East Texas A&M and Paris Junior College Win $4.7 Million Federal Grant: A Rural Internship Cooperative for Student Career Success
East Texas A&M University and Paris Junior College, both in northeast Texas, announced on November 4 that they have jointly received a $4.7 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to build a rural internship cooperative that connects students with regional employers.
The five-year award comes through the department's Title III Strengthening Institutions Program. The project, called the Texas COMPASS Initiative, takes its name from Careers, Opportunities & Mentored Pathways to Academic Student Success. The two schools will split about $1.2 million in the first year.
In its first year, East Texas A&M will renovate the Office of Student Career Preparedness inside the Velma K. Waters Library and create a new Coordinator of Internship Operations position. Paris Junior College will likewise renovate space and add internship placement staff. The cooperative will plug into an employer network across northeast Texas to place students in mentored internships.
Dr. Ryan Erck of East Texas A&M serves as principal investigator, with Dr. Mustafa Mashal, Arthur Lumzy and Arthur Valiant among the project team. The university says students in rural areas often live far from internship opportunities, and the grant is meant to wire employer resources directly into both schools' programs.
(Source: East Texas A&M University)
Source: East Texas A&M University
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 东德克萨斯农工大学（原德州农工大学Commerce分校）校园建筑（资料图）。Michael Barera 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / A campus building at East Texas A&M University, formerly Texas A&M University-Commerce (file photo). Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
