January 26, 2006

For more information contact: Kimberly Kreider (901) 333-4023

TVA Honors Southwest with Grant for Scholarships in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program
Release written by Kimberly Kreider

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will be presenting Southwest Tennessee Community College (Southwest) with a $5,000 grant to assist low-income high school juniors and seniors, including female and minority students, in earning college credits leading to technology certificates and associate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering Technology. The grant will pay tuition and fees for 14 low-income high school students who enroll in college credit courses through Southwest’s joint enrollment program.

The grant will assist the Business, Career Studies and Technologies Department to work with high schools to encourage students to participate in the joint enrollment program. The Mechanical Engineering Technologies joint enrollment program was developed in collaboration with Kingsbury High School in the 1990s, as has expanded more recently to serve high school students at Fayette-Ware Comprehensive High School in Fayette County and Middle College High School located on Southwest’s Union Avenue Campus. Over a three year period, eight students in the initial Kingsbury program received both their high school diplomas and the TCMF certificate at their high school graduation ceremony. All eight students went on to college.

This current TVA grant is an expansion of a project funded last year by TVA, which provided the cutting-edge PCPresenter and NetOp software that Southwest used to pilot successful distance-learning courses in Mechanical Engineering Technologies taught at Fayette-Ware Comprehensive High School. Both projects reflect TVA’s strong commitment to and support for public education in technical fields.

“TVA proudly supports the local Memphis community and is partnering with Southwest to provide this donation,” said TVA Allen Fossil Plant manager, Louis Lee. “We are glad to help with the scholarship program that will make technical courses more accessible to joint enrollment students.” The Allen Fossil Plant historically hires graduates of the Southwest Mechanical Engineering Technologies programs.

The grant check presentation to the College is on Thursday, January 26 at 2 p.m. in a ceremony in the President’s office on the Union Avenue Campus.

TVA’s Corporate Contributions program supports public education that emphasizes learning activities associated with energy and environmental education as well as vocational and technical education in skill areas that are vital to TVA’s workforce. TVA’s objective is to support institutions that educate and train individuals with the skills TVA will need in the future, and the skills that industries being recruited into the Valley Region will need.