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Cossatot Community College |
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation Funds CCCUA Mobile Units
Release Date: 10 SEP 2003
DE QUEEN –Frank G. Adams, Chancellor of Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas, was notified today that the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF) will fund a grant of $56,650.00 to CCCUA to operate two mobile technology classrooms. The classrooms, initially paid for by a federal grant from the Adult and Vocational Education Division of the U.S. Department of Education, will provide computer training in eleven southwest Arkansas communities.
"For a short time last year we were able to use the mobile units to teach computer classes to senior citizens in Howard, Littler River, and Sevier counties, and the response was extremely good," Adams said. "But, since budget cuts reduced our state funding by $210,000.00 this fiscal year, we had to park the trailers, and it looked like we would not be able to provide this service," Adams stated. "The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation came through for us, and in a few weeks our instructor will be on the road again."
The WRF funds will allow the mobile units to operate for the next eighteen months. To extend the time the units are on the road, students at the EAST Lab at Nashville High School have already undertaken a challenge to devise a plan for the best use of the mobile units, and to investigate ways to keep operations funding flowing over the next few years. "Other schools with EAST Lab programs have indicted an interest in devising was to keep the mobile units running," said Adams. "I personally look forward to a very productive and interesting year with this project. The college staff and our area high school students will be working on a strategic plan to ensure the future of this project."
The mobile lab project, titled Project LIFT, is the second program the WRF has funded at CCCUA. The first was an experimental project (Project SMART, 1995-1999) to encourage local citizens to start their own businesses. The first project led to the establishment of a Small Business Incubator program using grants from state and federal agencies. The program, the Spotlight Business Accelerator for Entrepreneurs, www.sbae.org), is housed at CCCUA’s Ashdown extension at 1411 N. Constitution Avenue.
Cossatot Community College offers both technical certification and Associate’s degrees in a wide range of fields on its campus at De Queen, at extension sites at Nashville and Ashdown, and at cccua.edu. It has an enrollment of more than 1,000 students, and is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Higher Learning, the Association of Collegiate and Business School Programs (ACBSP), and holds national certification for several of its technical programs
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