Virginia Western Community College empowers biotech students.
Photo courtesy of Virginia Western Community College
Entering its fourth year, the biotechnology career studies certificate program at VWCC in Roanoke has been recognized as one of the Virginia Mathematics & Science Coalition’s “Programs that Work.” The students it prepares for healthcare and science careers come from a variety of backgrounds.
“We have a very diverse population,” says assistant professor Stacie Deaver, “everything from regional high school graduates to moms with two kids at home to students with bachelor’s degrees coming back to get more skills.”
Aiding them in this quest is a state-of-the-art lab whose high-tech equipment ranges from shaking incubators and fluorescent microscopes to a real-time preliminary chain reaction machine. “The students are really working with a lot of the tools that they would see either in their four-year institutions or in their jobs once they move on,” explains Deaver.
VWCC emphasizes employment readiness skills such as problem-solving, collaboration and communication. “Students design an experiment from scratch,” says Deaver. “I actually give them part of my operating budget to buy materials, and they manage the budget and figure out what techniques they should use. We want to make the experience meaningful for them.” VirginiaWestern.edu
This article originally appeared in our October 2018 issue.
