SCC and partners secure over $10 million in grant monies

SYLVA - Nestled in the rural mountains of western North Carolina, Southwestern Community College (SCC) has recently taken giant strides that are helping the region to prosper by entering a gateway of creative partnerships.

Southwestern, along with local county school systems and a number of public and private organizations, has secured more than $10 million in grant monies since 1999.

These grant monies are allowing Southwestern to blaze new trails in the areas of education, technical deployment and economic development in its service areas of Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' Reservation – a region with an average population of 49.4 persons per square mile - 30 percent lower than the State's average.

Among the programs funded is Community Link - a network of 12 instructional sites throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties - which allows students to take college courses over an interactive television system.

Expanding this successful technological effort has prompted SCC's leadership to develop the Smoky Mountain Knowledge Network (SMKN), which received more than $1 million in grant funding. These funds are allowing the Community Link partners to take their work to the next level by utilizing a wide variety of services such as: empowering school children to "virtually" visit (via videoconferencing) such places as the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum of Art and NASA; granting teachers and students access to on-line educational software; and a host of other services.

The College also spearheads a cooperative effort named Appalachian Access, which is addressing the disparity in costs for bandwidth - or high-performance Internet access - in the state’s 23 western counties. More than $500,000 in grant funding was secured to support this effort.

Assisting area public schools, SCC is putting forth efforts to support a quality educational experience for the region's next generation of leaders. More than $8 million in grant funding was awarded for Upward Bound, Gear Up, 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Tech Prep programs. These programs provide opportunities for public school students to succeed in their pre-college performances and be better prepared for their higher education experience through career and college awareness activities, academic support like tutoring, mentoring, after school programming and an array of college preparatory activities.

With the help of a $1.7 million U.S. Department of Education Title III grant, SCC is working to support its own students’ success through an enhanced developmental and basic skills program, advising processes and information systems.

"The College and its partners have been tremendously successful in working together to attract the financial support needed to implement initiatives designed to provide significant economic, educational and social benefits to the region," said SCC President, Dr. Cecil Groves.