The Messenger 01.21.09

A $20,000 Perkins Grant has been awarded to Dyersburg State Community College to support early college credit opportunities for high school students.
From the grant, $3,000 will be used for instruction in career-technical dual enrollment courses at Dyer County High School in Newbern and Lake County High School in Tiptonville.
The Introduction to Business and Personal Finance courses will be taught at DCHS. In the fall semester this year, a medical terminology class will be taught, courtesy of grant funds, at Lake County. Altogether, 65 high school students are expected to benefit from these courses.
The remaining $17,000 in funding will be used to purchase lab equipment for the paramedic program. The paramedic program plans to admit 20 full-time college students each year beginning in the fall.
“This grant gives us the opportunity to offer career courses in the high school. In the past, we have offered transfer course work only,” said Doug Teague, grant administrator and dean of business and technology.
Perkins IV Reserve Grant Funds are awarded to increase educational opportunities for career and technical education students.
“The funding allows us to offer a brand new allied health program in paramedic education. The local emergency medical services have had to, in the past, recruit from other parts of the state. Now, they will be able to recruit directly from their hometowns in the Dyersburg State service area,” Teague said.
The original Perkins IV grant awarded $106,000 to career and technical education at Dyersburg State. A supplemental $20,000 grant was awarded in October.
The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act was signed into law in 2006. The act seeks to improve academic achievement, strengthen connections between secondary and postsecondary education and improve state and local accountability.