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Santa came a little early this year for the McDowell Technical Community College Foundation, with 55 individuals donating $8,710 in just 24 hours to the Foundation’s Endowment Fund during the college’s First Annual Day of Giving held in early November. All of these donations will support student scholarships.

On Monday, the McDowell Tech Student Government Association (SGA), along with members of the McDowell Tech faculty and staff, distributed turkeys and food boxes with enough staples to prepare a warm, nutritious Thanksgiving dinner to each of the 81 students who responded to the college’s offer of assistance.

If there’s anything that gets on Santa’s nerves, it must surely be the skeptical adults he runs into as he darts in and out of malls getting ready for the holiday season—folks like Ryan Garrison, McDowell Tech’s Interim President, for example. After a particularly unpleasant beard-pulling incident recently, he is probably at the top of Santa’s “Gets On My Last Nerve” list, and he probably shouldn’t expect that Christmas bonus he’s been asking for.

Two McDowell Technical Community College employees have recently been recognized at the national level for their efforts to promote achievement and success among community college students.

McDowell Technical Community College Foundation announced today the college’s first annual Day of Giving and a special matching gift opportunity to kick off the Foundation’s 2023-24 Endowment Campaign on November 1, 2023.

Construction has begun on McDowell Technical Community College’s new Old Fort Workforce Education Center in downtown Old Fort, NC, located in a 4,000 square foot section of the town’s Historic Rockett Building. T.C. Strickland Construction Company of Shelby is General Contractor for the project, which is expected to be completed in early 2024 at a cost of over $1,600,000.

McDowell Tech’s dream of a new Health Sciences and Public Safety Building inched closer to reality with the passage of the NC General Assembly’s 2023 budget on September 22nd. Included in the bill, which became law 10 days after its passage due to NC Governor Roy Cooper’s decision not to sign the bill, includes a $25,250,000 appropriation for the college’s proposed building.

McDowell Technical Community College has been ranked 18th best community college in the United States for 2023 by SmartAssetTM, an online financial technology company which describes itself as having “…the best personal finance advice on the web.” The ranking is based on SmartAsset’s annual study of 845 community colleges located throughout the country. Although several North Carolina community college’s made this year’s list, McDowell Tech is the only college west of Durham to place in the top 20.

Judge Ellen Shelley of Marion, NC had the unusual privilege of swearing in one of her judicial colleagues, Judge Corey MacKinnon, as the newest member of the McDowell Technical Community College Board of Trustees prior to the beginning of the board’s September meeting.

Following a lengthy planning process, McDowell Technical Community College’s Emergency Medical Services Paramedic Program was recently accredited by the Committee on Accreditation for Emergency Medical Science Professions (CoAEMSP), in conjunction with the Commission on the Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).

McDowell Technical Community College will continue building capacity and growing workforce development opportunities in trail construction and sustainability with a recent grant from MADE X MTNS, a partnership working to expand the outdoor industry and economy across North Carolina’s Appalachian Region and catalyze rural development.

The Practical Nursing Program at McDowell Technical Community College held the college’s annual “pinning” ceremony earlier this month, saluting the Class of 2023 as they prepare to enter the local and regional healthcare workforce.