Contact: Melissa Reifert
December 18, 2006

MECC Reveals Plans for Funding Awarded to Area Community Colleges

The good news is spreading about a $2 million federal grant to establish new healthcare programs and expand pre-existing program offerings at four area community colleges.  The funding should also impact the region’s economy, enabling students at local community colleges to receive specialized training in healthcare fields that are currently experiencing labor shortages.  Officials from Mountain Empire Community College (MECC), Southwest Virginia Community College (SVCC), Virginia Highlands Community College (VHCC), and Wytheville Community College (WCC) already have plans in place to put the grant money, which they will split, to good use.

“This grant is going to provide much-needed access for citizens across Southwest Virginia to a wide variety of allied health training programs,” states Terrance Suarez, MECC President.  “It will also help to address the region’s shortage of trained healthcare workers.”

Funding will go toward two components, nursing and allied health, at each of the colleges that received the grant.  For the nursing component, the grant will allow the Tricollege Nursing Program, made up of students from MECC, SVCC, and VHCC, to hire one new faculty member.     

As MECC Grants Coordinator Nikki Morrison explains, the grant also enables each of the four schools receiving funding to either establish or expand allied health programs, including medical laboratory assistant, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapist assistant, radiography, and respiratory therapy.  In addition, the extra funding allows each college to offer more allied health classes, many times using distance education.

“All four schools will be able to offer the classroom portions of the allied health programs covered in the grant,” says Morrison, who primarily authored the grant request and helped develop the project for MECC.  “For example, students wishing to pursue a career as a physical therapist assistant have not had the option of taking courses at MECC.  Instead, they have been forced to drive to other community colleges in the region.  This grant will allow these students to take courses at MECC, and minimize the amount of travel required to complete their degree.”

Each of the four colleges receiving funding will gain at least one new lab to be used by allied health programs.  Specifically, MECC will use the grant money to install a fully-equipped medical laboratory technology lab and a state-of-the-art radiography lab featuring a high-frequency radiography unit. 

“The additional labs, as well as the increased classroom offerings, give students more options for where they can go,” states Morrison.  “It makes their educational goals a little bit more accessible.”

Grant money will be equally divided among the four colleges for professional development in the form of advanced study opportunities for both nursing and allied health faculty.  The funds will also be divided equally to provide scholarships for students.  It is anticipated that there will be enough scholarship money to cover a full two years of study for 40 students selected from all four schools.

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