Summer Transportation Institute begins at VGCC Warren Campus
Vance-Granville Community College, in partnership with Warren County Schools, is blazing a new trail with a summer learning opportunity in Warrenton. The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) program began at VGCC’s Warren County Campus on June 13 for 20 high school students.
VGCC held a similar Summer Transportation & Trades Academy for the first time in the summer of 2015 at the same location. That program was funded by a grant from the , using federal funds. This year’s camp is supported by a $37,245 NSTI grant directly from the . The NC DOT is continuing to partner with the college to conduct the camp and other training initiatives that include a Heavy Equipment Operator course, which is also conducted at the Warren Campus.
According to Jean Blaine, the college’s director of occupational extension , VGCC is the first community college in North Carolina to offer a camp through an NSTI grant. Other community colleges in the state system are asking VGCC to serve as a model for their own efforts. The two-year institutions are ideally suited to offer such programs in many ways, because of their focus on preparing a skilled workforce.
“According to the U.S. Department of Labor, one in seven jobs in the United States is affiliated with the transportation industry, and many skilled transportation workers are retiring,” Blaine said. “We want to open up young people to new possibilities for employment that they might have overlooked.”
The NSTI allows students to learn more about career opportunities in transportation-related industries and how they might pursue post-secondary education for such careers. The camp includes not only classroom lectures and guest speakers but also field trips, group projects and hands-on activities related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Trips are scheduled to take the participants to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Food Lion Distribution Center in Butner, Walmart Distribution Center in Henderson, the Battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington and the North Carolina Museum of History.
Each participant attends the camp at no cost and receives a stipend upon successful completion of the program.
Coordinating the camp is Odessa Perry, a Warren County educator who also coordinated the academy in 2015. She is assisted by Shawn Peebles, a Warren County science teacher, and Luke Stavish, a VGCC graduate who is now a student at East Carolina University. Peter Robinson, a VGCC Mechatronics Engineering Technology student, serves in an internship capacity for the NSTI.
“I love to see young people grow and develop,” Perry said on the first day of the camp this year. “These students are going to gain valuable skills and build their resumes.”
The NSTI at VGCC is a four-week program (with no classes on the week of Independence Day) and will conclude with graduation exercises on July 15. For more information, contact Jean Blaine at blainej@vgcc.edu .
Above: High school students in the National Summer Transportation Institute program at VGCC, including, from left, Byron Williams, Marquise Henderson, Kayla Larson and De’Anna Brame, engage in a team-building exercise in which they build small wooden bridges. (VGCC photo)
Above: Lyndon Hall (standing), dean of the VGCC Warren County Campus , welcomes students participating in the National Summer Transportation Institute, many of whom were accompanied by parents and other family members on the first morning.
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