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OCTC Foundation Receives $40,000 Grant from the Alcoa Foundation

OCTC Manufacturing Scholars Program

by Bernie Hale

Owensboro, KY (10/04/2018) — Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) in partnership with Owensboro Public Schools have received a $40,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation to promote advanced manufacturing education and careers.

With the award, OCTC will implement the OCTC Manufacturing Scholars Program. The program's goal is to increase the participation of underrepresented students in manufacturing education and careers. The project will accomplish this by providing hands-on training experiences in combination with mentorship opportunities, workplace readiness seminars, and industry tours. The project will serve 40-50 students between October 2018 and September 2020.

During the two-year period, students will take college-level advanced manufacturing courses and assist in designing and building rover vehicles. These rovers will be used to compete in the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge hosted annually at the U.S Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Students will also participate in an OCTC Rover Race hosted at OCTC in May. The winning OCTC Rover will be displayed at Owensboro High School to help generate interest of other high school students in pursuing manufacturing education and careers.

For more information about the project, please contact Dr. Ade Oredein at (270) 852-8607 or by email at adetokunbo.oredein@kctcs.edu.

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Owensboro Community & Technical College is one of the sixteen community and technical colleges that make up the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. OCTC serves the KY counties of Daviess, Hancock, Ohio and McLean. OCTC has three campuses in Daviess County and a Center and Annex in Hancock County. OCTC strives to serve the communities in the service area by providing associate degree education for transfer, state of the art technical education for students focusing on entering the workforce, customized business and industry solutions through the Workforce Solutions division, and adult education and business and industry testing through the SkillTrain unit.

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The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is the Commonwealth's largest postsecondary institution with 16 colleges and more than 70 campuses. We also are Kentucky's largest provider of workforce training and online education. Through partnerships with business and industry, we align our programs to meet the needs of local employers. We help students fulfill their dreams of creating a better life through programs that lead directly to jobs or help them transfer to one of our four-year partners.

Connect with OCTC: Owensboro.kctcs | Facebook.com/owensboroctc | Twitter@OCTC_Tweets | Instagram OwensboroCTC

Media Attachments

Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) in partnership with Owensboro Public Schools have received a $40,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation to promote advanced manufacturing education and careers. For more information about the project, please contact Dr. Ade Oredein at (270) 852-8607 or by email at adetokunbo.oredein@kctcs.edu.

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