Clark State Community College is one of six in the state to receive grant funding to expand and develop campus facilities to improve the capacity to serve students and provide workforce development education and training programs.
Clark State will receive $471,153 to renovate a portion of the LRC building on the Leffel Lane Campus to create state-of-the-art classrooms and computer labs. Costs will include computers, hardware, software programs, security cameras, IT infrastructure and classroom technology. Programs to be delivered in this facility will include Computer Networking, Cyber Security and Software Development. The training facility will also house the IT component of the College’s new Precision Agriculture program, which is an outgrowth of the Dayton region’s leadership in the development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).
In addition, with businesses increasingly seeking employees with certified IT skills, an Assessment and Certification Center within the facility will provide Clark State students and residents with local access to certification testing, eliminating the current need to travel to Dayton or Columbus.
“One of our most important roles as a community college is to respond to local and regional workforce needs by preparing our students for high-demands fields,” said Dr. Jo Alice Blondin, president, Clark State Community College. “One of the fastest growing employment sectors is information technology, specifically cyber security and the integration of UAS data collection. Clark State offers a variety of information technology degree and certificate programs, including CyberSecurity, Precision Agriculture, Software Development, Computer Networking and Geospatial Technology.”
The facility to be renovated for this project is the Library Resource Center (LRC) on Clark State’s Leffel Lane campus. This building is 42 years old and has no previous renovations. The project will allow all IT programs and faculty to be located on the Leffel Lane campus, moving them from the College’s facility located in downtown Springfield, approximately 2-1/2 miles away. This offers our students the additional advantage of easy access to support services in the College’s new Student Success Center facility, currently under construction, with the intent to help increase rates of student completion.