School News KSU Receives $2 Million Grant Kennesaw State University recently received a $2 million grant to bolster two of the university’s outreach programs, Thrive and Achieve Atlanta, both of which help promising students achieve academic success and progress to graduation. Thrive is a KSU initiative designed to help students transition more easily to college, while providing the support they need to help maintain the HOPE scholarship and stay on track to graduate. Thrive students have access to pre-matriculation workshops and conferences, academic advisers, graduation coaches, peer counseling, learning communities and an academic alert tracking system. Achieve Atlanta was created by the Whitehead Foundation, and strives to help students from Atlanta Public Schools enroll in college and, ultimately, earn their degrees. In 2017, Kennesaw State became a partner institution with its first cohort class of 18 scholars. That number has grown each year, and currently there are 141 Achieve Atlanta students enrolled at KSU. This grant was awarded to KSU by the Goizueta Foundation. Established in 1992 by the late Roberto C. Goizueta, who was CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., the foundation challenges organizations to think about education in innovative, strategic ways, as a catalyst for creating life-changing opportunities for individuals and long-term benefits for the communities in which they live and serve. 44
AROUND ACWORTH | November 2020
Chattahoochee Tech Breaks Ground on Manufacturing Center Community leaders gathered last month at the North Metro Campus with Chattahoochee Technical College staff and faculty for a groundbreaking ceremony for the college’s $8,905,000 Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Emerging Technologies. The 20,001-square-foot center will house the college’s precision machining and manufacturing program, as well as the industrial maintenance and electrical technology program. This facility also will feature high-tech labs in emerging technologies and robotics. Noncredit skilled workforce training in industrial maintenance will be available for local industry in this facility, through the college’s Office of Economic Development. “Local industries have an increasing need for a trained workforce in advanced manufacturing technologies,” said Chattahoochee Tech President Ron Newcomb. “This facility will be dedicated to advanced manufacturing training, and will allow us to answer employer needs within our community.”
Church Helps Local Students Petrina Fowler, a social worker for Cobb County Schools, saw a desperate need among local students and their families, and reached out to NorthStar Church for help. The congregation donated $30,000 that will be put to use this school year, for families struggling to pay rent and utilities, laptops for students who can’t afford their own, and scholarships for students who want to go to college or trade schools. “It is amazing, almost to the point where it brings tears to my eyes, because giving a student a scholarship, even if it’s only a little bit of money, gives them the opportunity to advance,” Fowler said. “They get that all this is for a bigger purpose,” said Mike Lindeman, NorthStar’s community pastor. “We can’t take any of this with us. So, giving back to the community is a great way that we get to show God’s love.”
