AHOSKIE – The Roanoke-Chowan Community College Foundation has been awarded a $439,457 grant by the United States Department of Agriculture to assist RCCC to establish a distance learning teleconferencing network in eight North Carolina communities.

The project will place distance learning carts with a two-way video, speaker system, camera, and microphones in 12 area businesses, to include five emergency medical services departments. This system will deliver Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-related career training, such as nursing/allied health, Emergency Medical Response, computer technology, manufacturing, as well as specialized medical training to EMS departments.

Another aim of the Special Delivery Project is to replace outdated teleconferencing equipment in a room currently outfitted with this capability. Furthermore, one of the RCCC Associate Degree Nursing classrooms will be outfitted with teleconferencing capability so that the instructors and classes can connect with other nursing students or nursing personnel in other cultures to bring a larger range of diversity to their studies. This would also allow for the instructor to broadcast trainings and instruction to other sites that fall within our service area but are not within easy driving distance.

The project will serve the 68,050 residents of the college’s service area and will serve another approximately 7,500 employees of the seven companies and 23 EMS agencies.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue made the announcement on Oct. 31. He said USDA is awarding grants for 128 projects to increase access to job training. educational and health care services in rural areas.

“Empowering rural Americans with access to services for quality of life and economic development is critical to rural prosperity,” Secretary Perdue said. “Distance learning and telemedicine technology bridges the gap that often exists between rural communities and essential education, workforce training and health care resources.”

USDA is awarding $39.6 million through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant Program. More than 4.5 million residents in 40 states and three territories will benefit from the funding.