Blacksburg, Va. – The Virginia Space Grant Consortium has been awarded a grant of $894,228 by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education program for the Geospatial Technician Education through Virginia's Community Colleges (GTEVCC) project. Project partners include the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), John Tyler Community College, Tidewater Community College, Virginia Western Community College, and the Virginia Geospatial Extension Program at Virginia Tech.

With the project team, John McGee, the state's geospatial Extension specialist for Virginia Cooperative Extension and assistant professor in the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech, will create and maintain a geospatial technology web portal for the Community College System to serve as a repository for pathway models, curriculum, professional development materials, career awareness materials, and other resources. The project team will also develop geospatial technology career awareness resources and materials to be shared statewide. This project will consolidate the efforts in which the community colleges are currently engaged and will facilitate coordination and collaboration among faculty at member community colleges.

The vision of the GTEVCC project is to establish academic pathways in such technologies as geographic information system, global positioning system, and remote sensing at three community colleges that will provide Virginia employers with a larger pool of skilled geospatial technicians. These academic pathways will serve as model programs for other community colleges. McGee will be coordinating an intensive geospatial institute to train community college faculty members at Virginia Tech during the summers of 2010 and 2011.

The GTEVCC project will include educational materials development, adaptation, and implementation, and will provide professional development and mentoring for faculty and high school teachers. Each college will develop a certificate program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and update their existing GIS courses and programs to better reflect the employers' needs. The curriculum developed through the GTEVCC project will be driven by the needs of business and industry in the commonwealth.