WVU Tech Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

University Leaders Call On Business Community For Help

The role of education in the state’s business future was a key talking point at this week’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit.

The role of education in the state’s business future was a key talking point at this week’s West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit. Marshall University President Brad Smith and West Virginia University President Gordon Gee opened the summit by announcing a program to try and keep college graduates in the state.

Immediately after the announcement, Smith discussed how higher education is fueling West Virginia’s economy and on Thursday Gee was joined by Marty Roth, president of the University of Charleston, to discuss investments in the state’s next generation.

On Friday, presidents from the state’s smaller schools such as Glenville State University, WVU Tech and Mountwest Community & Technical College came together to discuss how higher education is driving change in West Virginia.

Ericke Cage, president of West Virginia State University, addressed the question of whether higher education still matters moving forward.

“There’s only one way that a self-described small town, country boy from southern Virginia is able to sit on the stage today and be the president of one of West Virginia’s great institutions, and that is through the transformative power of education,” Cage said. “Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, higher education still remains the greatest platform for social and economic mobility in our country.”

Sarah Armstrong Tucker, chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission called on the assembled business community to stand with higher education and its role in the state’s future job market.

“When I go out and I talk to students in K-12, not once do they tell me I’m choosing what I want to do for my future because of the football team,” Tucker said. “They tell me that they want a job. They want a job that will pay them enough money that they will be better off than their families were. They want security. They want to know that they will be able to feed their children. And that’s where we need you.”

Still Time For Southern West Virginians To Pitch Business Ideas For Cash Prize

Southern West Virginians are invited to pitch their business ideas for a chance to earn cash and technical assistance.

The Pitch Southern West Virginia business idea competition is for start-ups or new businesses in operation for no more than three years. Students at WVU Tech are also eligible to pitch ideas.

It’s an initiative by the newly announced partnership between WVU Tech, the West Virginia Hive and the WVU Tech Launch Lab.

“We have lots of needs for new products,” Diana Woods, the lab’s director, said. “And innovation can be incremental changes to existing ideas as times change and things change, we need to make them a little bit better.”

Clients of the West Virginia Hive are also eligible. New businesses in 12 counties – Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Summers, Braxton, Webster, Pocahontas, Greenbrier, Monroe, Mercer, Wyoming, and McDowell – can also pitch ideas.

Applications are due by midnight on Monday, Aug. 15. Top winners will be asked to attend a live competition on Sept. 13, 2022, from 6-8 p.m. at the WVU Tech campus in Beckley.

The winner will receive $2,000.

January 4, 1897: West Virginia Institute of Technology Founded

The first classes at Montgomery Preparatory School in Fayette County began on January 4, 1897. It was established due to the lack of high schools in the area. Previously, most students in that region had to end their formal educations after eighth grade, or even earlier.

By World War I, there was less need for a preparatory school since many high schools had been recently established. In 1917, an attempt at converting it to a vocational school failed.

In 1921, the school became a junior college, known as New River State, and grew rapidly. In 1941, it was renamed the West Virginia Institute of Technology—or West Virginia Tech. In the decades following World War II, Tech became one of the most respected engineering schools in the eastern United States, with many graduates moving into the West Virginia coal and chemical industries.

Enrollment declined in the late 20^th century as southern West Virginia lost population. The school merged with WVU in 1996 and became a division of the university in 2007. In 2015, the decision was made to relocate the WVU Institute of Technology to Beckley.

WVU Tech Holds Final Commencement in Montgomery

The West Virginia University Institute of Technology has held its final commencement ceremony on its Montgomery campus.

Media outlets report that nearly 180 graduates received their diplomas Saturday.

West Virginia University is completing its move of WVU Tech’s operations from Montgomery to Beckley this summer.

Campus President Carolyn Long said during the ceremony that the Montgomery campus will be missed, “but we’re confident in our future as an institution because this is about the students. You are the soul of WVU Tech, and that’s not going anywhere.”

Saturday’s keynote speaker was Bruce Wiegmann, a NASA aerospace engineer and 1981 WVU Tech graduate. He pointed out that he experienced downsizing early in his professional life that took an emotional toll. But he said it “planted seeds of determination in my character.”

