MCNC Community Connect Podcast: Sync Up! How High-Speed Tech Helps Develop People to Their Full Potential

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C., (August 4, 2022) – Today, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded $445,582 in funding to support projects through the Open Grants Program and $1,382,782.18 to support rural broadband to community anchor institutions through MCNC. The Golden LEAF Board approved $127,534 in funding for the NC Rural Center to administer the Rural Internship Initiative as part of the Golden LEAF Scholarship Program. The Golden LEAF Board also awarded $1,365,000 in funding for projects through the Flood Mitigation Program.
Nash Community College President Lew Hunnicutt led the Golden LEAF Board on a tour of the college’s Advanced Manufacturing facility. Since 2006, Golden LEAF has invested more than $1 million at Nash Community College to support growth of the advanced manufacturing programs to meet the needs of local employers.
“The Board extends its sincere thanks to Lew and the staff at Nash Community College for providing the Board with the tour of the college’s Advanced Manufacturing facility,” said Don Flow, Golden LEAF Board Chair. “We are excited about the programs offered, the high-tech equipment used, and the future of advanced manufacturing in Nash and surrounding counties. The number of employer partnerships is a testament to the program.”
The Golden LEAF Board awarded three projects totaling $445,582 in Open Grants Programfunding. These projects will support workforce preparedness and job creation and economic investment in Carteret, Beaufort, and Wayne counties.
The Golden LEAF Board awarded $1,382,782.18 to MCNC to be used as matching funds in an application MCNC will make for federal broadband funding. If federal funds are secured, MCNC plans to build 127 miles of broadband fiber between Sanford and Jacksonville—including Harnett, Lee, Onslow, Duplin, Cumberland, and Sampson counties—that would directly serve 20 community anchor institutions and pass within three miles of 195 additional community anchor institutions.
Additionally, the N.C. Rural Center was awarded $127,534 by the Golden LEAF Board to administer the Rural Internship Initiative for the Golden LEAF Scholarship Program. The N.C. Rural Center assists with the outreach and promotion, manages selection of the interns, reviews internship sites to ensure alignment with the student’s course of study and the student’s intent to return to rural N.C., and provides oversight and engagement with the interns and internship sites during the summer.
“These awards support job creation, workforce preparedness, internships, and expanding middle-mile broadband in rural North Carolina,” said Golden LEAF President, Chief Executive Officer Scott T. Hamilton. “As a long-term economic advancement foundation, we look forward to the returns on these investments for years to come.”
The Golden LEAF Foundation was appropriated $25 million from the State of North Carolina for aFlood Mitigation Program. The Flood Mitigation Program will award funding up to $250,000 per project. Funds may only be awarded to units of local government.
The Golden LEAF Board awarded $1,365,000 in funding to seven projects through the Flood Mitigation Program in Beaufort, Brunswick, Sampson, Perquimans, Lenoir, Granville, andColumbus counties.
Since 1999, Golden LEAF has funded 2,027 projects totaling $1.19 billion supporting the mission of advancing economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities.
About Golden LEAF
The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of North Carolina’s funding from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. For more than 20 years, Golden LEAF has worked to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.
The Foundation has provided lasting impact to tobacco-dependent, economically distressed, and rural areas of the state by helping create 66,000 jobs, more than $700 million in new payrolls, and more than 90,000 workers trained or retrained for higher wages.
For more information about Golden LEAF and our programs, please visit our website at www.goldenleaf.org.
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Contact:
Jenny Tinklepaugh
Communications & External Affairs Manager
Mobile 252.801.1370
jtinklepaugh@goldenleaf.org