CC receives $670k distance education grant

Clarendon College has received a grant of $670,423 to expand distance learning opportunities, according to information from CC and the USDA.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday a significant expansion of access to health care and educational services for millions of rural Americans nationwide. This announcement continues to move forward President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda by prioritizing economic growth in rural America and investing in the middle class.

The money for Clarendon College will be used to purchase state-of-the-art video communication systems to be located on the main campus in Clarendon, as well as branch locations in Childress, Pampa, and Shamrock.

The college will use these systems to allow instructors on one campus to teach classes at other rural sites that lack the faculty for those subjects. Specifically, expanding the availability of nursing courses and in the delivery of ranch and feedlot operations courses will address workforce needs in the Texas Panhandle and benefit approximately 29,000 residents.

“The college is excited to use the grant funds to enhance learning for current and future students,” CC President Tex Buckhaults said.

The grant will allow CC to work with other schools in the region, other counties, states, and even globally. Specific plans include expanding educational opportunities to provide students with core courses, electives, dual credit courses, and advanced placement. The college also aims to use the grant to improve academic achievement and expand opportunities for dual credit and college readiness and to provide a community resource for the facilitation of workforce development, job training, community meetings, continuing education, and professional development.

Enhancements on the Clarendon campus will include a digital screen and new sound system in the Bairfield Activity Center and improvements in the Courson Ranch Operations Center and in the CC video conference room in the Instructional Center, Buckhaults told the Enterprise.

“For too long, the ‘digital divide’ has left too many people living in rural communities behind: unable to compete in the global economy and unable to access the services and resources that all Americans need,” Vilsack said. “As we build back better than we were before, the actions I am announcing today will go a long way toward ensuring that people who live or work in rural areas are able to tap into the benefits of broadband, including access to specialized health care, educational opportunities and the global marketplace. Rural people, businesses and communities must have affordable, reliable, high-speed internet so they can fully participate in modern society and the modern economy.”