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July 16, 2009

WIRED Grant to Provide $500,000 in Scholarship Dollars
for 2009-2010 Academic Year

Funding provided by the Tennessee Valley region's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant is making available $500,000 in scholarships to 13 two- and four-year institutions in Alabama and Tennessee for the 2009-2010 academic year.

The WIRED grant was originally awarded in January 2007 from the U.S. Department of Labor. The WIRED Initiative supports a 23-county region in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee and promotes education, workforce development and economic development. Calhoun Community College serves as the fiscal agent for the $5 M grant and is responsible for administrative oversight of the project. In addition to the half-a-million dollars in scholarship funding, during the last two years, the grant has provided support for a number of innovative projects and programs throughout the 23-county region addressing WIRED's major goals.

According to Debi Garrison, grants coordinator at Calhoun, the WIRED grant addresses three major goals: Regional Collaboration and Partnership; Entrepreneurism/Technology Transformation; and Cultivating Cluster-based STEM competencies. “ Successful regional growth is heavily dependent upon access to talent concentrations of skilled and experienced workers and the availability of specialized education and workforce training that produces and upgrades the skills of these workers,” said Garrison.

“The critical need for workforce education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is foundational to regional success and prosperity, and scholarships to support STEM education are an integral part of the WIRED Implementation Plan,” added Garrison.

“Those of us connected with the WIRED project are extremely excited about the availability of these additional scholarship dollars,” commented Calhoun President Marilyn Beck. “We have many talented, deserving students at our institutions for whom these scholarships mean the difference in whether of not they are able to realize their academic goals. We are so appreciative to DOL and our local WIRED board for making this funding available to us,” Beck added.

The scholarship funds will support associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and graduate degrees in STEM fields including, but not limited to biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. To make the division of available scholarship funding fair for each school, the amount awarded to each college or university will be based on that institution's total enrollment from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reporting system for Fall 2007(the most recent available enrollment numbers from IPEDS) and is shown in the chart below. IPEDS is the primary source for data on colleges, universities, and technical and vocational postsecondary institutions in the United States . The scholarships MUST be used for Fall Semester 2009 and Spring Semester 2010.

  WIRED SCHOLARSHIP ALLOTMENTS BY INSTITUTION

*Enrollment based on Fall 2007 as listed in IPEDS reporting system.

Students selected for the scholarships must meet the following criteria:

WIRED STEM SCHOLARSHIPS SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDENTS

• Student must be U.S. citizen or have permanent status.
• Student must reside in one of the 23-counties designated in the Tennessee Valley WIRED region.
• Student must complete the Participant Form as required by the U.S Department of Labor and intake form indicating county of residence.
• Student must designate one of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines as the major Program of Study
• Students must be enrolled full time and maintain full-time status throughout the semester during which the scholarship is awarded (12 hours or more)
• Scholarships may be full or partial scholarships and may be used for tuition, fees and books.
• Students receiving college credit must have a minimum GPA of 3.00 from high school or GPA of 2.75 for existing college coursework.

For more information, call the Calhoun Scholarship office at 256/306-2579. Persons interested in applying for scholarships from the other institutions offering the scholarship should contact that respective school.

Janet Kincherlow-Martin
Director of Public Relations
(256) 306-2561

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