Duke Energy’s George Acker presents the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Innovator awards to Tri-County Technical College’s Laneika Musalini and Sandra Strickland.

UPSTATE — Laneika Musalini, director of grants at Tri-County Technical College, middle, and Sandra Strickland, program coordinator for the College’s Corporate and Community Education (CCE), attended a reception in Columbia for Tri-County and other S.C. colleges and school districts being designated as recipients of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Innovator awards. The event was hosted by Duke Energy. George Acker, southern region director for government and community relations for Duke Energy and a member of our College Commission, presented the awards to organizations that received grants that focus on STEM and manufacturing.

Duke Energy partnered with the Clemson University Center for Workforce Development (CUCWD) to fund workforce development initiatives within South Carolina. The CUCWD is a South Carolina Commission on Higher Education-approved, statewide P-20 initiative to improve workforce educational capacity in STEM fields across South Carolina.

Tri-County received a total of $68,000 in funding from Duke Energy/CUCWD for these three initiatives.

· Six Sigma Yellow Belt Consortium project: $15, 000 to fund Six Sigma Yellow Belt training in CCE as part of a partnership between Tri-County and Greenville Technical Colleges and Spartanburg Community College

· Achieving Gold for our Students: $15,000 to fund training for high school educators that will benefit them in training high school seniors (who are less likely to attend college) how to score at the “GOLD” level on the ACT WorkKeys exam.

· STEM Transfer Scholarships: $38,000 to fund transfer scholarships to students in STEM areas. Awards are encouraged to be given to first-generation college students, traditionally disadvantaged, and underrepresented groups who may qualify for the scholarships.