Owensboro, KY (08/31/2020) — Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) received a $2,091,539 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Title III Strengthening Institutions grant program in October of 2019. Titled E3@OCTC, the five-year grant outlines a plan for expanding experiential education, engaging educators and employers, and excellence in student support for experiential education.

E3@OCTC will work to increase student participation and degree completion by aligning classroom and workplace experience through on- and off-campus experiential learning opportunities (ELOs) across all OCTC degree programs.

The ELOs currently offered at OCTC include clinicals for healthcare programs, FastTrack Automotive, GO Fame and TechX manufacturing experiences offered through work and learn models. Through the grant, OCTC will seek to increase the percentage of students participating in the program from 24% to 60% over five years. One hundred percent of the grant funds received will go to support this project.

"We couldn't be more excited about this opportunity. This grant will give us the opportunity to transform this institution and the experiences that we can offer students and our workforce partners," added Dr. Scott Williams, OCTC President.

The grant establishes an Experiential Learning Center (ELC) to support both the students and faculty. It provides professional development opportunities for faculty so they can learn how to implement these new practices while also providing a workforce liaison to industry and business that can connect students and faculty to outside business and industry contacts. The ELC will provide students with coaches to guide them in career development and exploration and connect them to internal and external experiential opportunities.

The team responsible for driving the ELC initiatives are Nicole Ralph as the Project Director, Helen Bennett as the Center Coordinator, John Bristow and Rosa Richards as the two Success Coaches, and Jackie McCarthy as the administrative assistant.

ELOs will be developed and offered to include work experience, service learning, and course-embedded experiences. The project will also deliver related evidence-based supports, including faculty professional development, community ELO forums, an ELO Center, administrative ELO processes, early ELO exploration, and comprehensive ELO advising.

There is also an endowment allotment provided through the grant that will serve to sustain the programs initiatives after the grant has ended. The college must raise $150,000 in local funding over the next three years to maximize the endowment opportunity. These funds can then be matched dollar for dollar by KCTCS and the department of Education to create a local endowment of $450,000. In August 2020, the City of Owensboro and the Daviess County Fiscal Court each agreed to invest $25,000. This $50,000 local investment will be matched for a total of $150,000.

"We are humbled by the trust that this investment illustrates and are grateful that Mayor Watson and Judge Mattingly were able to take action. We truly see this as an economic development tool, 91% of our graduates remain in the region so enhancing their experiences will augment the businesses in our region also", added Williams.

For more information about the project, please contact Dr. Andrea Borregard, at andrea.borregard@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