Crowder College gets $1.4 million grant
Crowder College is due to receive more than $1.4 million to propel its health field programs.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded Crowder $1,426,086 as part of the Community-Based Job Training Grants Initiative. Of 341 applications, Crowder was one of only 69 community colleges picked for the funding, which goes toward preparing students for careers in high-growth industries.
According to Crowder spokesperson Cindy Brown, the college will use part of the money to launch its Student Nurse Accelerated Program (SNAP) in cooperation with Franklin Tech and Missouri Southern State University.
Under SNAP, nursing students who graduate as licensed practical nurses from Franklin Tech can more easily enroll in Crowder's associate degree nursing program to become registered nurses and then later transfer to Missouri Southern's nursing program to earn their bachelor of science in nursing degrees.
The grant money will also be used to hopefully create a nursing program at Crowder's Cassville campus, as well as expand the nursing program at the Nevada campus to 50 students.
Additionally, the college intends to add new health occupational courses, host more consortiums and educational demonstrations for prospective high school students wanting to enter the nursing or occupational health fields, and possibly purchase a computerized human patient simulator known as METI-man. The sophisticated mannequin actually breathes, bleeds, has a pulse, and otherwise responds just as a real human patient would. Nursing students will be able to practice giving IVs, placing catheters and everything else that goes along with their profession. It can even be programmed with various health conditions and can "die" if the wrong medication is administered.
Meanwhile, Crowder President Dr. Alan Marble said Tuesday evening that the college was "delighted" to be picked for the federal grant.
"And we'll do our very best to bring health care training to Southwest Missouri," Marble stated.
Neosho Daily News