society.”
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The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $3 million grant to Mountain Gateway Community College’s Real Estate Foundation to renovate its workforce development center.
This project will support the establishment of a manufacturing training center and an entrepreneurial innovation laboratory. The grant comes with a $750,000 match in local funds and is expected to create or retain 110 jobs and generate $2 million in private investment, according to estimates.
The project is funded under the Assistance to Coal Communities initiative, which assists communities severely affected by the declining use of coal.
California
The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has secured a $1 million federal grant to help extend the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro) GoPass Program through the 2022-2023 academic year. This will benefit all 21 community colleges in Los Angeles County.
Metro’s GoPass program addresses transportation equity and increases access to higher education. Los Angeles County community college students can use the pass to ride all Metro buses and trains — free of charge. With the new funding, more students will have access to the program.
The funding comes via the Congressional Directed Funding process.
Illinois
A $5 million U.S. Department of Labor grant will help seven Illinois community colleges become certified to provide competency-based learning.
Parkland College will lead the grant project. Illinois Valley, John A. Logan, John Wood, Lincoln Land, Rend Lake and Shawnee community colleges also are involved. Instructors at the colleges will restructure courses into “chunks” that students can skip, based on prior knowledge, according to an Illinois Newsroom article.
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Shawnee Community College also has received two student success grants.
The Illinois Community College Board awarded the college $358,063 through the Pipeline for the Advancement of Healthcare Workforce Program (PATH) Grant. With the funding, the college will create and strengthen opportunities for students to pursue a career in the healthcare industry.
And a $220,000 College Bridge Program Grant will support the college’s Focus on the Ultimate Student Experience (FUSE) project. This program will provide underrepresented and underserved students with the tools they need to be successful in the classroom. The FUSE project focuses on sustaining student support services offered during Covid and expanding additional services to the extension centers.
North Carolina
John Williamson has established two scholarships at Central Carolina Community College (CCCC).
Williamson, a biology faculty emeritus at Davidson College, established one scholarship in honor of his late wife, Marcia Van Dusen Williamson, and another to honor his cousin, Lynda F. Turbeville, who serves as the CCCC Foundation chair.
Williamson said that he and his wife grew up working on farms and they knew that they wanted to have more opportunities. “Education was our way to realize those opportunities,” he says.
For cousin Turbeville, finding out Williamson established the Lynda F. Turbeville Scholarship for Single Mothers scholarship in her honor was the surprise of a lifetime. She said she was “stunned and then I started to cry.”
“It was the most incredibly generous gift that I have ever received – to know that there will always be a scholarship at Central Carolina Community College to assist single mothers to obtain their educational goals,” Turbeville said.
In other funding news, CCCC is set to receive three federal Upward Bound grants totaling $4.4 million.
The awards extend the Upward Bound programs at CCCC, which have served local students since 2012, through 2027. During the last 10 years, Upward Bound has helped more than 1,000 students complete high school and prepare to enter colleges and universities.
The college also received a $1.45 million Veterans Upward Bound grant to help increase the rate that veterans enroll and complete postsecondary education.
Oregon
Thanks to broad community support, Central Oregon Community College (COCC) can expand its Madras campus with a new, 15,000-square-foot facility that will house a range of new training and education opportunities to meet workforce needs.
The Bean Foundation of Madras recently donated 26 acres of land valued at $1.5 million, which will combine with the nonprofit’s original donation of 23 acres for the existing COCC Madras campus. In addition, $3 million in matched funding will be secured through private and local funding sources. The remaining $5.9 million is expected to come through federal, state and other public resources.
The new facility will feature classrooms, labs for health career and science programs, classrooms equipped with streaming technology for remote instruction, a community multipurpose room, a family literacy space, offices and a breakroom. The expanded campus will also serve as a workforce development center for future early childhood educators and as a childcare center for the local community, offering up to 100 childcare slots.
COCC plans to open the Madras campus expansion in fall 2024.
In more good news, COCC has received a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant to recruit underserved students and train them for careers in the expanding tech sector.
The funds will enable the college to recruit low-income, academically gifted students interested in degrees in the fields of computer and geographical information systems, provide 45 scholarships of $10,000 each, and develop new career-connected training within COCC’s programs.
In addition to the scholarships, students will receive enhanced advising from COCC faculty and enter programs in close-knit cohorts.
