Sen. Shelley Moore Capito visits Pierpont's Gaston Caperton Center, hears about future plans

Feb. 24—CLARKSBURG — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is looking into the local impact of federal dollars.

Thursday morning, Capito traveled to several locations in Harrison County that have received grants through Congressionally Directed Spending via Capito's office. On her way by, she stopped for a tour of Pierpont Community & Technical College's Gaston Caperton Center in downtown Clarksburg.

While the other stops on her trip were focused on seeing the impact of grant dollars, her stop at Pierpont was to hear about possible future projects to fund.

After a turbulent two years of uncertainty and attempts at separation or re-merger with Fairmont State University, Pierpont's faculty and administration are beginning to settle in to a new groove with fresh projects coming up in the next few years.

Two of these projects were the subject of conversation Thursday morning. The first was Pierpont's new College Academy and the second was the school's plans for its Aviation Maintenance program.

Aviation Maintenance

One of Pierpont's most popular programs is Aviation Maintenance, which is currently housed at the Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center on the campus of the North Central West Virginia Airport. The NAEC is occupied by both Pierpont and Fairmont State.

Due to a complicated separation agreement and the program needing space to grow, Pierpont is planning to build two new hangars on six acres of land in the Airport's new AeroTech Park.

The cost of the new 64,000 square-foot facility is estimated to be around $22 million and will require significant grant dollars to accomplish.

"At the rate businesses are growing locally, even doubling our capacity we still might stay behind," Pierpont Board Chair David Hinkle said.

"The concept drawing is out and we're looking at increasing capacity from 130 [students] and our goal is to get to 200," Pierpont Director of Aviation Technology Brad Gilbert said. "More classrooms, more labs, more hangar."

The majority of the support Pierpont has garnered on this project has been more vocal than monetary, but Hinkle and Interim President Kathleen Nelson have been seeking supporters from the industry and the government.

They hope to apply for CDS funds this year to help fund the project, and Capito was receptive to the idea.

"With Pierpont, I've been out to the airport to see some of the growth at the airport and I think... they're using [the Gaston Caperton Center] to bring great programs into the Clarksburg area," Capito said. "This is a good way to catch up and see what's on people's minds. A lot of this has to do with directing funding towards these projects and that's why I'm here."

Pierpont College Academy

Pierpont will soons put a new spin on its dual enrollment program in several counties with its Pierpont College Academy.

Traditional dual enrollment simply allows students the opportunity to take classes that count as both high school and college credit. Pierpont will take it a step further and allow high school students to earn a liberal studies associate's degree alongside their high school diploma.

"We call it 'one walk, two degrees,'" Pierpont's Transitional Education Specialist Joni Gray said. "We are pathing several 'tracks' so that these students will have completed their gen ed and can move seamlessly into another associated science degree."

Of the 13 counties Pierpont services, 10 have expressed interest in the program and five have already committed to signing a memorandum of understanding with Pierpont to establish the program.

Currently, the program allows for around 360 students but can scale up to 500 total participants in the fall.

For Capito, she hopes programs like this will help address workforce shortages currently being experienced in technical industries around the country.

"We have workforce shortages all over this country and we certainly have them in West Virginia," Capito said. "Going to the high schools, getting people excited about college and offering courses there, that to me is so forward-thinking in order to meet the challenges of the workforce tomorrow."

Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.