Eastern Gateway college gets $1.9M federal boost

A nursing program will be the first to be offered by the joint educational effort for counties in the region.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A $1.9 million federal grant will help launch the Eastern Gateway Community College that will serve this region of eastern Ohio beginning this fall.

The name of the joint educational effort that will span Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Jefferson counties has been chosen, and the first classes will be a program that will enable licensed practical nurses to earn an associate degree in registered nursing, said Nathan Ritchey, Youngstown State University’s liaison on the community college project.

The drive to open a community college here was launched by YSU three years ago and gradually expanded to include a broad spectrum of educational institutions as well as the state.

Eric D. Fingerhut, Ohio’s chancellor of higher education, said Thursday that the project has been bolstered by a $1.9 million Community-Based Job Training Grant, which has been secured from the U.S. Department of Labor to support state efforts to expand community college education in the eastern Ohio/Mahoning Valley Region.

The federal Community-Based Job Training Grants Initiative seeks to improve the ability of community colleges to provide their regions’ workers with the skills needed to enter growing industries, Fingerhut said. In Ohio, the grant will assist in preparing eastern Ohio residents for college and provide a pipeline of skilled manufacturing and health-care workers for the state.

Ritchey said the grant is focused on preparing people for jobs or helping them connect with existing jobs, and YSU’s involvement will require the university to develop and maintain a workable job Web site to serve the community college constituents.

Locations for the first class offerings in the two-year nursing program haven’t been selected yet, he said, noting that the area’s county career centers could be the locations.

An Implementation Committee of nearly 50 educators and business leaders has been working since last May to recommend a governance structure, naming options for the new community college system, an initial set of program offerings tailored to the needs of the Mahoning Valley and to create a strategic mission and vision with input from citizens in the area.

Fingerhut said the project has engaged area schools in an effort to avoid duplication. Partnerships have been established with Youngstown State University, the Kent State University branch campuses in Trumbull, Salem and East Liverpool and the adult education divisions of existing career centers, including Trumbull CTC, Mahoning CCTC, Columbiana CCTC and Choffin Career Center in the Youngstown city schools.

The partners will “borrow” programs from existing community colleges throughout Ohio that will be delivered through distance learning, online course offerings and in traditional classrooms at the partner schools, Fingerhut said.

Ritchey said the initial LPN-to- RN program will be borrowed intact from Lorain County Community College, which already runs such a program.

“Program sharing is one of the most cost-effective ways to provide community college education in the region,” said Fingerhut. “By cutting down on the time it takes to develop new programs, we can continually offer courses for the most in-demand industries.”