BBCC receives $3 million Title V Grant

BBCC receives $3 million Title V Grant

MOSES LAKE — The Department of Education has awarded Big Bend Community College $3 million over the next five years to help expand educational opportunities and access to services for Hispanic/Latino, low-income, and underserved students.

The federal Title V grant is awarded every five years to assist designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) as they work to improve the academic attainment of low-income and Hispanic students and expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability.

At Big Bend, this new grant is known as the HEART (Healthcare, Enrollment, Academic Retention, and Transfer) Project. The grant will fund several initiatives that focus on developing, redesigning or expanding healthcare programs and enrollment services to assist in taking these programs into rural communities within the college’s service district.

The project also provides funds for a capital project to improve facilities to more effectively deliver student services and enable the delivery of face-to-face enrollment services in communities such as Quincy, Mattawa and Othello through a mobile services unit.

Grant writer Rafael Villalobos said the HEART Project provides Big Bend with the resources to meet the community’s needs in their community.

“So many of our current and prospective students struggle just getting the technical expertise to apply and enroll to college. Couple that with the challenges of accessing the programs they’re interested in or the support services they need to be successful in their programs because they live 15-70 miles from the main campus in Moses Lake,” he said. “Yes, we have residence halls, but for the most we are a commuter campus. This project will put the commute on us.”

The HEART Project makes eight major federal grants awarded to Big Bend since 2019.