Student body president Rob Leibel said he started his college career in Montgomery, “and I’m happy I finished here.” He told fellow graduates that as they return to the Beckley campus, “we’ll still come back as family.”

Earlier this year, Olathe, Kansas-based KVC Health Systems announced it will take over several buildings at the WVU Tech campus in Montgomery.

KVC, which specializes in behavioral health care and child welfare, plans to give children coming out of the foster care system a chance to earn two-year degrees at no cost to them.

Shawn Ferguson completed his engineering degree at WVU Tech in 1999 and watched his nephew graduate this year.

“I had a lot of great memories,” Ferguson said. “I hate to see a town dying like this … For the college to thrive, it’s probably better to be down there in a more central location in West Virginia. But when you’re from this area, you hate to see business leave, and that’s all this is, really.”

University Approves Agreement for Purchase of Buildings

West Virginia University officials have approved an agreement that allows a nonprofit group to purchase several buildings at a southern West Virginia campus.

KVC Health Systems, which specializes in behavioral health care and child welfare, plans to convert the WVU Tech campus in Montgomery into a college specifically for children transitioning out of the foster care system, giving at-risk young adults a chance to earn two-year degrees at no cost to them.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports WVU said in a statement that its board voted Friday to approve the agreement. KVC will have a 25-year lease that begins in July. By the end of the lease, it will have purchased the buildings for $9.4 million.

West Virginia University is moving WVU Tech’s operations about 40 miles south to Beckley by this fall.

Advocates Question Plan for College for Foster Care Youth

Some child advocates say a plan by a nonprofit group to convert a southern West Virginia campus into a college specifically for children transitioning out of the foster care system is not a good idea.

Tina Faber is based at West Virginia University in Morgantown and runs a state program called Mentoring with Oversight for Developing Independence with Foster Youth, or MODIFY.

She told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that it’s very important for children in foster care to live a normal life and to be with peers who aren’t foster children.

Faber said many of the children she’s worked with likely wouldn’t choose to attend this type of college.

“They do not want to be known as foster kids,” Faber said. “They really shy away from that identity, and I think it goes back to they just want to be normal. They want to be seen as any other kid, any other young adult, and they want to experience going to college and all of those other things you get to experience. They crave that normalcy.”

Earlier this month, Olathe, Kansas-based KVC Health Systems announced a plan to give foster children a chance to earn two-year degrees at no cost to them.

KVC, which specializes in behavioral health care and child welfare, will take over several buildings at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery. West Virginia University is moving WVU Tech’s operations about 40 miles south to Beckley by this fall.

KVC initially wants to target children from West Virginia and have 200 students while eventually opening up the college to out-of-state students. The students would have access to behavioral specialists and mentoring programs.

American Association of Community Colleges spokeswoman Martha Parham had said it’s the first time she’s heard of a college being created solely for foster children.

Tommy Bailey, a legislative lobbyist in West Virginia for KVC, had said a traditional college environment isn’t always the right fit for foster youth because of the support network they require.

But Director Vicki Pleasant of the Charleston-based crisis intervention nonprofit organization Daymark said it would be easier to help foster youth attend an existing two- or four-year college.

“I have always felt that keeping youth in their communities, and wrapping services around them, is more productive than any other option available,” Pleasant said. “That means you utilize the services already available in your community.”

Pleasant said her group sponsored a house on the West Virginia State University campus in Institute in the late 1990s for students transitioning out of the foster care system. The students would live in the house before moving into one of the school’s residence halls or out on their own.

“We were able to focus on the youth and give them the time and the energy and the resources they need,” she said. “It really helped the youth in the program.”

Children’s Home Society of West Virginia chief executive officer Steve Tuck said he doesn’t see KVC’s plan as a viable option.

“We know and we work very hard in our shelters and foster care system to partner with local resources,” Tuck said. “My premise would be, among the nine community and technical colleges and the six or so smaller four-year colleges, the youth in this target population could be served far better in a community-based and decentralized approach to their individual circumstances.”

Foster care benefits are terminated at age 21 in most states, including West Virginia. Because foster students typically have no support system or homes to return to during summer vacation or the holidays, those in Montgomery will live on campus full time, Bailey said.