Gadsden State Community College was recognized for its campus clean-up project by Coca-Cola UNITED during the annual Alabama PALS awards ceremony this month. The honor came with a scholarship worth $1,000.
Alabama PALS aims to make the state more beautiful by sponsoring programs focused on cleaning up litter in streets, streams, campuses and coastlines. Gadsden State’s winning project, called “Don’t Drop It on Alabama,” had student groups competing in cleaning up on and near campuses. They collected more than 800 pounds of litter. Student participants received gift bags that included Gadsden State swag and a year’s worth of laundry detergent.
Michigan
Mott Community College (MCC) has received two grants from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to support the Mott Middle College initiative.
The first grant, for $150,000, renews the GAPS: Early College Transitions Program. GAPS was developed to help students transition successfully from middle school into high school and on to high school graduation, including a plan for higher education completion. The program offers transition workshops, college-readiness curriculum for English, a student ambassador program, parent workshops and community outreach.
The second grant, for $295,000, will continue support for the Center for Early/Middle College Replication, Outreach and Research, which serves as a clearinghouse and technical assistance resource in Michigan and nationally.
MCC also has received a $15,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Equity Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. The funding supports the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative South Flint People Program, which serves public housing families in Flint. The goal of the program is to improve the health, education and self-sufficiency of public housing residents.
MCC has partnered with community agencies and companies to establish wrap-around services for families, including: facilitating connections to out-of-school youth development programs and family literacy programs; providing direct in-home behavioral treatment services; and offering access to workforce engagement services.
New York
LaGuardia Community College will use a $212,584 grant from Empire State Development (ESD) to train unemployed and underemployed New Yorkers for in-demand accounting jobs in the entertainment industry.
The We Count Pathways to Production Accounting for the Entertainment Industry, which began in November, is a six-week accelerated training program. It’s provided tuition-free for students, who will earn stipends, job placement assistance and other benefits. It was developed in partnership with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 161 production accountants and accounting firm Trevanna Post.
The grant comes from ESD’s New York Entertainment Workforce Diversity Grant Program, which aims to incentivize job creation and training programs that support efforts to recruit, hire, promote, retain, develop and train a diverse and inclusive workforce for New York’s motion picture and television industry.
“With our diverse student population, and our location in Western Queens — a hub for film and entertainment production since the silent movie era — LaGuardia is in a unique position to recruit, train and promote the inclusive workforce that the film and entertainment industry seeks,” said LaGuardia Community College President Kenneth Adams.
Washington
With a $2.1 million U.S. Department of Education grant, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) will work to expand the number of free introductory textbooks available to students in professional and technical programs.
Using the grant, a team of college faculty members and SBCTC open education experts will create a set of seven open textbooks for programs in internet technology, forensic science, computer-aided design, computer numerical control machining, culinary math, periodontics and health, safety and nutrition.
The effort is part of SBCTC’s “Washington Open ProfTech” project, which involves developing open textbooks to prepare students for some of the highest-demand jobs in Washington.
Wisconsin
Students in manufacturing programs at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) will have increased financial support thanks to $40,000 in grants received from the Gene Haas Foundation.
The funds will support students in CVTC’s manufacturing engineering technologist program and the CNC (computer numerical control) machining retraining certificate.
“The scholarship supports the persistence and completion of the students in the machine tool program,” said Dave Thompson, CVTC machine tool instructor and the program’s director.
