The Gene Haas Foundation has awarded Front Range Community College $17,500 in grants to support student scholarships and other program needs at the college’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing.
FRCC’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing, located in Longmont, is the college’s state-of-the-art home for four advanced manufacturing programs. Created to meet the evolving needs of next-generation manufacturing technologies, the center provides industry-focused education and hands-on training for modern day manufacturing workers, according to an FRCC news release.
The Gene Haas Foundation was established in 1999, by Haas Automation, Inc. founder and CEO Gene Haas, to support the needs of the local community through grants to local charities, according to the Gene Haas Foundation website.
The scholarships will help students pay for their classes at FRCC, preparing them to move into jobs in the manufacturing industry, according to the FRCC news release. The money will boost the college’s program in precision machining, and also support the manufacturing industry in Colorado, the news release states.
The shortage of skilled machinists in the state - and across the U.S.- has reached a critical level, according to FRCC machining faculty member George Deeb. “I get at least three emails a week from local employers who are looking for employees. Every one of our students who wants a job upon completion of the program gets one,” Deeb said in the news release.
“Many of our students would not be able to complete the program without these funds,” Deeb said. “This donation makes a huge difference to them. Many of them get jobs with flexible hours before they even complete the program, so they can finish their classes and earn money at the same time.”
On June 23, Chad Wadsworth of MMT Productivity - the local Haas Factory Outlet in Denver - presented a check to Deeb and his students. The Gene Haas Foundation has been providing funding for FRCC’s manufacturing scholarships since 2015, the news release states. The total amount awarded to the college to date is now $118,500.
